CCA makes unusual pitch for early
campaign cash
By Will Collette
Since 2008, in every Charlestown
municipal election, we’ve seen the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) raise huge
amounts of cash from absentee property owners usually in the last few
months before election day.
It’s generally very quiet and last
minute, often so late in the campaign that these cash gifts don’t get reported
to the RI Board of Elections until after the election is over.
During the campaign itself, the CCA
blitzes the town and the letters to the editor page of the Westerly Sun with
extraordinary claims about various threats (sometimes imaginary) as well as remarkable
achievements unsubstantiated by evidence that testify to the joy and happiness
the CCA bestows on Charlestown.
And in contrast, the CCA casts all
those who doubt their sacred mission as being in the pockets of developers. To
try to forestall criticism of their smears against their opponents, CCA leader
and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner penned a letter
to the Westerly Sun to claim she had never, ever said town council members
of “being on the take.”
Like Tucker Carlson, says Platner,
she’s just “questioning” Town Council decisions. So much for her non-apology
apology. Further, she says she will not be bullied into letting up on her
“questions.”
Not that Ruth would ever bully
anyone who crosses her, such as political opponents, town
staff who don’t do her bidding, commission members who don’t toe the CCA
line, applicants for zoning permits or even
her own fellow CCAers who may, on occasion, vote their conscience, rather
than the CCA party line, as current CCA
councilor Susan Cooper did once (and only once).
Until 2022, the CCA’s election
routine was enough to keep the CCA in control of the entirety of Charlestown’s
municipal government. In
2022, the CCA got its ass whupped by Charlestown Residents United
(CRU). That apparently has caused the secretive CCA
Steering Committee to change tactics.
That seems to have changed based on
a posting on the CCA blog where with 9 months left before the
November 5 general election, the CCA has posted a broad appeal for money, seeking
to add to their already formidable treasury of almost $12,000 according to
their most recent campaign
finance report.
As usual, their pitch includes their
usual casual treatment of the truth. To provide some truth in advertising, I
have re-printed most of the CCA’s sales pitch but included some commentary and
fact-checking in bold red.
Here’s the CCA pitch: Your Donation Works To
Protect Charlestown’s Rural Character, Environment, Economy, Tax Rate, and
Future
SteeringCommittee /Charlestown Rhode Island, Mailbox 0 Comments
This fall, Charlestown
voters will elect the individuals who serve on Town Council and our Planning
Commission.
For 17 years the
Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) has been dedicated to electing individuals
who will work to protect those assets that make Charlestown such a unique and
treasured place to live.
Actually, it’s only been
16 years since the CCA registered as a Political Action Committee on March 10, 2008. The CCA
was formed to oust then Charlestown Town Council President Jim Mageau from office.
Initially, they tried to operate as an unincorporated association, but a
complaint to the RI Board of Elections forced them to register as a PAC, given
their explicit political purpose. None of the CCA leaders who signed the registration form still live in Charlestown.
The CCA's priorities: We ask for your help
in electing leaders who will protect Charlestown’s rural character,
environment, economy, tax rate, and future.
There
are a few problems with this list of priorities.
First,
there
is no definition of “rural character” so it’s basically whatever CCA leader
and Planning Commissar Platner says it is. That translates into
minimal housing, minimal kids, minimal services, minimal roads, minimal growth.
Second,
the CCA is only interested in local conservation, not broader issues of the
environment like climate change, hazardous waste, or renewable
energy. CCA-style conservation is not the typical flora and fauna concerns
of common folks. Rather, it is the “conservation” of
wealthy donors’ financial assets by enacting policies that minimize, to the
greatest extent possible, the need to fund public services requisite to a
vibrant community.
Third, the CCA has no
interest in Charlestown’s economy except for tourism. They are hostile to small
business and actually impeded tourism by making it hard
for tourism workers to live or travel to Charlestown, determined we will
remain the only Rhode Island municipality other than Block Island with no link
to public transportation.
Fourth, as usual, the CCA
only wants to talk about the tax
RATE, but not about taxes, especially fair taxation, as a whole.
Charlestown taxes are far from fair due to a decade of corrupt favoritism
practiced by the CCA during its 10 years of total control of town government.
Details HERE.
If they REALLY want to talk about tax rates, well try this fact on: Right after CRU kicked the CCA out of control of the Council, the tax RATE dropped from $8.17 to only $5.74. Of course, property assessments drove the rate, as is the case every year, but the CCA no longer can boast about rates without dealing with this fact.
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| Charlestown, circa 1914 (EBay) |
Fifth, the CCA’s vision of
the future, distilled in the Comprehensive
Plan authored by Ruth Platner, is to try to freeze Charlestown in some
imaginary past, a time without roads, before
the Narragansetts won recognition as a Tribe, and new affordable housing
meant some Swamp Yankee building a shack.
The CCA continues: Good government
depends on an informed electorate who want facts and detailed
information. Through its website, newsletter, and social media, CCA
notifies the public and explains in-depth the issues of importance to
Charlestown. During the election period, CCA also prints and mails this
essential information to voters.
The CCA is not so
dedicated to allowing that “informed electorate” to gain access to public
records, using tricks like broad use of loopholes in disclosure laws, high fees
and blacking out whole sections of key documents.
They directed their
longtime henchman, ex-Town Administrator Mark “Stonewall” Stankiewicz to
enforce an information
blackout, especially on shady CCA land deals. Prime example HERE.
The CCA continues: Good government
depends also on excellent leaders who will work hard. CCA supports
individuals for office who will protect our environment and preserve our
natural resources—the foundation of our tourist economy and critical to
maintaining a low tax rate.
They’re repeating
themselves, perhaps lacking any other substantive points. Over the years, the
CCA has gotten voters to elect such “excellent leaders” as Uncle Fluffy Tom
Gentz, Deputy Dan
Slattery, Bonnita Van Slyke, Ruth Platner and others from their inner
circle. They’ve also given us a broad cast of characters who have their own
agendas or whose main talent was following orders from the secretive CCA
“Steering Committee.”
The CCA continues: Charlestown Citizens
Alliance is proud to be supported by the citizens of Charlestown and those who
love our town. We are an all-volunteer organization entirely dependent on
contributions from individuals. Please join those who have already given by
making a contribution of any amount.
If you would like to
contribute to CCA, you have the choice of an online donation via PayPal, or you
can send us a check using postal mail.
Note the shifty language
they add: “…and those who love our town.” That’s their cover for the CCA’s
major reliance on money from non-residents to run the CCA’s campaigns. Through
their payments to the CCA, these absentee property owners buy the CCA’s stance
against things absentee property owners oppose such as Chariho
school funding, affordable
housing, a homestead
tax credit for permanent residents and beach access.
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