One More Thing About SJR127

I know I just posted about this yesterday as an issue, but as a matter of law SJR127 is not completely decided, it has merely jumped the first hurdle to being an amendment to the state constitution.

According to the state constitution, in order for this to become an full fledged amendment, it must be voted on and passed two more times, once by a 2/3 vote of the House and Senate, then again by the majority of voters in the state.

and if in the general assembly then next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the general assembly to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people at the next general election in which a Governor is to be chosen. (Source)

So here is the challenge. Between now and 2011 we have to either flip, or put in place 3 Senators and 12 Representatives that will vote against this amendment, for it to fail which would prevent it from coming up for a popular vote in the 2014 general. That’s 18 months of organizing to flip electeds and 3 more years of organizing against final adoption or nearly 5 years of organizing against this thing.

This IS NOT a call to start primary efforts against Democrats or any such nonsense. This is a call to communicate with these Democratic legislators and begin a lobbying effort to ensure they vote against this once it comes up again, and to look at Republican held districts that may be receptive to a strong Democratic challenger.

We have to start somewhere, and this is the first step.

0 Replies to “One More Thing About SJR127”

  1. The 2/3 thing is what kept the lottery from passing session after session. Even if it passes one chamber, if it fails in the other, it dies for the time. It then has to start all over. Pass by majority in the house and senate and then pass by 2/3 again. So, hopefully, we can stop the 2/3 thing and that buys us even more time.

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