The General Assembly leadership battle is over, and just beginning
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| House Trumplicans are expected to vote for Charlestown's state rep (and House GOP Minority Leader) Blake "Flip" Filippi. His role in the upcoming legislative session will be to be as big a pain in the ass as possible. |
The State House remains closed, so the House of
Representatives will be meeting at 2pm at the Veterans
Memorial Auditorium in Providence and the Senate will be meeting
at Rhode Island College‘s Sapinsley Hall at 4pm. Both
sessions will be carried by Capitol
TV.
After new members of both houses are sworn in, there will be a leadership vote in both chambers.
In
November, the House Democratic Caucus endorsed Representative Joseph Shekarchi (Democrat,
District 23, Warwick) for Speaker and the Senate Democratic Caucus endorsed Senator Dominick
Ruggerio (Democrat, District 4, Providence) for another term as
Senate President.
Both of these caucus
nominations were challenged from the left by women, and both challenges failed.
Challengers Representative Liana Cassar (Democrat, District 66 Barrington, East
Providence) and Senator Gayle
Goldin (Democrat, District 3, Providence) have now formally
withdrawn their names from consideration, virtually ensuring Shekarchi,
Ruggerio and their teams take control of the state legislature on Tuesday.
“For far too long, our General Assembly has been led by a small group of powerful members who tightly control every aspect of the legislative process and ultimately determine what bills will come to the floor for a vote,” wrote Senator Goldin in a statement. “Too often, good legislation stalls or dies because it isn’t sponsored by the right member, or supported by the right lobbyist, or championed by the right special interest. There’s a better way for the legislature to function.”
Goldin pointed out that
in response to her challenge Senate leadership supported “several progressive
policy positions for the first time, including a $15 minimum wage.” Goldin
continued, “We will continue to push for the priorities a majority of Rhode
Islanders agree are important including reproductive justice, gun safety,
affordable housing, the climate crisis, paid leave, civil rights, voting access
and healthcare.”
Representative Shekarchi
made no such progressive policy promises in his ascent to the Speakership,
saying, “I didn’t commit to anybody for chairmanships or offices – I did not
promise any legislation to anyone or any group. I think the broad base of
support I enjoyed tonight is the relationships that I have made over the last
eight years in the House.”
The Rhode Island Political Cooperative,
which helped
to elect four new
representatives and five new senators to the General Assembly in November has
called for House Representatives to abstain from voting for Representative
Shekarchi for Speaker. They write:
“As Nick Mattiello’s handpicked number two and the architect of his disastrous speakership, Joe Shekarchi represents nothing more than a continuation of the corruption we have seen under past Speakers. Since assuming the position of Majority Leader in 2017, Shekarchi has collected over 300 donations from lobbyists. Like his predecessors he remains beholden to these lobbyists, the fossil fuel companies, and the out-of-state corporations that have funded his campaign warchest.
“A vote to abstain matters. In 2019, 19 abstentions led to the creation of the Reform Caucus. This year, every legislator who votes to abstain will put themselves on the side of the growing movement to finally end corruption and corporate control in our state and build the path toward a governing majority devoted to serving the people.“
UpriseRI asked
Representative Cassar, who was a member of the Reform Caucus but is not a
member of the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, about her vote on Tuesday and
about her thoughts on the process in general.
“I’ve been open about
what I’m going to do. I’m going to abstain,” said Representative Cassar. “I
have the same situation I had two year ago, where there isn’t a candidate who
supports my priorities in the chamber and who has made a commitment to equity
and inclusion in the chamber as a basic step.
“I would like our
chamber to work better and I think it will work better in some ways, and that’s
a good thing, but I don’t have a candidate that represents my values. I am very
optimistic that there will be changes, [but] I haven’t heard any specific
commitments to what those changes could be.”
Representative Cassar
isn’t so much looking for a change in leadership as she is advocating for a
better process.
“My priority is a better
process, as opposed to hoping for a win on this or a win on that,” said
Representative Cassar. “If we have a democratic process that we can trust, that
the Rules Committee will hear all rule change suggestions and vet them and have
a democratic vote on them that is not a politically guided vote, then I think
that’s better. More than having any particular rules change, having a
transparent process is really my priority.
“If the same leadership
team gets elected in two years, through a more open process, fabulous, we can
have confidence,” continued Representative Cassas. “Right now, if Joe Shekarchi
is going to be the Speaker and Chris
Blazejewski is going to be the Majority Leader, history predicts
that Joe will move onto something else and Chris will ascend to be Speaker.
That part of the story is already written. I think it’s worth asking, over the
next two years: Do we want to keep writing it this way?”
Steve Ahlquist is Uprise RI's co-founder and lead
reporter. He has covered human rights, social justice, progressive politics and
environmental news for nearly a decade. atomicsteve@gmail.com
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