BUMPED & CORRECTED: Making the Legislative Stooge List

The following correction (initially made Saturday morning) is sufficiently important that I've bumped this post so that it is not diluted by the lightened weekend readership.

CORRECTION:

Although readers may offer partial mitigation based on the fact that Rhode Island's method of providing legislators' votes is not exactly helpful when it comes to pre-dawn data collection, an error on my part in the compilation of this list was egregious, and I apologize to the parties involved and to you. While reviewing the relevant Senate journal (PDF), a stray click of the mouse brought the wrong vote tally onto my screen, and although the overlap was extensive, I've made the following corrections:

• Senators who actually voted to sustain the governor's veto and have therefore been removed from the Legislative Stooge list:
  • Dennis Algiere (R, District 38, Westerly, Charlestown.
  • David Bates (R, District 32, Barrington, Bristol)
  • Marc Cote (D, District 24, Woonsocket, North Smithfield)
  • Leonidas Raptakis (D, District 33, Coventry, East Greenwich, Warwick, West Warwick)
• Senators who did not vote on this override and have therefore been removed from the Legislative Stooge list:
  • Daniel DaPonte (D, District 14, East Providence, Pawtucket)
  • Walter Felag (D, District 10, Bristol, Tiverton, Warren)
  • William Walaska (D., District 30, Warwick)
• Senator who voted to override the governor's veto and has therefore been added to the Legislative Stooge list:
  • Jamie Doyle (D, District 8, Pawtucket)

Again, I apologize to readers and to the senators for the error.

Frankly, it's a little hard to stomach the following from House Minority Leader Bob Watson, with reference to the RI House's override of the governor's veto of 2009-H 5613 Sub A, mandating healthcare benefits for public school teachers (including charters):

House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson said those who supported the override were "voting against the interests of every city and town in the state, and for that you should all be thrown out of office."

After all, he voted to pass the legislation in the first place; every legislator did. Granted, that vote was taken in the late hours of a special autumn session, and nobody among the media or right-leaning reformist community had noticed that the bill did much more than create a benign research committee. But what good is a powerless minority party if it at least doesn't spot and decry the sneaky state-killing legislation making its way into law?

That said, Watson and the 22 other Representatives and four Senators who changed their opinion between passage of the legislation and override of the veto get a pass on inclusion in our new Legislative Stooge list of politicians who, because of a dramatic and unforgivable overreach and catering to special interests, should under no circumstances receive your vote. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive balancing of a legislator's career, and not every piece of legislation will be enough to put politicians on the list, only the most egregious, and getting off of it will require stunning examples of wisdom and leadership.

For explanation of why this veto override is enough to make the list, see here, here, and here.

Anchor Rising's (Do Not Vote for the) Legislative Stooge List - House

Anchor Rising's (Do Not Vote for the) Legislative Stooge List - Senate