Obamacare continues to dominate Arkansas's political discussions. It exposes a rift in the Republican Party, where many legislators signed on the "private option" iteration of Obamacare and are now enduring criticism from within the party for doing so. It will be an issue in contested primaries even as Republicans prepare to chant Obama/Obamacare incessantly against Democratic candidates in the fall of 2014.
But there's another wrinkle. It's the petition drive by hard-right teabaggers to repeal the private option legislation spearheaded by Glenn Gallas of Hot Springs.
An e-mail this morning from Debbie Pelly of Jonesboro (yes, THAT Debbie Pelly) reports on petition drive progress. They are making headway.
If you believe Republicans, there's no surer thing than Arkansas enmity toward Obamacare. So it should follow that if this petition makes the ballot, it will pass. That will leave the likes of David Sanders, John Burris (Tom Cotton's political director), Jonathan Dismang, Davy Carter, Michael Lamoureux and Co. holding a big, steaming bag of something. And the people of Arkansas in need of health care in a terrible fix.
Read on for Pelly's report on canvassing:
Petition Results As Of Today
Thanks to all of you who sacrificed and helped and thanks to the legislators who voted against Medicaid Expansion
If you still have any petitions, you will have to overnight them tomorrow, Tuesday the 13th, to get them there in time.
Send to: Glenn Gallas, 3267 Albert Pike, Hot Springs AR 71913. Be sure to get them notarized first.
I sent in 2,021 signatures to Glenn Gallas for the Medicaid Expansion Referendum, starting July 22, that we were able to get in Craighead County in less than 30 days. I did not think I had time to oversee Craighead's petition drive but found a way but was late getting started. Like many of you I had to finish up other commitments before I could start. At first my goal was to get at least 643 signatures that were required to certify Craighead, and then to double that, and then to get 1,536 to fully do our county's part, and then realized we could probably make 2,000 which we did. THANKS TO SO MANY OF YOU WHO HELPED. We were also able to collect 50 signatures for Greene County and 52 for Poinsett and a few from twelve other counties. (Whitney Williams also mailed some of these in and worked many days at the DMV office in Jonesboro.)
Whatever the total results, we educated the public on this issue and sent a message to the so called "moderate" Republicans that we don't intend to work for them and support them financially just to have them yield to the lobbyists instead of standing with the people. It was obvious to those of us collecting signatures that the people overwhelmingly support the petition to reverse the Medicaid Expansion in Arkansas.
Greene County, adjoining Craighead, has 650 signatures as of today which is very good for their county and more than double what their county needed to certify that county. (A requirement for the referendum is that 15 counties get a minimum number. As you can see from Glenn Gallas's email below that has been accomplished.)
Remember, Dustin McDaniel cut 30 days off the 90 day time period that Arkansas was allotted to get 46,000 signatures.
For more information see Glenn Gallas's email below:
From: Glenn Gallas [mailto:Glenn@libertypatriot.net]
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 6:28 PM
To: glenn@libertypatriot.net
Subject: 2 days left!
Here’s where we stand.
· 71 counties have signatures
· 15 counties are qualified
· 8 counties have exceeded their goal
I am cautiously optimistic we can reach our goal. We now only have one, GET SIGNATURES ANYWHERE YOU CAN! Do not stop gathering as we need every signature we can get. With bundles of petitions coming in it is impossible to calculate whether we are close or not, so do not stop! Tomorrow I will be traveling to Little Rock so bring your petitions to KARN news radio 700 Wellington Hills I will be there from 2-6PM broadcasting live but if you come early or late leave them with the receptionist and I will get them. Even today we had people picking up new petitions to gather signatures. We Can Do This! We will begin the official count and will have a press release ready by noon if we have reached our goal or not. Words cannot express my sincere appreciation for all of my patriot friends doing what needs to be done to protect ourselves and our fellow citizens. Thank you and I will send you an update tomorrow evening.
Defending Liberty,
Glenn Gallas