By Samuel G. Howard in RIFuture.org
Moderate Party chairman and possible gubernatorial candidate Ken
Block is out with a new website,masterlever.org,
which petitions the Governor and the General Assembly to eliminate the ability
to vote solely based on party line (a.k.a., the “master lever”).
As a case study for why it should be banned, Mr. Block offers up
the 9000+ Rhode Island voters who used the option to vote for the Moderates,
despite only three candidates running under the Moderate banner (two Moderates
ran in nonpartisan races).
Republicans have long advocated the elimination of the master
lever, and in this case it’s no surprise to see virtually every local
politician from the Grand Ol’ Party backing Mr. Block’s crusade. In fact,
non-Democrats often point to the master lever as a reason why they can’t
compete in this state.
So, it will be refreshing when the convenient cover of the
master lever is eliminated. Perhaps non-Democrats will have to face the
unpopularity of their policies for a change. More likely, they’ll rely more
heavily on the “stupid Rhode Islanders” line that their candidates and
supporters have been throwing around lately. I’m sure that will do wonders for their
popularity.
General Assembly leaders should speedily remove the master
lever, or at least mandate its placement at the very end of the ballot. Mr.
Block rightly points out that his party gained 9000+ votes with the lever
alone; votes which the Moderates might not necessarily have received had people
had to vote race by race. It’s likely the top-ballot placement gave the
Moderate Party the most exposure it got during the last cycle.
With the elimination of the master lever, perhaps non-Democrats
will start focusing on issues that affect Rhode Islanders more than once every
other year or so. They might consider following in the footsteps of former Sen.
Bethany Moura and former Rep. Daniel Gordon; who both spent a great deal of
their time fighting foreclosure in our state, much of it fraudulent in nature.
I believe conservatives are supposed to care about protecting citizens’
property.
EDITOR'S NOTE: the Charlestown Citizens Alliance has also started promoting Ken Block's crusade against the master lever. The CCA is an offshoot of the RI Statewide Coalition and has close leadership ties to the Moderate Party.
Samuel G. Howard
is a native-born Rhode Islander,
educated in Providence Public Schools, went to college in North Carolina and a
political junkie and pessimistic optimist.