Politics
Rhode Island politics are funny. The word "gubernatorial" is funny. Rhode Island gubernatorial debates hosted Monday by Common Cause RI are, hence, funny. As part of a contingent from our chapter of Democracy Matters (or, as a passer-by speculated, "What are you guys? Young something? Young democrats? Young republicans?"--he was, like most of the other people there, kind of old), I got to head down and see Governor Carcieri and Lt. Governor Fogarty duke it out...to the extent that it is possible to duke it out while saying "I agree with everything my opponent has said." The only issue they seemed to disagree on was the Right to Vote campaign (letting felons on parole vote).
The most exciting part for us and most of the rest of the room, though, was when Cheryl Pingree, head of Common Cause National, former Maine congresswoman, and moderator of the debate broke decorum and "editorialized" one of the questions she was supposed to ask the gubernatorial candidates (as, she said, she had been asked to do by the hosts). So she turned the question "What do you think about Clean Elections?" into a ten-minute rant about how wonderful it has been for her, her daughter (now a congresswoman), and the state of Maine. After she spoke, the crowd went wild with applause and even stray whistles.
The governor's responses were a little unenthusiastic and skeptical, but it was nice to get that burst of support. This semester our work for Clean Elections is going to be mostly preparation for next semester's big bang (RI's congress is part time, meeting only in the Spring)--this year we will demand (politely) that Congress gets the bill out of committee and bring it to a vote on the floor. But in order to make that happen, we need to make a big stink about it--throw a press conference, rally the public, pester legislators....
The most exciting part for us and most of the rest of the room, though, was when Cheryl Pingree, head of Common Cause National, former Maine congresswoman, and moderator of the debate broke decorum and "editorialized" one of the questions she was supposed to ask the gubernatorial candidates (as, she said, she had been asked to do by the hosts). So she turned the question "What do you think about Clean Elections?" into a ten-minute rant about how wonderful it has been for her, her daughter (now a congresswoman), and the state of Maine. After she spoke, the crowd went wild with applause and even stray whistles.
The governor's responses were a little unenthusiastic and skeptical, but it was nice to get that burst of support. This semester our work for Clean Elections is going to be mostly preparation for next semester's big bang (RI's congress is part time, meeting only in the Spring)--this year we will demand (politely) that Congress gets the bill out of committee and bring it to a vote on the floor. But in order to make that happen, we need to make a big stink about it--throw a press conference, rally the public, pester legislators....