A Blog Called Hope

Hey folks, the chairman just issued this release:

PAWTUCKET – Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch said today that Governor Don Carcieri’s plan to appear next month as the keynote speaker at a Bay State fundraiser for an anti-gay organization is tantamount to an endorsement of that right-wing group’s intolerant and insensitive stance towards the gay and lesbian community.

Today’s Providence Journal reports that Carcieri will be the headline speaker at the Massachusetts Family Institute’s annual banquet in October. After reviewing MFI’s Website, Lynch said the governor should immediately withdraw his agreement to speak at the event and apologize to the thousands of gay and lesbian Rhode Islanders, and their families, who stand to be offended by his callous appeasement of this ultra-conservative organization.

“Don Carcieri has forgotten that he was elected to be the governor for all Rhode Islanders, not just the ones who share his particular ideology. It’s one thing to take a position for or against same gender marriage, but when you speak to a group that calls homosexuality an ‘unhealthy practice’ that is ‘destructive to individuals, families and society,’ you cross a line that is not only offensive, but out of step with how most Rhode Islanders feel about the issue,” Lynch said.

MFI also claims that gays and lesbians can be “normalized” and “cured” from same-sex attraction. Lynch noted that the Massachusetts Family Institute doesn’t only oppose marriage equality, it lobbies against civil unions and domestic partnership benefits because it says such proposals are “discriminatory” and “devalue” heterosexual marriages.

“For the governor to support a group that believes gay and lesbian Rhode Islanders are not normal, hard-working, taxpayers proves that he is a sectarian extremist who, now in the waning days of his administration, seeks to fan the flames of intolerance in a desperate attempt to appear relevant again,” Lynch said.

“As if a tanking economy and record high unemployment weren’t enough, now Rhode Islanders have one more reason to be ashamed of and disappointed in their governor.”

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO: Carcieri’s Shadow Advisers

TransformRI, Governor Carceiri’s political front group, refuses to list their corporate donors. These donors may have paid for a current ad campaign by TransformRI in support of Governor Carceiri’s proposal to give millions of tax-dollars away to corporations.

While lobbyists, elected officials, campaigns, advocates and many others continue to disclose their finances, donations and other items with the Board of Elections, as well as in financial disclosure forms for the Ethics Comission, Carceiri’s front group simply hides from public scrutiny by filing as a non-profit. While they believe it is legal to do this, it certainly skirts the spirit of the ethics commission’s disclosure forms and all campaign finance laws and restrictions.

Urge the governor to practice the transparency he preaches by calling on TransformRI to release the names of the corporations that are backing his corporate tax-dollar giveaway.

To help you can:

1. Sign the petition by clicking here

2. Call the governor at 222-2080 and urge him to have TransformRI release the names

3. Help the RI Democrats continue the pressure by donating now

Rhode Island family accompanies Senator Reed (D-RI) for the signing of a bill which calls for $150 million in funding for youth cancer research

“The Haights, who are from Warwick, were at The White House Tuesday as President Bush signed a bill, honoring their son. Vince and Nancy Haight asked Senator Jack Reed to help secure funding for childhood cancer research, after their son, Ben, died from the disease.” -WPRI

To read the article, visit WPRI online.

Gov. Carcieri had the chance to sign a renewable energy bill that overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate and would have created good-paying, green-collar jobs in Rhode Island as well as reduce our dependency on pollution-causing fossil fuels. But once again, Gov. Carcieri let us down and vetoed the bill.

Just a few miles away in Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick today signed a bill that puts his state light years ahead of us and will make MA a real hub for the renewable industry. Here’s the video from NBC10’s story at 6:00.

Lynch files formal ethics charge against Carcieri regarding nepotism violation

Yesterday afternoon, the Rhode Island Democratic Party filed an official complaint with the Ethics Commission about the Governor’s well-publicized nepotism violation.

Here is the press release from the Party:

PAWTUCKET- Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch filed a formal complaint with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission today over the governor’s 2002 hiring of a niece who continues to earn more than $52,000 annually working in Carcieri’s State House office.

In May, the governor recognized the likely conflict and announced he would seek an “advisory opinion” on the matter. But Lynch says the Ethics Commission can only issue advisory opinions when a person subject to the ethics code seeks a ruling on a potential conflict prior to committing the act, which in this case, would be the hiring of his niece. The only other way the Ethics Commission can issue a binding decision is after a complaint is filed.

Earlier today the commission voted to acknowledge receipt of a letter from the governor asking for an interpretation of the code of ethics but was procedurally bound from issuing a definitive ruling.

“We need to hear from the Ethics Commission on this matter, and since no binding opinion can be offered after the fact, I am filing a formal complaint today and I believe the commission will agree that Governor Carcieri violated the spirit if not the letter of the ethics law when he hired his niece to join the executive staff,” Lynch said.

“The ethics laws are in place to prevent elected officials from doing exactly what the governor has done – handing out taxpayer-funded positions as a reward for campaign work, and that’s why I’m asking to have this issue properly investigated and adjudicated,” Lynch continued.

Lynch also questioned whether it was appropriate for the governor to replace a member of the commission with his own appointment at a time when he was supposedly seeking an opinion from the ethics board. On Saturday, The Providence Journal reported that Carcieri had recently appointed Edward A. Magro – an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the State Senate – to replace the current chairman. The chairman had continued to serve on the commission even though his term expired two years ago. Commission appointments do not require Senate confirmation.

“I find the governor’s timing suspicious. He was in no great rush to remove the former chairman for nearly two years and now, as more questions are raised about the governor’s ethical judgment, he conveniently finds Mr. Magro, who just happens to be another failed GOP candidate,” Lynch said.

“If the governor was really serious about getting an honest and complete opinion from the ethics commission, shouldn’t he have waited until the nepotism issue was settled before making a new appointment?” Lynch questioned.

For more about this story, visit the Providence Journal, WPRI, ABC 6, and NBC 10.

Nepotism: patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics

We should all shed tears….

With the formal “suspension” of Mitt Romney’s campaign for President, it looks as if the Governor Don won’t be Secretary of Education after all.

Back in November, Steve Kass, the Governor’s communications director, was shooting his mouth off on Dan Yorke’s show.

“Speaking on talk radio earlier in the month, Kass, a former talk-radio host, said Republican Mitt Romney would give Carcieri a cabinet position should Romney win the presidency.”

This is following Carcieri’s announcement of support last May for Romney’s presidential run.

And during the whole “budget crisis,” the Don found time to make his way up to New Hampshire to campaign for Romney leading up to the January 5^th primary.

The most unfortunate part of all this news, Carcieri will still be Governor until 2011. I suppose the silver lining is that Plastic-Man can’t just buy his way into the presidency.

Governor Carcieri just doesn’t get it. Last night, his state of the state address was long on rhetoric, but once again, short on details. What’s worse is, some of the details he did provide just don’t make sense, the math simply doesn’t add up, and you need to know that.

While House and Senate Democrats are working to streamline government and make it more lean and efficient, the governor is spouting empty rhetoric that doesn’t solve the problem. Here’s just one example:

The governor is banking on $5 million in new revenue from a proposed law to ban and fine folks who get caught talking on a cell phone while driving. At $50 per offense, that means that 227 would need to be ticketed every day of the year in order for the governor’s numbers to work.

Whether or not the proposal is a good public safety measure is certainly a matter for debate, but there is no way state and local police are going to have the time to stop and fine one-tenth of our state’s population for driving while talking on a cell phone, it’s just not realistic.

Check out what Carcieri flack Jeff Neal told Pawtucket Times scribe Jim Baron when asked how they expect the numbers to jibe.

Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said the administration “has no reason to believe” that the estimate for the revenue the measure would generate would not hold. He did allow, however that, “Since it is entirely new, it is difficult to project. If the General Assembly believes the initiative will garner less or more” revenue, it can make adjustments.

Translation: “It’s their problem to figure out.”

Boy, that’s leadership!

 UPDATE: OK, so we had the resignation part right. Now we hear news that they just shuffled her off to take a new job as deputy secretary of the state Office of Health and Human Services. Here’s the BIG question: What former Old Stone employee is going to land Orifice’s former gig?

Lame Duck Governor Don Carcieri is rumored to be losing Department of Labor and Training Director Adelita Orefice, who is expected to announce her resignation later this afternoon.

Is it safe to say that we can expect more high-level departures from the increasingly less-relevant Carcieri administration in the coming months?