A.G. Gancarski
“Empower Jacksonville,” a coalition of Jacksonville Christian conservatives looking to challenge the city’s Human Rights Ordinance and other so-called “unjust laws,” is now street-legal, with committee paperwork officially filed with the Duval County Supervisor of Elections.
Empower Jacksonville seeks to have two ballot items voted on in August 2018. The first: a referendum to change the city’s charter to allow citizens to challenge any law via referendum.
The second measure: a straw ballot on whether or not the HRO should be subject to citizen referendum. The specific area of contention: the additions to the law this February protecting LGBT citizens from employment, housing, and equal accommodations protections, not the previously extant law.
The Liberty Counsel is behind this effort, with Jacksonville-born barrister Roger Gannam offering legal representation for the group.
Referendums in Jacksonville typically have required serious money to sell them, with marketing for both pension reform and an expansion of slot machines that never actually came to pass costing $2 million each to sell to the general public.
The Empower Jacksonville referendum actions may not require those kinds of resources, as Christian conservatives are able to get signatures and support for their efforts on Sundays and through other church-related outreach mechanisms.
Empower Jacksonville is confident that it will have the resources it needs, Gannam said at a kickoff presser last week.
One comment
Frankie M.
August 28, 2017 at 5:48 pm
Is Curry having flashbacks to the HRO deal with the removal of Confederate monuments? Seems like deja vu. Our fearless leader is nowhere to be found after criticizing his predecessor for doing the exact thing. Oh wait, removal of Confederate monuments is not part of his action-item list either. That looks great on a press release. His absence speaks volumes about his type of leadership. Gotta love hypocrites who lead from the rear.
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