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Paul Jacob is president of Citizens in Charge, a non-profit, non-partisan group working to protect and expand voter initiative rights, and the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a charitable foundation conducting research on the initiative process, educating the public and litigating to defend the petition rights of Americans.
“The best way to assure freedom of expression, no matter where it may be threatened,” Pulitzer-prize winning columnist, Paul Greenberg, wrote recently, “would be to have an army of utterly determined Paul Jacobs fighting for it.”
For more than a decade, Paul was the term limits movement’s leading voice, running U.S. Term Limits, the nation’s largest such group. For his work to bring term limits to Congress, columnist Robert Novak good-naturedly called Jacob “the most hated man in Washington.”
Campaigning for term limits, as well as for spending caps, property rights measures and candidate ballot access, Paul has been involved in over 175 statewide petition drives.
Currently, Paul Jacob hosts Common Sense, an online, radio, and print opinion program, which reaches tens of thousands of e-mail subscribers and is aired daily by more than 125 radio stations nationwide. Paul writes a weekly column for Townhall.com that appears each Sunday.
His writing has also been featured in USA Today, The Washington Times, The New York Daily News, Roll Call, Human Events, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Examiner and other publications. He has appeared on numerous television programs and is a consistent guest on talk radio.
Paul has been named “a rising star in politics” by Campaigns & Elections magazine, received the Society for Individual Liberty’s “Phoenix Award” for “contributions to the advancement of liberty in America,” and was dubbed one of “The Best and the Rightest” by National Journal.
Paul lives with his wife Rhonda and their three children in Woodbridge, Virginia.
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Paul Jacob (Dec 27, 2009)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received enthusiastic applause (and some nervous laughter) at the Copenhagen climate conference. On the podium, he referenced the fact that... more
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Paul Jacob (Dec 20, 2009)
It's snowing
People express this simple fact with markedly different emphasis and emotion. With joy, my 10-year old screeches it at the top of her lungs. My wife mutters... more
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Paul Jacob (Dec 13, 2009)
Our out-of-touch and out-of-control federal government generates most of our political grumblings. Washington is the government furthest away, and takes the biggest bite... more
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Paul Jacob (Dec 06, 2009)
We’re quickly approaching the season of giving, as it is often put, so it’s well worth considering the uncomfortable truth that, for some people, it’s always... more
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Paul Jacob (Nov 29, 2009)
An ancient saying has it that “gold doesn’t stink.” A modern corollary might be: “Investors do.” Well, at least I’ve caught a whiff of... more
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Paul Jacob (Nov 22, 2009)
Immediately, as the Senate takes up health care legislation, we receive the chief benefit of the proposal. Laughter is not only good for the soul, it’s good for the... more
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Paul Jacob (Nov 15, 2009)
Strong-arm, power politics — how long does it take self-proclaimed “caring” folks to learn that such tactics cannot lead to their promised peaceful, loving... more
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Paul Jacob (Nov 08, 2009)
As long as I can remember, politicians have promised “jobs.”
When not promising tangible “pork”-based jobs, most of these promises turn out to be... more
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Paul Jacob (Nov 01, 2009)
On Tuesday, voters in Maine and Washington will face issues petitioned onto statewide ballots by citizens. Question 4 in Maine and Initiative-1033 in Washington would cap... more
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Paul Jacob (Oct 25, 2009)
The “innocent until proven guilty” concept is at the very heart of our legal system. Government ought not be able to exact punishment for a crime until proof has been... more
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Paul Jacob (Oct 18, 2009)
President Obama and Congress are mighty generous. They’re worried we citizens don’t have enough money to go out and shop till we drop. They’re specially concerned about... more
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Paul Jacob (Oct 11, 2009)
Roman Polanski and Barack Obama: One is a rapist and the other awinner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Could any two men be more different? And yet they are similarly blessed —... more
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Paul Jacob (Oct 04, 2009)
America and the world face plenty of serious issues. Where to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics isn’t one of them.I know this. You know this. Even most folks in Chicago... more
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Paul Jacob (Sep 27, 2009)
A South Carolina Congressman shouts “You lie!” at the president and theresult is predictable: A thousand discourses on incivility and thebreakdown of civilization and... more
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Paul Jacob (Sep 20, 2009)
Smart people should rule the world.That, anyway, is what certain folks who consider themselves far smarter than you or me tend to think. These clever souls hang out with... more
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Paul Jacob (Sep 13, 2009)
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unveiled a new plan to reform New York’s — and ultimately America’s — elections.Bloomberg’s proposal calls for creating a... more
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Paul Jacob (Sep 06, 2009)
This Thursday in a federal court in Washington state, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle will, ahem, settle an important question. (Come on, who could resist?)
The matter... more
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Paul Jacob (Aug 30, 2009)
The cortège goes on and on. As I write these words, mourners still proceed by the casket of Sen. Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy (D-Mass). Organizers have all but thrown out the... more
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Paul Jacob (Aug 23, 2009)
Boycotts are as American as apple pie . . . with whole wheat crust. Granted, the term boycott comes from Charles C. Boycott, an English land agent who got in a fracas with... more
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Paul Jacob (Aug 16, 2009)
At her recent town hall meeting, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill discovered that, in addition to the rapidly growing budget deficit, there exists an even greater trust deficit.... more
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Paul Jacob (Aug 09, 2009)
Picking your friends is an important part of life. Picking your enemies is an important part of politics.
Americans who chose to attend town hall meetings this August to... more
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Paul Jacob (Aug 02, 2009)
My wife and I disagree about some of the key end-of-life issues. When such morbid subjects arise, as they must and as they have with increasing frequency as the debate over... more
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Paul Jacob (Jul 26, 2009)
State Senator Randy Brogdon is running for the position of Oklahoma governor. A principled, issues-oriented candidate, he naturally has big plans for his state. But one of... more
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Paul Jacob (Jul 19, 2009)
A famous tyrant once quipped, "It's not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes." Yet it turns out that democracy suffers from other technical problems. How the votes... more
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Paul Jacob (Jul 13, 2009)
California’s a financial mess.
Everybody knows that something really bad is happening to the state government of California. The state quickly stumbles towards insolvency.... more
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Paul Jacob (Jul 05, 2009)
Some 233 years ago we made a clean break from the corrupt Old World of Europe. Fifty-six men risked it all to proclaim in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these... more
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Paul Jacob (Jun 28, 2009)
The House just passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade carbon emissions control act. If it passes the Senate, expect the president — the bill’s pusher-in-chief — to sign it at... more
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Paul Jacob (Jun 21, 2009)
Do Californians suffer because they themselves have too much political power, and their representatives too little?
Politicians tend to say “yes.” So do their hangers-on.... more
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Paul Jacob (Jun 14, 2009)
If I told you that a major rock-n-roll celebrity had thrown his hat into the political ring, you’d probably reach for your wallet. Or your revolver. The candidate is Krist... more
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Paul Jacob (Jun 07, 2009)
As politics pits a property owner in Montgomery County, Maryland, and a county councilman against the county’s Historic Preservation Commission and other do-gooders,... more
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Paul Jacob (May 31, 2009)
A week or so ago, the Obama administration sent up a smoke signal. The administration appears willing to re-establish closer communications with the Cuban government. Across... more
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Paul Jacob (May 24, 2009)
Let me confess: I really like New Jersey. No joke. My earliest memories are living on Alpha Avenue in Old Bridge, New Jersey. When I was eight, in the summer of ’68, my... more
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Paul Jacob (May 17, 2009)
On Tuesday, Californians will get to do something that I love to do: Vote. The Golden State’s Assembly has placed six measures on a statewide special election ballot. Forget... more
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Paul Jacob (May 10, 2009)
Recently, a friend of mine stopped short our banter about the initiative process to say something like this:
“Paul, you and I have given a great deal of thought to... more
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Paul Jacob (May 03, 2009)
A specter is haunting our economy: stickiness. Or so some say. A chief dogma of Keynesianism has it that we suffer from “sticky prices.” By this, Keynesians mean wage rates... more
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Paul Jacob (Apr 26, 2009)
The Georgetown speech in which President Barack Obama put his new administration in context has become more famous, perhaps, for the fact that a logo that would have normally... more
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Paul Jacob (Apr 19, 2009)
The Constitution is a boardwalk over the mud of politics. Any step off of it, and you become mired in the most dangerous toil, always struggling for footing, always in danger... more
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Paul Jacob (Apr 12, 2009)
Our ability to stop the federal government from spending us, our children, our grandchildren and our great grandchildren into poverty appears inadequate. For most of the last... more
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Paul Jacob (Apr 05, 2009)
What do 13 states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — have that other states... more
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Paul Jacob (Mar 29, 2009)
I get confused about the economy as much as the next guy. For days — indeed, weeks — I can go about my life without understanding what the Sam Hill is going on.
The bad... more
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Paul Jacob (Mar 22, 2009)
Many things remain perfectly normal. For instance, I often lose my car keys and sometimes misplace my cell phone. The University of North Carolina is still good at... more
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Paul Jacob (Mar 15, 2009)
“Nothing is impossible,” says Hugo Chavéz. Venezuelan President Chavéz is wrong, of course. Not only are some imagined things not possible, his dream of socialism is one of... more
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Paul Jacob (Mar 08, 2009)
We need a new, bigger stimulus plan. Fast. Congress ought not think too hard about it. Or read it. Or put it up online, for goodness sake. Just cobble together another 1,000... more
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Paul Jacob (Mar 01, 2009)
You’ve heard the phrase “Fighting the last war.” You have chuckled at apt quotations of “Too many chiefs, not enough braves.” You know the origin of the term FUBAR. Welcome... more
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Paul Jacob (Feb 22, 2009)
Term limits really irk ambitious men. And by “ambitious” I don’t mean the word in its modern, approbative meaning. In the old days, ambition was an excess of the drive for... more
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Paul Jacob (Feb 15, 2009)
It’s not exactly new, but using the word “emergency” to justify political action — particularly new spending or new taxation — has emerged as the default rhetorical (and... more
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Paul Jacob (Feb 08, 2009)
“I’ve never seen the judicial system abused so much for purely political ends,” Substitute Circuit Judge Westbrook J. Parker said. “This should not happen in America.” An... more
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Paul Jacob (Feb 01, 2009)
I never thought I’d do it. I’m about to quote a Marxian witticism. It’s the first two sentences of The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapart. This is what Karl Marx said,... more
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Paul Jacob (Jan 25, 2009)
It finally hit me. I was walking the dog with my two youngest. My 17-year-old regaled us with tales from her classes at the local community college. My 9-year-old declared... more
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Paul Jacob (Jan 18, 2009)
When my kids complain that things aren’t “fair,” it usually concerns who gets the bigger slice of pie. I tell them what my parents told me: “Life isn’t fair.” But I also tell... more
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Paul Jacob (Jan 11, 2009)
In little more than a week, Barack Obama assumes the office of president of the United States and, once again, all will be right with the world. At least, that’s how some see... more
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Paul Jacob (Jan 04, 2009)
When politicians ratchet up airy optimism, we snicker, even sneer. Remember Herbert Hoover’s “prosperity is just around the corner”? Gerald Ford’s WIN buttons? Laughable in... more