What’s really wrong with the master lever
Bob Plain has spent a lot of time in a back and forth with Ken Block about the issue of eliminating the straight-party option (a.k.a. master lever), even bringing in Speaker Gordon Fox to defend its place on the ballot. I’d like to move the debate away from questions of political motivation and toward some [...]
Progress Report: 38 Studios Scoop; Localvore Recipes; Banksters vs. Liz Warren; Thanks, ALEC and Earned Media
It’s amazing some of the things we’re willing to believe … Jesus was born to a virgin, Thomas Jefferson thought all men were created equal, Reaganomics works and, the perhaps the biggest doozie of them all, that Rhode Island did its due diligence in assessing the 38 Studios deal. For anyone still hanging onto that [...]
Fundraising vs. Good Govt: Which Matters More?
Note the irony that while one prospective 2014 Democratic candidate for governor was making headlines for raising an almost unfair amount of money from corporate interests from outside of Rhode Island, the other prospective candidate was busy not making headlines for being honored by good government group Common Cause RI with its 2012 Excellence in [...]
ALEC Funds Brien’s Travel Costs to Annual Meeting
Conservative Rep. Jon Brien, of Woonsocket, will be attending his first ALEC meeting as a member of the far right wing group’s board of directors when he travels to Charlotte, NC on Thursday for its annual Spring Task Force meeting where, he said, one of the orders of business will be “coming up with a [...]
Brien Joins ALEC Board as Group Comes Under Fire
Conservative House Democrat Jon Brien of Woonsocket is not only a card carrying member of ALEC, the right wing group backed by some of America’s most powerful corporations that writes model legislation for use in state houses around the country, but he’s also the lone Democrat on the group’s 17 member board of directors. “I [...]
Brien, Common Cause Spar over ALEC on Twitter
Rep. Jon Brien is the local co-chair of ALEC, the pro-business political group that drafts model legislation that supporters, often elected members of state legislatures like Brien, propose at the local level. ALEC has come under fire as of late for authoring the Stand your Ground law in Florida that initially protected George Zimmerman from [...]
Legislature Considers Better Public Records Act
Rhode Island’s public records law may get some much-needed revisions if a bill heard by the House Judiciary Committee last night becomes law. The proposal, introduced by Rep. Michael Marcello, D-Scituate, would be the first amendment to the Access to Public Records Act in 15 years. It would: decrease the amount of time a public [...]
RI’s DISCLOSE bill introduced!
Before leadership of RI’s legislative and executive branches jumped on board, there were the hardworking activists of Democracy Matters and Common Cause of Rhode Island working all fall to put together this legislation, designed to pull best practices from other states who have introduced similar reforms. Congratulations on putting everything in place for an exciting [...]
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