Georgia attorney Dave Guldenschuh has emerged as a leading legal authority on Article V, and also gives periodic updates on the various Article V organizations. Here’s his latest:
Enclosed is your March 17th St. Patrick’s Day edition of THE ARTICLE V CONVENTION LEGISLATIVE PROGRESS REPORT. By my latest worksheet count, 150 or more pieces of Article V legislation have been filed in 37 states so far in 2017.
Congratulations goes out to the legislature of Arizona which passed the CoSP resolution this past week. That’s #9 for CoSP. Arizona is scheduled to vote on and is expected to pass the BBATF resolution, the Compact for America and a Delegate Selection bill sometime next week. Kudos to Rep. Kelly Townsend and others for their hard work in Arizona.
New Mexico passed a rescission bill this past week which cost the BBA effort one state, but that action was not unexpected. A single swing vote in the House was the difference. Do you think those three dozen legislators have any idea how their clearly partisan vote could’ve impacted negatively the future of our country? How shameful!
I try to make myself available to all of the Article V advocacy groups and to assist where I can when friction arises between them. I am a volunteer. I’m not getting paid. So I think I can speak without bias here. I have and always will preach that all groups need to support each other and that we as a movement need to keep our focus on the real opposition: an overreaching federal government, the misguided efforts of JBS and Eagle Forum, and the ever growing liberal media opposition spurred on by Common Cause. If we fight among ourselves, we gift wrap failure and hand it to the opposition on a silver platter.
Which brings me to the Tennessee Planning Convention. In the bullet points below, I offer no opinion or editorial . . . just FACTS based on the failure of that effort.
· The Tennessee Planning Convention failed because we as an Article V movement could not get our act together and work through our differences. Each group needs to understand that when one group moves forward, we ALL move forward. Some get it; some don’t.
· The Tennessee legislature sought to call the Planning Convention, not any particular group. They limited it to the BBA convention because that was the group closest to reaching 34. And there was an economic reason for doing so-the carrot of landing the first Article V convention in our nation’s history. There was absolutely no mal-intent to subterfuge “We the People” or any other group.
· Once the Tennessee Senate passed a resolution for a BBA Planning Convention, it would have been political suicide to expand the convention beyond that. Folks, the naysayers argue that an Article V convention cannot be limited. If the Tennessee legislature had expanded the planning convention at that point, we would have poured nitroglycerin on the fire of the naysayers.
· Despite what some claim, there were efforts to compromise.
· The rules established at the Tennessee Planning Convention would not have even been binding on the BBA convention it was planning for. The argument that those rules would have been binding on a future CoSP convention was fundamentally flawed and inaccurate.
· Valuable Article V resources that could’ve and should’ve been spent promoting the movement were wasted in Tennessee in-fighting.
· As a direct result of the opposition and failure of the planning convention, Sen. Mike Bell, the primary sponsor of CoSP in Tennessee in 2016, has now filed SJR254 which seeks to rescind the CoSP resolution passed just last year in Tennessee.
I would only ask those who opposed the proposed BBA planning convention: Was it really worth it?
As I understand it, there remains a sliver of hope to put Humpty Dumpty back together in Nashville. But it will only happen if the opposition sends the clear signal to Tennessee leadership that it will support a BBA planning convention. I have read Mr. Bobo’s letter setting forth his explanation for COS-Tennessee opposing the planning convention. I was the Legislative Liaison for CoSP in Georgia when in 2014, we became the first state to adopt the CoSP resolution. I can only tell you sir that the negative consequences you perceive flowing from a BBA planning convention are about as likely as the runaway convention we all agree can never happen. So imagine sir that you are the legislator whose yes or no vote will decide whether this country ever has an Article V convention; are you going to destroy that possibility simply because it does not address all the issues you want to see addressed?
I urge you in the interests of the entire Article V movement to withdraw your opposition. I further urge the Tennessee legislature to appoint Mr. Bobo to be a delegate to the planning convention.
I apologize in advance to those that this e-mail might offend or who might strongly disagree with my thoughts. I try very hard to be objective and to call things, not necessarily along the way I see them, but as they really are to those viewing our movement from beyond who desire to see it fail.
Good luck to all. If I can ever be of assistance to any of you, please don’t hesitate to ask.
David F. Guldenschuh
Editor and Publisher
The Article V Convention Legislative Progress Report
reaganproject.com 