Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning just announced that the Hometown Democracy initiative has failed to make the November 2008 ballot. Secretary Browning said that as of the 5:00 p.m. Friday deadline:
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Hometown submitted 545,827 out of the necessary 611,009 valid signatures. |
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Hometown also only qualified in 9 out of 13 congressional districts. |
The credit for this victory must be given to the exceptional team at Floridians for Smarter Growth, who built an impressive statewide coalition over the past year. Through Floridians for Smarter Growth, more than 100 different organizations have joined the fight to stop Hometown, 19 local campaign chairs have been appointed, and over 25,000 Floridians have joined our grassroots movement. Wade Hopping with Hopping, Green & Sams also deserves praise and our appreciation for laying the foundation of the broad coalition upon which Floridians for Smarter Growth was built.
The campaign participated in more than 150 meetings across Florida in the past year to share with the people of Florida why Hometown would be so destructive to our state's economy and quality of life. Floridians for Smarter Growth also managed to collect at least 320,676 of its own petitions in just 7 months in a telling sign of voters' dissatisfaction with Hometown's reckless proposal and their desire to support a more responsible approach to growth in our state.
It's also important to bear in mind the role that the people of Florida played in this result. In 2004, 68% of Florida voters approved the constitutional amendment that moved the deadline for gathering signatures from 90 days prior to the election to February 1. Without this amendment, Hometown would almost certainly be on the 2008 ballot, and Floridians would have very little time to prepare to stop it.
There is still a great deal of work for us to do. We have fought for several years to give Florida voters the right to revoke their signatures, and while it had a significant psychological impact on Hometown's leaders, there are steps we clearly need to take to make it a more effective campaign tool.
Furthermore, it's worth remembering that most of Hometown's signatures will still be valid in 2010, and even though the signature threshold will rise after the 2008 election, the likelihood of Hometown making the 2010 ballot is very high. Florida needs to pursue additional reforms to the process of collecting signatures, particularly with regard to curbing abuses by out-of-state paid signature gatherers. The Florida Legislature must address the fact that the petition gathering industry is unregulated, unmonitored, and poses a risk to the safety and welfare of average Floridians. The unity of the business community will be crucial to ensuring that we return our constitutional amendment process to the citizens of Florida.
Again, thank you for all of your support in helping to keep Hometown off this year's ballot. This is a great win for the people of Florida.
Regards,
Adam E. Babington
Director of Coalitions & Initiatives
Florida Chamber of Commerce
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