Thrown out of Deepwater
proceedings
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| Tina Jackson - Above the law? |
Occasional Progressive Charlestown contributor Tracey O’Neill now has a
major gig reporting for GoLocalProv.com and already she’s cranking out some
impressive articles.
Her recent article on the long, long saga of Deepwater Wind’s efforts to
set up an experimental off-shore wind farm near Block Island caught the
attention of both Tom Ferrio and me. It’s a good article (click here to read), but it was a short tidbit it contains that has the most local
interest.
In that article, Tracey notes that the Coastal Resources Management
Council (CRMC) had recently denied “intervenor” status to several groups for
lack of standing.
One group, the American Alliance for Fishermen and their Communities
(AAFC), not only lacked standing, but also no longer had the right to operate
in the state of Rhode Island. The AAFC is the lobbying organization run by Tina
Jackson who ran and lost against Rep. Donna Walsh in the election for House
District 36.
As Progressive Charlestown readers read HERE first, Jackson’s corporate charter for AAFC was revoked by the RI
Secretary of State for the second time. That revocation meant that AAFC was barred from doing business in the state, and that
meant they could not intervene in the Deepwater Wind proceedings.
Despite losing the chance to weigh in against Deepwater, one of Jackson’s
few substantive campaign issues in the 2012 election, as of this writing, Jackson has still not remedied the problem with the Secretary of State by filing the
long over-due annual report that triggered the revocation of her corporate charter and paying the fine to get reinstated.
In addition, Jackson still has not filed her last three campaign finance reports –
another issue that Progressive Charlestown readers got to read first HERE. The fines for failing to file her reports is accumulating daily. As of
April 19, Jackson owes the state $587. Tick-tock.
There’s also a current
investigation by the RI Ethics Commission on my complaint
against Jackson for failing to file the required annual ethics disclosure
statement.
Failing to file the necessary papers to keep her lobbying group open, or
filing campaign finance reports, or registering as a lobbyist and filing
reports are minor matters compared to Tina
Jackson’s host of criminal violations.
Jackson had apparently gone into the 2012 Election thinking that either
no one would look into her background, or if they did, she could explain away the
long, long list of transgressions.
But it hasn’t worked out that way. It remains to be seen if Tina Jackson
will continue to try to interject herself into Charlestown politics, having
failed not only in the election, but in her
attempted coup to take over the Charlestown Republican Town Committee.
Adding to her already lengthy rap sheet is probably not the smartest strategic move if she hopes to have a political future.
Adding to her already lengthy rap sheet is probably not the smartest strategic move if she hopes to have a political future.