RI Political Corruption
Per Anchor Rising’s rule of thumb for whether inside connections should disqualify one from receiving a particular appointment: After an exhaustive nationwide search, the governor has nominated… his chief of staff to fill a Superior Court opening. I’d say the nomination doesn’t pass the test. Again, I’m sympathetic to the arguments that people who’ve been…
And this is the sound of General Treasurer Frank Caprio breaking the glass rod that made him appear to be arm’s length from the Rhode Island way of politics: He acknowledged the perception of a conflict with donations from eight out-of-state firms that specialize in class-action securities lawsuits. The national litigation firm Grant & Eisenhofer…
Few folks probably pay much attention to the campaign finance controversies that pop up from time to time, and it’s difficult to get riled up about numbers so small. That presumes, of course, that the rules and penalties are applied equally; otherwise, minor errors and infractions are suggestive of the more systematic corruption that we…
It would be the work of a lifetime of academic study to unravel the thread, but I’ve been increasingly impressed (in a bad way) with the intricacies of Rhode Island’s structural corruption. It’s as if certain principles of the culture filter throughout local society to create an organic network whose instinctual task is to create…
Last night, Matt Allen made the point that Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s perpetual reelection makes his antics most profoundly an indictment of the voters who keep sending him back to Washington. The same is true of most corruption at the state and local levels, and I’m not sure, therefore, whether the proper route to reform is…
Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri (via Edward Fitzpatrick‘s column in Sunday’s Projo), Woonsocket Call columnist Jim Baron, and Operation Clean Government Vice-President Robert Benson, amongst many others, support amending the State Constitution to restore the jurisdiction of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission to its intended scope, which would include the official acts of state legislators.…
Andrew and Matt spoke of “speech in debate” and political corruption in Rhode Island Matt Allen Show, as well as Andrew’s posts (1 and 2) on town taxation. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
In the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Irons v. RI Ethics Commission, three justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court defied very clear precedent in order to replace the plain meaning of the state Constitution with their own view of what the law regarding the ethical conduct of legislators should be,…
Writes the RI Supreme Court majority in the case of William Irons and the Ethics Commission: “We wish to stress in the strongest possible terms, however, that it in no way grants a legislator the right to transgress the Code of Ethics or any other law,” the majority wrote. Unprotected actions include political activities, efforts…
Kristin Rodgers, now confirmed to the Superior Court, has an admirable background suggestive of the possibility that, in a world of judicial activism, Anchor Rising readers should prefer her to most others. But still: In remarks to those gathered in the Senate chamber, Sen. John F. McBurney III, D-Pawtucket, whose father was a state senator,…
