Endorsements

(by groups or individuals representing groups)

Note: Politician endorsements for convening a constitutional convention often have a Machiavellian dynamic in a way that is not common among advocacy groups. Although the vast majority of incumbents will oppose convening a constitutional convention, they will usually avoid expressing and acting upon such views publicly, especially if it looks like the referendum will be defeated anyway. It is also common for politicians who oppose convening a convention to take a neutral public stance or to passively support one, if only to take an issue issue away from an opponent.  Instead, they will express their opposition via surrogates and procedural maneuvers that harm the democratic responsiveness of the convention mechanism.

Of all candidates for state office, gubernatorial ones tend to be most resistant to publicly opposing a convention.  This can be attributed to the high visibility and majoritarian nature of gubernatorial politics.  As an analogy, gubernatorial candidates will rarely publicly oppose meaningful redistricting reform and often publicly endorse such reform in their platforms, but this doesn’t mean that if they win office they will genuinely fight for such reform.

Vote Yes

The Yes Coalition

RenewRI, launched August 20, 2014.  TV interview with the Gary Sasse and Phil West, leaders of RenewRI.

Other (this information was not updated after the yes coalition was formed)

Individual Organizations

Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.  See The Path to a Constitutional Convention, August 7, 2014.  See its web page for additional information.

Rhode Island Taxpayers.  See Group has raised $59,000 to oppose R.I. Constitutional Convention – RI Taxpayers supports a Constitutional Convention, July 19, 2014.

Operation Clean Government.  See Edgar, Randall, Operation Clean Government pushes for R.I. Constitutional ConventionProvidence Journal, November 22, 2013.

Politicians

Carlevale, John, Candidate for Rhode Island Secretary of State.  See Carlevale Plans To Support Constitutional Convention,  Press Release, August 2014. See John Carlevale campaign website.

Cullen, John, Candidate for Rhode Island House of Representatives, District 46.  See Cullen encourages voters to approve Constitutional Convention, The Valley Breeze, August 26, 2014.

Block, Ken, Gubernatorial Candidate, Moderate Party.  See Block, Ken, Ken Block: R.I. must hold constitutional convention, Providence Journal, July 7, 2013.  See also the Ken Block campaign website, including The Block Plan, February 25, 2014; revised June 2014.

Fung, Allan, Gubernatorial Candidate, Republican Party.  Fung calls on Fox to resign as House speaker, Providence Journal, 21 March 2014.  See also June 17, 2014 and July 22, 2014 press releases.

Vote No

The No Coalition

Citizens for Responsible Government, launched April 30, 2014.   (Contact information and members at launch can be found here.  On September 23, 2014, it launched a new website, http://rejectquestion3.com,  alongside its old one, http://ricfrg.org.

Other (this information was not updated after the yes coalition was formed)

Individual Organizations

Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, Steven Brown, Executive Director.  See Borg, Linda, 3 R.I. experts debate value of a constitutional convention, Providence Journal, March 29, 2014.  See RI ACLU’s web page for additional information, including statements by Rhode Island AFL-CIO, Latino Public Radio, and Rhode Island Pride.

Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, James Parisi, Field Representative and Lobbyist,  See:

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Rhode Island Tea Party. See Katherine Gregg and Randal Edgar, Tea Party Turned Off, Providence Journal, May 19, 2014.  (Scroll to bottom of the article.)

Secular Coalition for America, Rhode Island branch (SCA Rhode Island), March 29, 2014.   See

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