July 31, 2014 – RI Future

The last time there was a Democrat in the governor’s office and a party chairperson vacancy, it was the Bruce Sundlun – not the Speaker of the House – who recommended a replacement to the state committee.

“Sundlun took the lead and went to great lengths to cultivate consensus, which he did rather quickly,” said David Preston, a Sundlun confidant who worked for the former governor and was executive director of the Democratic Party at the time. It was 1991 and Mark Weiner was appointed as the new chairman of the state Democratic Party.

This time, though, Governor Linc Chafee, who won office as an independent and then became a Democrat, said he would cede the responsibility to more senior members of the party.

“Despite my status as a Democratic Governor,” Chafee said in a prepared statement, “as a new Party member, I will defer these decisions to more veteran members.”

Jonathan Boucher, current executive director for the party, said the chair is elected by the majority vote of the state committee. There are 243 members. “A candidate for chair has to get nominated and obtain a majority vote of those present,” he said. “At this time Grace Diaz will be the acting chair and will continue in that role until a meeting is called to elect a new chair, or the current term expires.”The Speaker of the House is said to have much influence over who becomes chairperson of the party.

The Young Democrats of Rhode Island, who can be said to represent the more progressive wing of the the Rhode Island Democratic caucus, said the next chairperson should reflect “both the best interests of Rhode Island and the principles of the national Democratic Party.”

“That includes,” the group said in an email, “firm commitments to reproductive justice, gun safety reforms, repealing voter ID, and making government more accessible and transparent.”

Representative Peter Palumbo, is perhaps best-known for calling my niece, Jessica Ahlquist, an “Evil Little Thing” on the John DePetro Show and in the process creating an internet meme demonstrating the casual way in which politicians dehumanize atheists and women with their rhetoric. Or maybe he’s better known for the hateful anti-refuge letter he recently sent to Governor Chafee, or his .

But now he’s in the news because there’s an investigation involving beach concession stands he managed for now-former Democratic Party chairman David Caprio. Palumbo won the bid to manage the three concession stands, and then declined the contract. It was assumed, at a lower price by Caprio, who then hired Palumbo to manage the concession stands. The people lost out on $266,000 in revenue as a result. Caprio resigned Tuesday.

This, in the middle of an election season.

Rhode Island Republicans Mark Smiley, Chairman of the Rhode Island GOP and Executive Director Robert Paquin III have issued a press release calling “for State Representative Peter Palumbo to step down and aside from his race for re-election while he is investigated by the RI State Police.” If Palumbo steps down his Democratic primary opponent, Kirk McDonough will be running unopposed in the primary (Update: McDonough did not qualify for the primary ballot, so if Palumbo doesn’t run the seat would go to a Republican). The Republicans are fielding two candidates for Palumbo’s seat.

Should Peter Palumbo step down? If he and David Caprio colluded to profit $266,000 at the people’s expense, then yes he should. Certainly everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence, and no one is sure as of yet that this entire affair involves anything precisely illegal, but the stench of insider politics and profits at the expense of taxpayers hovers over this mess in a way familiar to those who follow Rhode island politics. At the very least it should move the citizenry to demand that the Ethics Commission be granted oversight of the General Assembly, and we should all be wondering why elected officials are free to bid on state contracts, an obvious preventable conflict of interest.

[Edit: Common Cause RI tweeted to me, “the Ethics Commission still has jurisdiction over GA for not legislative actions such as this.”]

Scandal aside, Palumbo’s policy proscriptions are wrong for Rhode Island.

Politically, Palumbo is to the right of most Republicans in this state. His conservative voting record paints him as a true Rhode Island DINO, a Democrat in name only. Palumbo has a 100% rating from the NRA, voted for Voter ID, is rated at 22% on Civil Rights by the ACLU and somehow avoided voting for or against marriage equality when it passed last year.

How conservative is Palumbo? In 2010 Palumbo a he introduced that mirrored a controversial immigration bill from Arizona. Palumbo ended his appearance saying, “Thank God for Fox News.”

That’s pretty conservative.

Day: July 31, 2014

Who gets to pick the next party chairperson?

Should Rep. Peter Palumbo resign?