Natural Term Limits

Fifteen states have passed laws limiting the terms of state legislators: AZ, AR, CA, CO, FL, LA, ME, MI, MO, MT, NE, NV, OH, OK, and SD.

All the other states also have term limits, too ... though not in the legal sense. These states are term limited by nature, and nature's term limit is a person's life span.

So what's that got to do with the Repeal Machine?

Let's put it this way. One of the things we do is finding the closest races, and that includes open seats. So if a state legislator is getting pretty old, the odds of them leaving office is pretty high.

With that in mind, one of our new website features will be finding out who the oldest legislators are in states without legal term limits.

Just one more piece of the puzzle to help you find the races that matter most.

Baby on Board

Lately I've read a fair amount of opinions about what's wrong with ABATE (pick your reasons) and Motorcycle Rights Organizations (MRO) in general.

Most of it, I really can't argue with. The laundry list runs from one end to the other, with the common theme being that they've lost their way.

I do have one concern, however, and that is throwing away the baby with the bath water. Specifically, it's the complaint that our rights can't be restored legislatively.

Here's the point: Just because MRO's have had little to no success on the legislative front doesn't mean it can't be done. It simply means that the right approach has yet to be taken.

If the bulk of the effort is spent on lobbying, the results speak for themselves. This approach is using a weak weapon against our opponent's strongest position. In other words, we're just talking and they simply aren't listening. And why should they?

But turn the tables around, where we have a powerful weapon, and when our opponents are the most vulnerable. That's what happens when we become campaign activists, and we direct our efforts against our weakest opponents.

So the next time you diss ABATE, keep in mind that MRO's don't necessarily own the legislative effort.

Campaign volunteers do.

Website Updates

We'll be using a new format for sending updates to the RepealMachine webste.

The old way has been to fill out a form, and click to submit. This will continue, since it's good for recording the helmet law positions of individual candidates.

But the new website (due for release in late February) will be fueled by a database. So rather than having to hand-type updates, the database will do all the work. So with this in mind, another input method will be useful.

For inputting large amounts of data, an Excel spreadsheet should do just fine. This will allow leading activists in each state to send in larger amounts of data, all at once. Examples include updates to all the new redistricting maps, or the results of legislator surveys after a trip to the Capitol.

It can work in both directions, too. I can create a spreadsheet from the existing database, containing all the legislative info we have to-date. Then I'll send it to the leading activists for updates or to fill in the blanks.

Want to find out more? Just pop me an email at RepealMachine@gmail.com.

Primary Election Dates

Here's some useful information that comes from our new RepealMachine database.

This list shows when the primary elections will be held, state by state, in date order (soonest first):

03/06/2012 OH
03/20/2012 IL
-- -- ---- --
04/03/2012 TX
04/24/2012 PA
-- -- ---- --
05/08/2012 WV
05/08/2012 IN
05/08/2012 NC
05/15/2012 OR
05/15/2012 ID
05/15/2012 NE
05/15/2012 DC
05/22/2012 KY
05/22/2012 AR
-- -- ---- --
06/05/2012 MT
06/05/2012 IA
06/05/2012 CA
06/05/2012 NM
06/05/2012 AL
06/05/2012 SD
06/12/2012 NV
06/12/2012 SC
06/12/2012 ND
06/12/2012 ME
06/26/2012 CO
06/26/2012 OK
06/26/2012 UT
-- -- ---- --
07/31/2012 GA
-- -- ---- --
08/02/2012 TN
08/07/2012 WA
08/07/2012 MO
08/07/2012 KS
08/07/2012 MI
08/11/2012 HI
08/14/2012 WI
08/14/2012 CT
08/14/2012 FL
08/14/2012 MN
08/21/2012 WY
08/28/2012 VT
08/28/2012 AZ
08/28/2012 AK
-- -- ---- --
09/06/2012 MA
09/11/2012 RI
09/11/2012 NH
09/11/2012 MD
09/11/2012 DE
09/11/2012 NY

(States with odd-year elections)
06/04/2013 NJ
08/26/2013 MS
08/27/2013 VA
10/26/2013 LA

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. It will be an exciting new year as well. As many activists already know, this is an election year for many state legislatures. The primary elections are just around the corner, with the general elections to follow in November.

We will also have a new website soon. How soon? My target date is the end of February, hopefully just in time for the primary elections. We'll do a better job of giving you the information you need to get busy on the campaign trail.

In the mean time, I strongly urge you to get connected to our Campaign Action Alerts. These will alert you to nearby races that will affect your right to decide. To subscribe, just email your ZIP Code to RepealMachine@gmail.com. And if you have any previous experience on the campaign trail, let us know.