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July 15, 2010
Ken Block Promises Modern Leadership for RI

The Rainbow Times has published an article featuring Ken Block. Ken Block is hoping to make history, as the first Moderate Party candidate to be elected governor of Rhode Island.

He is one of seven candidates vying for the chance to succeed Republican Gov. Don Carcieri, whose term ends in January.

Block, who lives in Barrington, found himself becoming increasingly frustrated with what he refers to as “irresponsible” leadership from both mainstream political parties.

In 2009, Block co-founded the Moderate Party so that voters would have an alternative to the other political parties.

“I have lived (in Rhode Island) for 20 years,” Block said. “We have had chronic budget deficits every year I’ve been here. We have had a class of elected officials on both the legislative and the executive side who have not been able to deal with the problems that we have.”

The state has also been stuck with the fourth highest unemployment rate in the country. Block wants to create a more business-friendly environment, in order to motivate more companies to settle in the state.

“We have had an extraordinarily non-competitive economy,” explained Block. “I know 25 fellow entrepreneurs who have picked up their businesses and left for Massachusetts and they took hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll with them.”

Block believes that lowering taxes, as well as more effectively routing out waste and fraud, will benefit the state’s economy.

“I do not want to cut existing social safety net programs,” Block said. “I think they’re all important. I think they’re all there for a reason but we have to make sure that the people who are supposed to be getting it, get it and those people who are gaming the system and stealing, stop.”

Block is the president of Simpatico Software Systems, a software engineering firm, and Cross Alert Systems, a manufacturer of specialized traffic signals for recreational trail/ public road intersections.

The Connecticut native graduated from Dartmouth College, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer science. After graduating, Block wrote software for Wall Street trading desks in New York City. Block later took a one-year consulting job with GTECH Corporation before coming to Rhode Island in 1991.

On social issues, Block is much more moderate than Carcieri, who has displayed animosity toward the LGBT community by supporting the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and vetoing a bill granting death benefits to domestic partners.

Block, who supports same-sex marriage, promises to be a much more inclusive leader. “It’s a question of basic civil rights,” Block said of allowing gays and lesbians to be wed. “A heterosexual couple can be married and as a result obtain specific rights from the state. I don’t think the state has any business to deny those same rights to homosexual couples.”

Block believes the governor needs to maintain an open line of communication with the General Assembly to get things done. The governor needs to be involved with the legislative process, Block noted.

Block’s skills as a software engineer will also be invaluable, he explained: “We need a governor who’s modern. We need somebody who understands technology. We haven’t had that.”

The response to his candidacy has been positive, and Block is pleased to put to rest the public’s preconceived notions about his upstart political party.

“It’s been fun to watch because people had no expectations for me at all,” Block said, explaining his fellow Moderate Party candidates were not “crazy.”

“These are reasonable, rational people who have gotten involved in politics because they are realizing the problems are not getting fixed,” noted Block. “We need non-conflicted, open people running for office.”
http://www.therainbowtimesmass.com/

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