Residents of famously liberal Montgomery County may have enabled a local conservative group with a losing track record to become the first group in recent memory to win a ballot referendum on a new county law.
If 25,000 of the 32,000 signatures obtained this week by Citizens for a Responsible Government are deemed valid by local elections officials, it would be the first time in the past 10 to 15 years that anyone in Montgomery County forced a ballot referendum. In this case, voters could repeal a new law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people.
Group spokeswoman Michelle Turner said the newly formed Citizens for a Responsible Government is an “offshoot” of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, the group that unsuccessfully petitioned the state Board of Education and a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge to ban courses that teach students homosexuality is a biological trait.
They lost both times, but Turner said the group has a better chance with voters than with the council or the courts.
“It speaks less to our success as a groupthan to the discontent citizens of Montgomery County have with their elected leaders,” Turner said.
Turner said the group has local donors pouring money into the campaign, but wouldn’t say exactly how much it has received or give names of people who have donated. She did say the amount was more than $10,000 and less than $100,000, and helped fund automated calls to every Montgomery County home phone number available.
Jerry Pasternak, who served as special assistant to former County Executive Doug Duncan, said the group’s success in gathering signatures did not surprise him.
“Getting it on the ballot is not an indication that you have the majority of voters behind you,” Pasternak said. “It is just an indication that you have an ability to organize and collected the requisite number of signatures in the required time
frame.”
Supporters of the transgender measure say they believe the petitioners were successful because of misinformation, accusing some signature-gatherers of saying the new law, which only prohibits discrimination, would actually allow men in women’s bathrooms.
“Sadly there are a lot of groups out there that prey on fear,” Council President Mike Knapp said.
