Mannix's epic initiative failure complete
Carla Axtman
The saga of Kevin Mannix's utter incompetence with his redistricting ballot measure has now reached its apex. This morning in a Marion County court, Judge Mary James rejected a request by Mannix to have signatures reinstated to the initiative.
Peter Wong, The Statesman Journal:
Judge Mary Mertens James rejected a request by sponsors to reinstate 12,975 signatures that state elections officials excluded from their initial count because there were flaws in the petition-signature sheets.
Sponsors had requested that the signatures be added to the 91,617 already validated — the total still would have fallen short of the 110,358 required to qualify it for the Nov. 2 ballot — or to have them blended with the 114,973 that officials accepted initially for sampling.
James said she felt she did not have authority to order the latter step.
The proposed constitutional amendment would have created a panel of retired judges to oversee the redrawing of legislative district lines after every 10-year census.
In her order, Judge James made it clear that Mannix had failed to meet the standards required to rule in his favor and very carefully lays out why. The biggest problem, of course, is that even if the judge reinstates the contested signatures, the initiative still falls short of the required number to make the ballot. In other words, there's no judicial remedy to fix the fact that Mannix was incompetent with this.
Judge James order can be read here.
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3:26 p.m.
Jul 27, '10
In other words, there's no judicial remedy to fix the fact that Mannix was incompetent with this.
That pretty much sums it up!
4:47 p.m.
Jul 27, '10
What does it say about Mannix's seriousness that the two named lawyers representing the plaintiff were admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 2007 and 2009?
7:10 p.m.
Jul 27, '10
And the political fortunes of the inimitable Mannix-depressive fade more deeply into the sunset, that place where the wannabees go in the political afterlife when all hope should have long since faded.
8:46 a.m.
Jul 28, '10
Kevin's inability to win any election is indicative of the Republican party in Oregon today. The problem for the party is that no one has been able to step forward and do any better than Mannix so he continues in place by default. If Dudley wins, then this will change. Otherwise we will have Mannix to kick around until he just gets too tired to do it any more.
1:55 a.m.
Jul 28, '10
Judge Mary Mertens James did not, as Kevin Mannix requested by contesting, legislate from the bench. Considering her take on Measure 37, Judge Mary Mertens James was interpreting the law as Measure 37 was a law at the time.
I cannot fault a judge whose interpretation of the law causes a law to be tossed out or upheld. This is why we have the courts, not so that individuals making a living off of balloteering such as Kevin Mannix can take their complaints to a judge and have the judge rule in a way so that their ballot makes the November ballot. If this was the case, then individuals like Kevin Mannix would have no right to complain of judges legislating from the bench.