MPRI Lead Organizer Margaret Paynich gets Letter to the Editor in Warwick Beacon

Moderate Party of Rhode Island Lead Organizer and The Moderate contributor Margaret Paynich got a Letter to the Editor published in the Warwick Beacon this past Wednesday:

To the Editor:

Rhode Island cannot succeed while our government continues on its present path of corruption, financial mismanagement and lack of accountability.

Jobs are disappearing while our economy shrinks due to out of control spending and taxation. Our elected officials are not being held accountable for their actions, ethics and voting records. At least 40 percent of the state legislative seats have been uncontested for years and candidates who challenge incumbents often do not have the party structure to support them to win.

The Moderate Party believes our government should focus on four key issues to improve the quality of life in Rhode Island: Economy, Ethics, Education and Environment. We will build a network of candidates who are committed to our four priorities to create the competition and dialogue we need between candidates to elect the right people from all political affiliations.

The Moderate Party needs to collect 23,588 signatures to become an established political party in Rhode Island – and we need your help by signing our petition. We will be at the Warwick Mall all day Saturday, July 25, and Sunday July 26. You may learn more about the Moderate Party at www.moderate-ri.org. Thank you for your support.

Margaret Paynich

Lead Organizer

Moderate Party of R.I.

Warwick

Margaret captures in just a few lines the purpose and necessity of a truly new alternative to old Rhode Island politics. If you're ready to reform Rhode Island's political culture, find a Moderate Party petitioner today, and get your name down to start fixing the system.

Common Sense: 233 Years Later

In 1776, Thomas Paine published a pamphlet titled Common Sense. Paine wrote the pamphlet in a style that the common individual could understand and argued for the independence of America from British rule. Common Sense answered the questions that lingered among Americans who were caught between supporting the British crown or supporting the revolution. Using common sense examples, Thomas Paine cultivated the spirit of the American revolution that eventually won it's independence from the British crown.

Two-hundred and thirty-three years later we have our own revolution being fought here in Rhode Island. We are not fighting a monarch or aristocracy, instead, we fight a battle of ideas and extremes. Rhode Island is dominated by the Democratic Party and little opposition comes from the opposing Republican Party. Because of this lack of balance, the extreme ideas of the far left are able to slowly climb it's way through the rank and file Democratic Party. Our state spends too much and taxes too high. The ethics of our republic are constantly under attack because there is no one to defend them, no opposition to point out the mistakes of the Democratic Party. In Rhode Island, it should be an opposition gold mine. The elected officials we have now should have been defeated elections ago, Rhode Island should be an opposition gold mine. However, the Republican Party does not support pragmatic ideas that can fix Rhode Island. Instead the party has decided to answerer extremism of the Democratic Party with more extremism of their own.

This battle between two extremes puts Rhode Island voters in a very difficult situation. Election after election we are forced to decide between the lesser of two extremes. Rhode Island, it is time we change the choices that we have. I have been an avid supporter of the Moderate Party and their goal of obtaining ballot access and I do so because of the Moderate Party's belief in centrist government. The Moderate Party does not reach out to the vocal minorities that have taken over both the Democratic and Republican parties. Instead, the Moderate Party reaches out to those in between, those individuals with common sense. When people ask about the Moderate Party I simply reply we are about common sense ideas to fix our state's problems. “Common sense, what a good idea,” they say. This concept that we can have a successful and efficient government by using common sense and pragmatic methodology is something that Rhode Islanders want, and more so, it is what Rhode Island needs.

This is not a violent revolution, this is a revolution of the way Rhode Island does things. Enough with the extremes, look at where it has taken us. We face a rising deficit, failing school systems, and elected officials who violate ethic laws. Now is not the time that we resort to choosing candidates who promote ideas that just make no sense. Now is the time that we stand in the center, now is the time we use common sense to fix the problems we face. Two-hundred and thirty-three years later, this concept of common sense is still relevant and always will be. We all share common beliefs and understandings, let us show those in power that we want pragmatic, common sense ideas to solve our state's problems. Let us choose those who promote the idea that Rhode Island does not have to sit in the backwater of economic security. Let us choose those who promote the idea that Rhode Island can balance a budget, fix its schools, and lower taxes so that business can thrive in our state. Let Rhode Island gain it's spirit of common sense.

With hope,

Matthew D. Lenz

A Big Week!

So much going on this week! Monday saw the big MPRI fundraiser featuring Supreme Court Justice and Chairman of the state Board of Regents overseeing educational policy Robert Flanders. Terrific turnout and, if the estimates I've heard are anywhere near correct, an excellent fundraising effort.

Justice Flanders talked about some of the opportunities that Rhode Island has for reforming its educational policy to manage cost and improve outcomes. Some of the issues discussed were regionalization, state-level contracting rather than individual district contracts (which would go hand in hand with some kind of district consolidation), shifting the funding burden more towards the state (and thus reducing the property tax burden in districts), and the possibility of school choice. All in all very interesting stuff, to be looked at very seriously by Moderates.

Party Chairman Ken Block introduced the Judge, and introduced Richard Rodi, currently a Democrat, who is interested in running for office as a Moderate, should the party receive recognition. I'm very excited to announce that Richard will be joining the debate here at the Moderate and will soon be writing with us!

Today we were down at 12 Basset St., in the heart of the Jewelry District, where Rich hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Senior Center, a project his charitable foundation. Ken Block, Margaret Paynich, and Matt Lenz, party hotshots all, were canvassing the event in the presence of Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, who was a defendant in the lawsuit that, well, now allows the MPRI to canvass!

So lots of exciting stuff going on this MPRI universe. On The Moderate this week: A piece on Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' by new contributor Matthew Lenz, a review by yours truly of controversial documentary Happy Endings? about indoor prostitution in Rhode Island, and the third installment of my All Things in Moderation series, this time about brand-building in politics after Obama '08.

Cheers!

The Canvass Begins!

The canvass has officially begun! The MPRI has put together books of signature sheets for every canvassing district in the state so that committed folks can get the signatures needed for official recognition.

If you're interested in helping out the Moderate Party by doing some canvassing, visit the Party's contact page here.

Also check out the cute graph on the homepage. Keep your eyes on it, since it won't be at 0% forever!

If you'd like to sign, stay tuned to The Moderate. We'll be publishing events and functions where canvassers will be present so that you can make your voice heard.

DJ'ing the Party

MPRI founder Ken Block has a terrific quote in the Providence Journal today:

Rhode Island suffers right now from, quite frankly, a lack of voices. We have the rhythm section in the Democrats, and we have a single trumpet player in the Republicans, but we really are missing the rest of the band.

Let's bring the harmony back into Rhode Island politics!

Board of Regents Chairman Robert Flanders talks to the MPRI!

If you haven't heard by now, the Moderate Party of Rhode Island (MPRI) has won it's lawsuit against the state of Rhode Island. US District Court Judge William Smith agreed with MPRI Chairman Ken Block and his ACLU volunteer attorney Mark Reel that Rhode Island's requirement that new political parties not begin the petitioning process until the first day of an election year was an unconstitutional violation of the freedom to assemble, and struck down that requirement.

Now we've got our party, so to speak, if we can keep it.

Now we have to collect, according to the Projo article of May 30, 23,588 valid, Board of Canvassers-approved signatures to qualify as a recognized political party, and receive all of the fiscal benefits that come with that status (details are outlined on the MPRI website here). Doing this will not be easy. It will require a concerted effort by Moderates to organize and conduct a sophisticated canvassing operation in neighborhoods all across the state.

At Ken's presentation to the CCRI Political Science Club in April, he made it pretty clear that not every signature recorded will be accepted as valid with local Boards of Canvassers, which vary in requirements and (sadly) ideological inclinations from town to town. As I understand it, we should not be surprised to see up to 50% of signatures rejected for pedantic or political reasons. Therefore we're actually looking at an effort to collect close to 50,000 names in the next year.

This is all made more urgent by the coming election and Rhode Island's fiscal crisis. As North Providence flirts with insolvency, the Moderate Party, which may soon be the strongest voice for reform in the state, is rushing to collect signatures while the established parties invest in candidates. We are behind.

So what do we do? The word from Margaret Paynich, who is coordinating canvassing plans, is that the canvass will begin ASAP, after the fundraiser of Monday, June 15 (which you all are, of course, attending).

I am currently employed as a canvasser, and am studying the art and science of canvassing. Since there is no precedent for what the MPRI is doing, the metrics are unknown. How many signatures will the average canvasser be able to collect in four hours? How many of those will be acceptable with Boards of Canvassers? How many canvassers will we need? How long will it take?

Strangely enough, filing a lawsuit to change state law, winning that lawsuit, and having the law rendered unconstitutional seems to have been the least labor-intensive step in forming a political party. When V.I. Lenin did it in Russia 100 years ago, he just had Stalin and his friends rob some banks for financing. It's a little different for committed Moderates today.

What do you think?

So we won. What now?

If you haven't heard by now, the Moderate Party of Rhode Island (MPRI) has won it's lawsuit against the state of Rhode Island. US District Court Judge William Smith agreed with MPRI Chairman Ken Block and his ACLU volunteer attorney Mark Reel that Rhode Island's requirement that new political parties not begin the petitioning process until the first day of an election year was an unconstitutional violation of the freedom to assemble, and struck down that requirement.

Now we've got our party, so to speak, if we can keep it.

Now we have to collect, according to the Projo article of May 30, 23,588 valid, Board of Canvassers-approved signatures to qualify as a recognized political party, and receive all of the fiscal benefits that come with that status (details are outlined on the MPRI website here). Doing this will not be easy. It will require a concerted effort by Moderates to organize and conduct a sophisticated canvassing operation in neighborhoods all across the state.

At Ken's presentation to the CCRI Political Science Club in April, he made it pretty clear that not every signature recorded will be accepted as valid with local Boards of Canvassers, which vary in requirements and (sadly) ideological inclinations from town to town. As I understand it, we should not be surprised to see up to 50% of signatures rejected for pedantic or political reasons. Therefore we're actually looking at an effort to collect close to 50,000 names in the next year.

This is all made more urgent by the coming election and Rhode Island's fiscal crisis. As North Providence flirts with insolvency, the Moderate Party, which may soon be the strongest voice for reform in the state, is rushing to collect signatures while the established parties invest in candidates. We are behind.

So what do we do? The word from Margaret Paynich, who is coordinating canvassing plans, is that the canvass will begin ASAP, after the fundraiser of Monday, June 15 (which you all are, of course, attending).

I am currently employed as a canvasser, and am studying the art and science of canvassing. Since there is no precedent for what the MPRI is doing, the metrics are unknown. How many signatures will the average canvasser be able to collect in four hours? How many of those will be acceptable with Boards of Canvassers? How many canvassers will we need? How long will it take?

Strangely enough, filing a lawsuit to change state law, winning that lawsuit, and having the law rendered unconstitutional seems to have been the least labor-intensive step in forming a political party. When V.I. Lenin did it in Russia 100 years ago, he just had Stalin and his friends rob some banks for financing. It's a little different for committed Moderates today.

What do you think?