Somebody in the room for the surprisingly close vote to eliminate “hold for further study” as an acceptable method of killing legislation in Rhode Island’s General Assembly wrote to tell me that he’s sure that, at one point, the green lights outnumbered the red, indicating passage of the good-government change. Then, House Speaker Bill Murphy said something that my source didn’t catch, and enough votes suddenly changed to put the revolt down.
In other words, legislators know that this is one of the methods whereby the leadership rules the coop. They know it’s a slimy way whereby legislators avoid accountability for their votes. And so, those thirty-three votes against the amendment that Rep. Rod Driver (D, Charlestown, Exeter, Richmond) proposed deserve a place on the Legislative Stooge List.
New to the list as a result of the vote are Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, Kenneth Carter, Christopher Fierro, Douglas Gablinske, John McCauley, Helio Melo, Peter Petrarca, Deborah Ruggiero, and Patricia Serpa.

Anchor Rising’s (Do Not Vote for the) Legislative Stooge List – House

Anchor Rising’s (Do Not Vote for the) Legislative Stooge List – Senate