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The next 6 weeks will tell the tale for the Moderate Party of
RI. In this time period, we should have a resolution to our
federal lawsuit over Rhode Island's ballot access laws. In
this time period, we will also learn how the General Assembly will
vote on our legislation to change Rhode Island's ballot access
laws.
If we can win a victory, either through the court system and/or
through the General Assembly, we should be able to begin the process
of collecting signatures to gain ballot access for the 2010
elections.
We have made extensive changes to the Moderate Party of Rhode
Island web site. The site is much more dynamic now, including
video. If you haven't visited recently, please check
out:
Our web site traffic has risen 300-400% since our radio spots
began airing this past week. I want to express my gratitude to
those of you who have donated to help cover the cost of these
ads.
House Judiciary Committee meeting
Ken Block, Arlene Violet, Rich Rodi and Steven Brown of the RI
ACLU all provided testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday in favor of House bill 5426, which proposes altering RI
ballot law by removing the start date for signature petitions and
lowering the signature threshold to 1% from the current 5%. No
one testified against the bill. Bob Healey attended the
hearing in support of the MPRI, but did not testify.
This was a busy committee session, with 28 bills scheduled to
be heard by the committee. I remain baffled and troubled by
the Committee's operating rules, in which a single vote is held at
the beginning of the meeting to 'hold for further study' every
single bill scheduled for testimony - before any testimony is taken
on any bill. Every committee member in attendance voted
in favor of holding every bill except for Rod Driver, who always
votes against holding bills prior to taking testimony. Voting
to hold prior to taking testimony removes some accountability from
the committee members to those who testify.
I was fortunate to be able to testify ahead of Arlene
Violet. She is a very tough act to follow - and she delivered
a great speech challenging the committee members to rise above
self-interested politics and do the right thing.
Next up
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Senate
bill 0203 either this coming week or the week following. MPRI
representatives will testify at this hearing in support of reforming
RI's ballot access laws. It can be a challenge to testify at
these hearings, as the committee schedule is finalized usually 48
hours ahead of the meeting.
Depositions in the lawsuit will be taken on April 7th.
The MPRI response to the State's motion to dismiss the lawsuit is
due 4/2/2009.
More to come soon. | 