Jun 03 2010
How to Count to 402,275 (Bring your wallet…)
It’s June, which means there are officially less than four weeks left for the Humane Society of the United States and its "Ohio Humane" front group to gather signatures. (For the non-Buckeye newcomers, HSUS is trying to get an initiative on the November ballot that would force the state's new Livestock Care Standards Board to mimic the policies that HSUS got passed with its last ballot measure, in California.)
HSUS needs 402,275 valid signatures by June 29 to qualify for the ballot. In reality, of course, that means the group had better gather at least 550,000, since names like “Mickey Mouse,” “Elmer Fudd,” and "Elvis Presley" tend to turn up a lot. (When you hand someone a clipboard and they already have two kids plus thawing groceries in tow, anything can happen.)
On Tuesday the Columbus Dispatch reported that HSUS had gathered “about 300,000” signatures. But it wasn’t so long ago when the "Ohio Humane" campaign seemed to be in panic mode. Signatures were slow in coming. Projections were far short of HSUS's goal.
Then a funny thing happened: HSUS sued the state of Ohio over a statute that was written to make sure only Ohioans could gather signatures to change state laws.
Guess what? The lawsuit worked.
On May 13 a federal judge declared the law unconstitutional and forbade Ohio from enforcing it. And judging from the HSUS campaign's own reports, I'm guessing that they brought in the hired guns before the ink on the court order was dry.
And now that there's nothing preventing HSUS from hiring out-of-state mercenaries to gather signatures, it's likely that this is exactly what's happened. In the federal lawsuit, HSUS acknowledged that it had "filed a Form 15 with the Ohio Secretary of State, stating that it will provide compensation" for signature gatherers. (In fact, they had already filed dozens of them. More about that tomorrow.)
So now that we know HSUS has the green light to buy signatures, let's break out the trusty old graph paper (well, okay ... Microsoft Excel...) and plot the "Ohio Humane" campaign's progress.
The blue dots are "hard" numbers reported in the group's volunteer newsletters, except for the very last dot (which came from the Columbus Dispatch).
The mustard-colored line shows the pace they were on before May 13, when the federal court said they could blow HSUS's public donations on paid "volunteers." And the pink line shows how the trajectory has changed since that date.
Bottom line: If I were a betting man, I would have to assume HSUS will now reach its goal. And in November, Ohioans will have the best darned election money can buy.
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Document Analysis • Animal Agriculture • Gov't, Lobbying, Politics • (5) Comments
Comments
HSUS can buy what they want. That is where all the donated money goes and not to animals welfare.
The ag & food Industries need some targeted smart advertisements before the vote on TV. Let’s hope they hire the best and don’t copy what happened in California. And that cow video will be used against AG by HSUS (that’s a given) so better prepare something better than HSUS.
It’s not so much the numbers as the marketing efforts behind the advertisements. Case in point is HSUS propaganda ads. An offense position rather than defense.
*Dont be surprised if HSUS hires the cow abuser down the line. Like M Vick. Except Vick killed/tortured his own dogs.
It seems money can by you influence based on the way the effort in Ohio is going. The more I hear about the political machine that is the H$U$, I am reminded of my days in history class and our discussions about Tammany Hall. Could it be that we have a new Tammany Hall for the 21st century and a new Boss Tweed?
There may be a way to slow down hsus.
They are also actively going after the hunters and fisherman. Actually, they tried to stop dove hunting in Ohio a while back. That didn’t work. Hunter and fisherman are good size group of people with the NRA and many other organizations backing behind them.
Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.
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So very sad. I wish Ag had the money and means to go the other direction and get signatures going against HSUS. Happen to have 400,000 Ohio Humane Watch fans?