Deepening structural democracy in the Ocean State

Rhode Island is viewed as deep blue by outsiders due to two major indicators: our electorate’s democratic partisanship and our federal delegation. The story that isn’t told is just how few people actually participate in that blue electorate. Rhode Island does not (yet) have a progressive governing majority. Advocates and critics focus on the deep seeded power held by our Speaker of the House which is a fair critique, but we have to get back to the basics of representative democracy.

Here are five recommendations to do just that:

1.     Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission: In 2016, nearly 70% of voters didn’t have a Republican and Democrat to vote for on their general election ballot and 92% of voters didn’t vote in the primary. Herein lies the deepest threat and easiest area for improvement. This starts with fixing our heavily gerrymandered maps through common sense nonpartisan redistricting that doesn’t involve the Speaker of the House hiring his own redistricting consultant. The cost would be minimal to the state. If states like Missouri, Michigan and Ohio can do this, so can we.

2.     Nonpartisan voter guides and turnout programs: Compared to many states, particularly battlegrounds like New Hampshire or Maine, Rhode Island sees little outside investment by political parties or political organizations, creating a climate primed for a small group of individuals to control the electoral process. Nonprofit advocates invest in one strategy and one strategy only – lobbying. Research shows that the two biggest impediments to low information voters from voting is lack of knowledge about who the candidates are and their issue stances. The fights over the Reproductive Privacy Act and marriage equality over the last decade demonstrate that large scale civic participation matters. RI has a significant number of nonprofits per capita. If even ten issue nonprofits banded together to send voter guides with fact-based biographical and issue stance information on every candidate, they could increase voter participation in the state primary and hold legislators accountable to their positions.  Imagine if a single voter guide covered relevant issues like affordable housing, women’s equity, economic development, public education and environmental  protections went viral statewide?

3.     Demystify Party Committees: I’m a political consultant by trade and as a new home owner in the 14th Ward of Providence it has been extremely difficult to learn the rules or obtain the names of who is in charge of which city and state legislative party committee. The city of Providence will see tremendous turnover on the City Council given new term limits taking effect in the coming two years. It behooves our local cities and state board of elections to make guides for civic engagement clearer. These are the feeders that will bring more people of color and youth into office.  

4.     Eliminate the Party Endorsement: There is no path to tapping the Speaker of the House’ power without first separating his power to pick winners and losers. This is a simple bylaw change and given the latest drama with Trump racists running as so-called Democrats and denial of the Women’s Caucus, it’s about time the people who power the party actually call the shots -  not the Speaker of the House.

5.     Reform the Rules of the General Assemble: This is an easy one, once the aforementioned reforms take effect. Vocal opponents and Freshman legislators built a lot of noise and attention around this work in 2019 and moved the needle a bit, but we have a lot of work to do. In neighbor states like New Hampshire, every bill filed must receive a hearing AND a floor vote. This would change everything to force ever state lawmaker to have the courage to cast a vote on all the issues: mundane and controversial.

Rhode Island’s small scale presents our greatest opportunity and challenge. One statewide leader can know every legislator and district, building a far-reaching network for change. And when that person falls from grace (or goes to prison) the whole systems resets around the cult of a new personality.

It doesn’t take millions of dollars in a single election cycle. Rather it requires vision which we have. It requires some sustained funding which exists. Although there’s been a lot of excitement around party scandals and new political cooperatives as of late, we need to get back to the basics of our lively experiment.