UPDATE: Rhode Island’s new voter ID law

UPDATE: Beware of unintended consequences

THE TRUE FACE OF VOTER FRAUD:  Indiana Secretary 
of State Charlie White  (R) found GUILTY   of voter 
fraud by lying about his actual residence.

By Will Collette

UPDATE (August 15): Despite NO evidence that voter fraud actually exists in Pennsylvania, and the state's admission that they have no such evidence, the state court judge in the case refused to issue an injunction against the Pennsylvania law taking effect for the November election.

Commonwealth Court Justice Robert Simpson, a Republican, refused to grant the motion for the injunction requested by opponents of the law.

He noted that their case was sympathetic in showing the likelihood that elderly, disabled, minority and low-income voters would be affected, but that he could not rule based on sympathy.

The bill's opponents expect to file an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Rhode Island has a similar law.

RISC-Y spending

RI’s top right-wing political group uses interesting financial practices to buy power

By Will Collette

In my last installment, I examined how RISC structured itself to gain political power and, as a surprise side bonus, serve as a tax shelter for some of its wealthy leaders.

I ended that installment with a general overview of how RISC uses a non-profit foundation, the RISC Foundation, as a way to raise large amount of cash from out of state donors while offering those donors the benefits of tax deductibility.

I also reported that while RISC is Rhode Island’s leading conservative lobbying and electoral organization, they report spending close to zero dollars on lobbying and getting its endorsed candidates elected.

In this installment, we’ll look in detail at how RISC spends its money.

Things you’d like to know about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance – but were afraid to ask

2012 Field Guide to Charlestown’s shadow government, Part 1

By Will Collette

Former CCA President and present Town Council
Vice-President Deputy Dan Slattery

It’s time to update our Field Guide to Observing the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), last updated in October. It’s been almost four years since the CCA took control of Charlestown’s government, riding the crest of the wave of anti-Jim Mageau sentiment.

One of the main things the CCA has proven in its two terms in control of town government is that they are even more adept at stirring up dissension and dividing the community than Jim Mageau ever was.

Unconvinced? Think Whalerock, the Y-Gate Scandal, Ninigret Park and their willingness to give over control of town property to the federal government, Dark Sky Lighting, “Kill Bill,” the Planning Commission’s plutocracy, “the riot of the rich,” disdain for fair taxation, attacks against small business, their hostility to families with children, beach toilets, Deputy Dan Slattery’s jihads and Uncle Fluffy’s gaffes.

By the end of June, we’ll see what the CCA intends to do about extending its reign of mismanagement for another two years when it comes time to announce candidates. But in the meantime, for your campaign season convenience, here are the answers to the CCA questions you’ve been dying to ask.

Homestead Tax Credit – will it start a war with Connecticut?

"Don't make me have to use this"

Concern that Charlestown's Connecticut property owners will revolt

By Will Collette

One odd question raised about the proposed $1000 Homestead Tax Credit proposed by the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee has to do with out-of-state property owners and whether they will rise up in revolt over this proposal. Former town council president Jim Mageau seems to think they will.

This is from an actual (not made up) e-mail sent by Jim Mageau to Progressive Charlestown:

“The non-resident property owners are already raising hell about not being permitted to vote in the town's Financial Town Meeting/Referendum. What do you suppose they'll do if this idea (the Homestead Tax Credit) ever gets any traction. [SIC] I think that their [SIC] is case law in Connecticut that may give you the answer. Now, lets [SIC] see if the "wing nut"[SIC] will take these comments out of context.”

Charlestown’s 1%

Town Council Prez Tom Gentz

Who has the big bucks?

By Will Collette

OK, class war fans, today we’re going to look at Charlestown’s top bracket, our millionaire property owners. And at what they have in mind for the rest of us.

I drew the inspiration for this piece from the clueless performance of our Town Council President Tom Gentz (also Secretary of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance) when he tried to read the script attacking the state’s affordable housing law during the November 3 Planning Commission workshop. That script was clearly provided to him by Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. Watch the Clerkbase video if you don’t believe me.

Voting Rights for Property Owners

CCA and RISC leader Tom DePatie wasn't alone when he advocated for Charlestown to grant voting rights to millionaire vacationers.

Not only was he stating a long-held conviction of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition and that of Matt McHugh, the CCA's 2008 endorsed candidate for State Representative, District 36, but also that of the national Tea Party.

In fact, the Tea Party would take this proposition one step further and RESTRICT voting rights ONLY to those who own property. Sort of like the way King George and the British did it, and the way it was in America before the real tea party.

After the break, listen to it yourself:

Voting rights for rich vacationers....NOW!

At the sparsely attended “Citizens Forum” on Monday night, Tom DePatie kicked off what may become a hot 2012 campaign issue: the oppression of absentee owners of million-dollar beach properties.

Why can’t they vote on town financial matters, asked DePatie. He noted there were 78 purchases of multi-million-dollar shoreline properties just in the past three years, mostly by out-of-state buyers, and – HORRORS! – they can’t vote.

Mr. DePatie is a founder and Board member of the RI Statewide Coalition (formerly the Shoreline Coalition), whose first top priority was winning voting rights for out-of-state property owners. Mr. DePatie is also a founder and a Steering Committee member of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA). And he’s part of that million-dollar shoreline property owner set with a 5000-square-foot house assessed at a million and a quarter on West Beach Road.

Is the CCA and its cousin, the RI Statewide Coalition, gearing up for a campaign for Voting Rights of Rich Vacationers? Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, I’m rich as Hell and I wanna VOTE!

CSI Charlestown: DNA tests show CCA and RISC from the same gene pool

$59.99 from Amazon.com

There was a flurry of angry comments over a  Progressive Charlestown article I wrote that showed board interlocks between the RI Statewide Coalition (RISC) and the bogus research center the Ocean State Policy Research Institute (OSPRI).

A lot of those comments seemed to come from CCA supporters. That sparked my curiosity about why such a vehement reaction, especially since it had so little to do with the real topic of my articles – that OSPRI had put out a report that was 100% on the facts about what OSPRI considered to be wasteful government spending in Charlestown. I would have loved to hear them explain how cleaning up toxic contamination at the old Kenyon dump site is an example of wasteful spending.

Anyway, I decided to see if CCA had any genetic ties to either RISC or OSPRI and ran the appropriate DNA tests.

Here are the results:

FAQs about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance

What is the CCA? That’s the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. It is an unincorporated association started in 2006 now registered with the state as a political action committee. The Board of Elections ruled they were raising money to work on electoral issues.

Why should anyone care who or what they are? Right now, the CCA is Charlestown’s shadow government. They picked each and every member of the Planning Commission. Two of their long-time leaders head the Town Council and, with Lisa DiBello’s vote, hold the majority.

To ignore the CCA is like ignoring the Republican Party’s control over the U.S. House of Representatives, or the Tea Party’s control over the Republican Party. Or the corporate interests that control the Tea Party. To understand power, you don’t just look at the puppets, but at the puppet masters.

Why are the CCA leaders and supporters so sensitive to criticism? That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer. I have a theory that they were traumatized by their experience with Jim Mageau. Maybe when they hear criticism, they think somebody is about to shove a camera at them.

Maybe they’re not feeling enough love for having ousted Mageau in 2008 – and for about the 10^th time in writing in Progressive Charlestown, I say thank you for that, but not for the rest of what you have done to this town. 

The CCA functions as Charlestown’s controlling political party. With that power comes heat from those of us who do not agree with their vision or their actions. If they can’t stand the heat, drop out. Go fishing. Go back to Florida. But stop whining.

Class War in Charlestown: Kallie Gets Her Wish

Kallie Jurgens has been complaining about her tax assessment for a long time. In a September 2005 Providence Journal article, she complained her ocean-view Shady Harbor property was assessed too damned high. Apparently unfamiliar with the real estate concept of “location, location, location,” Kallie complained that "I pay twice the taxes of someone north of Route 1."

To fight back, she and other out-of-state property owners formed the RI Shoreline Coalition, now the RI Statewide Coalition (RISC), to win voting rights for absentee landowners in local elections. Then they could vote against anything that might raise their taxes. Like schools.  

A few full-time, South of One residents, such as Tom DePatie, also were part of forming RISC, presumably because they thought their taxes were too damned high as well.

Kallie, her neighbors Richard and Marge Newton, Tom DePatie and others later formed the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) when Jim Mageau’s brief rise to power created a chance for the South of One Anti-Taxers to coalesce with other anti-Mageau Charlestown residents.

Class War in Charlestown, Part One

In her Jan. 16th letter published in the Westerly Sun, CCA President Kallie Jurgens scolded Deb Carney of the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee for stirring up “class warfare” in Charlestown, and for relegating rich, out-of-state property owners to “second class citizenship.”

What Jurgens neglects to note is that class warfare has been a fact of life in Charlestown for many years - and it wasn’t Charlestown Democrats who started it. If you asked the Narragansett Tribe, you might get 1675 as the start date for Charlestown’s class war, but let’s fast-forward 300+ years.

Around 2003, while still living in Connecticut, Kallie Jurgens and some like minded people – many of them wealthy out-of-state land-owners in Shelter Harbor – decided they didn’t want to pay ocean view taxes for homes they only used part-time. To that end, they formed the RI Shoreline Coalition to increase the power – and prosperity – of coastal absentee landowners. According to the Providence Journal (6/2/03) the Shoreline Coalition’s main goals were winning the vote for out-of-state land owners and fighting the Narragansetts over gaming. Jurgens still serves on the RISC board under its new name, the RI Statewide Coalition.

Kallie not only was an early class warrior, but she also made it a North versus South issue, as she told the Providence Journal (September 18, 2005):

"I pay twice the taxes of someone north of Route 1," said Kallie Jurgens, a Stonington, Conn., resident who, with her husband, owns an ocean-view house in Charlestown that's assessed at $679,600. One year ago, the assessment was $352,600. [Fact Check: Jurgens bought their Shady Harbor house for $128,000 in 2000.] Still, Jurgens' $4,621 tax bill is only $182 higher than last year's, thanks, in part, to larger increases for owners with property right on the water.

A senior marketing and sales consultant for IBM, Jurgens said she plans to move to Charlestown full-time when she retires. [Fact check: the Jurgens bought their Stuart FL condo in 2009 and use it as their permanent address].
"That's why it means so much to me, because I'll be on a fixed income," she said.