There will be a rally at the Rhode Island State House, on Wednesday, October 5th, starting at 5:00 PM, concerning the Chafee administration’s position on rewarding illegal immigration. Gov. Chafee has usurped his role as our state’s leader by positioning certain people to do his bidding, instead of doing the will of the people of Rhode Island, as recently witnessed at a Board of Governors meeting, which granted illegal aliens in-state tuition.

Although this rally will mainly concern Chafee’s stance on illegal immigration, please feel free to invite anyone who is upset with Governor Chafee for any reason (we know there are plenty of reasons!). Feel free to bring signs. John Depetro will be the emcee; Helen Glover will be there, too, as well as Terry Gorman from RIILE, plus some General Assembly members, such as event organizer Rep. Doreen Costa and Senators Maher and Cote. The new Ocean State Tea Party In Action, and a few other good government groups will also be participating. It should be fun!

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Superintendent Melinda Thies has received an official complaint by Bristol Rep. Doug Gablinske who claims that Pat Crowley of the statewide National Education Association (NEA) delivered political remarks and went so far as to urge teachers in attendance for an official orientation session to vote against Gablinske in the approaching September 14th Primary. Gablinske has been a supporter of reforms to public employees’ pensions and other elements of their contract compensation packages as well as a supporter of the state’s new Education Aid Formula.

“It’s outrageous, it’s inappropriate and RISC is demanding to know if, in fact, there was illegal political campaign activity conducted by the local teachers’ union and statewide NEA during an official teachers’ orientation, on public school grounds, during a professional teachers’ forum,” blasts RISC President Jim Beale. Beale notes that several hundred teachers and other school staff assembled for the orientation are paid for such out-of-classroom orientation days by the school district as part of the duties associated with their professional contract.

“A teachers’ orientation session, held in school facilities should not be used for the local Teacher’s union and the statewide NEA political lobbyists to tell public school teachers how to vote in the upcoming Primary election. Representative Gablinske has called for sensible- – and affordable- – union contracts and pension packages and so the unions are going after him in this Primary.”

RISC is also calling on the Superintendent to publicly offer full disclosure of the emails in question. The head of the local teachers’ union, Bristol-Warren Education Association (BWEA) President Jennifer Saarinen is alleged to have used the official school district email system on August 19th not only to send a message to teachers to vote against Rep. Gablinske and vote for his primary opponent—but also allegedly to urge teachers to take part in a campaign canvassing activity for the opponent scheduled a few days later.

“It is also outrageous that a school district’s official email system is being hijacked with campaign messages and having the local teachers’ union President telling teachers how to vote in district wide email,” Beale concludes. “The taxpayers pay for that system and it is inappropriate- -and a violation of school policies -that it be used for purposes of free political advertising for the opponent of Rep. Gablinske.”

Press Release: Rhode Island Statewide Coalition

The state of our State is a little bit frightening these days, and if we did not have some hope that we could turn things around, most of us, like so many other people already have, would probably pack up and leave.

We stay, however, not just because we love our home state, but because we share a vision for making Rhode Island great again. We have a strong hope and we see a clear path to returning Rhode Island to economic, cultural, and political vitality. And we trust in our fellow citizens to rise up against the status quo and let our voices be heard.

If you share our optimism, if you share our belief in a future here for our children and families, if you know that Rhode Island should be first and not last, then please join us in taking a stand.

Whatever your party affiliation, and whatever your view of the national political scene, if you believe that one party rule is bad for all of us, and that the lively experiment needs a new direction, then help us wipe the slate clean.

We can do no worse with a clean slate, and if our 90 candidates are right, then we will do much, much better.

Press Release: Rhode Island Republican Party

Steve Malanga, Senior Editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, former Executive Editor of Crain’s New York Business and published author will discuss both the nation’s and Rhode Island’s fiscal problems and business struggles as the keynote speaker to the RISC Annual Summer Meeting on Saturday, August 7th, beginning at 8:30 am at the Hyatt Hotel, Goat Island, Newport.

Arlene Violet, recently named spokeswoman for the election campaign of the RISC Business Network (RBN2010) will also address the breakfast meeting, expected to draw several hundred attendees.

“We are thrilled to have a veteran business journalist of the caliber of Steve Malanga address the membership of RISC during this fiscal crisis in our own state and in the midst of such a critical statewide and national campaign season,” says RISC President Jim Beale.

RISC Chairman Harry Staley adds: “All taxpayers in our state, whether they are an individual or business owner could benefit from the insight they will hear from Steve Malanga and Arlene Violet. We urge people to attend.”

Malanga’s newest book, Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer discusses how the current steep state and local government deficits grew out of budgeting and tax policies which favored a coalition of public sector unions and community activists over the individual taxpayer. In addition to being Senior Fellow and Editor at the Manhattan Institute, Malanga is presently a columnist for www.RealClearMarkets.com, an on-line business publication.

The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition (RISC) is the state’s largest multi-partisan taxpayer advocacy organization which presently maintains over 5,000 active members. The RISC Foundation advocates for local and state government reforms in the areas of tax and budget policy, public education and related issues.

Source: Rhode Island Statewide Coalition

The location is Rogers Free Library, 525 Hope Street, in Bristol.

The “RI Civics 101″ presentation will give information on the various RISC positions taken and the votes being compiled, along with the history of this session, the bills that were filed and how the process was influenced by key players.

A review of the legislator performance in the towns of Barrington, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton, Little Compton, Portsmouth and Middletown will be covered.

A breakdown of the state budget will also be broken down, and the various expenditures will be exposed.

The voting records of Walter Felag, Charles Levesque, Louis DePalma, David Bates, Doug Gablinski, Ray Gallison, John Edwards, and Jan Malik will be presented and analyzed. Bring paper and take notes. You will want to share this information with friends and family!

This promises to be a very informative meeting on how your legislators vote, and where your money goes!

Source: East Bay Patriots

The following candidates will be attending:

Running for Rep in District 69: Ray Gallison and Will Sousa
Running for Rep in District 70: John Edwards and Nancy Driggs
Running for Rep in District 71: Dan Gordan
Running for State Senate District 11: Chris Ottiano and Charles Levesque
Running for State Senate District 10: Virginia Butterworth and Walter Felag

Several state-wide candidates will be attending as well, including John Loughlin who is running for U.S. House of Representatives. Invited guests yet to confirm are Anthony Gemma, Bill Lynch, David Segal, and David Cicilline.

This is an unscripted format with the audience posing the questions that are important to them. This is your opportunity to come and raise the issues that are important to YOU.

Seating is limited so please arrive early.

Source: Rhode Island Voter Coalition

RefoundRI’s mission is to provide civics education and outreach programs to raise awareness among voters about how poor public policy and reckless spending results in real consequences for real people. This recklessness is at the core of the budget and economic woes we face in Rhode Island and in most of our cities and towns. Only with a well-educated and fired-up citizenry can we expect to install fiscally responsible officials to run our government.

Mike Stenhouse – mstenhouse [at] refoundri [dot] org – 401.383.9205

The Annual Winter Meeting of the state’s largest taxpayer and business advocate organization, the RI Statewide Coalition (RISC) is being held this Saturday, February 27th, at 9:00 AM at the Hyatt, Goat Island, Newport.

Featured speakers for the event will be John DePetro, host of the WPRO Morning News, and Jeff Deckman, Consultant and Organizer for the new RISC Business Network. (RBN)

The Chairman of RISC is encouraging all RISC members and anyone interested in reform of the state’s tax, budget and business sector problems to attend.

“RISC urges all Rhode Islanders who recognize the crisis that is now confronting both taxpayers and struggling business owners in this state to attend our Winter Meeting,” says Harry Staley.

“ Rhode Island’s state and local budgets are in crisis, the business sector is drowning, and as we saw just days ago, the public school system is erupting because the overspending is not getting results. RISC is giving a voice to those of us who care deeply about these problems and we urge people to join us, hear about solutions and attend our Winter Meeting.”

For more information or to register to attend, call 401.213.6316 or go to http://www.statewidecoalition.com.

Press Release: Rhode Island Shoreline Coalition