Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters, one of the more popular political blogs on the right, has weighed in. He writes in an October 25 post:

The case looks more and more strange the deeper one looks, I discovered. Jacob had worked in Oklahoma to gather signatures for a taxpayer bill of rights that would have capped state government spending, along with other national organizations such as National Voter Outreach. Oklahoma has a state law that requires that the gatherers of such signatures be Oklahoma residents, an odd requirement that seems very insular. Most states only require that the signatures represent actual registered voters in the state, and could care less about the gatherers themselves….

Quite clearly, the Oklahoma state government felt threatened by limited-government advocates and want to send a message to anyone else who tries to stir up trouble. It’s a frightening abuse of government power, and all because people wanted to engage the political system.

Interesting, also, are the comments following the Captain’s post, with some discussion of residency requirements for things like running for senator or collecting welfare checks. But circulating a petition isn’t even in the same ball park. The circulator isn’t signing, and unless he’s a registered voter (and hence has satisfied whatever residency requirement Oklahoma has for voters), he’s not voting on any question that eventually makes it to ballot. The disputed regulation is about a residency requirement for asking Oklahomans whether they’d like to sign something. Is there a residency requirement for any political consultants from the dreaded “out of state” locales who fly in to help with the reelection campaign of some Oklahoma politician? Any chance of a ten-year sentence for Oklahoma politicos who hire “out of state” help for their campaigns?

Yes, the motive for attacking Paul Jacob, Susan Johnson, and Rick Carpenter for working on a citizen initiative is political.