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!

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?