Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- The state Board of Elections has quietly offered to settle a dispute with the newly-established Moderate Party of Rhode Island for what may be the largest fine in the board's history.

State officials have asked the fledgling party to forfeit a $10,000 donation and its chairman to personally pay another $10,000, according to terms of a deal outlined in a private meeting last week.

Board officials threatened, as an alternative, to have the attorney general's office bring civil or criminal investigations against a host of party officials for violating Rhode Island's finance laws.

"That was a rotten deal any which way you sliced it. And frankly, a deal designed to be rejected," said party chairman Kenneth J. Block, who discussed the details and travel of the case with The Journal Monday afternoon.

The Moderate Party, which was established in August after gathering more than 23,000 signatures, rejected the deal in a private meeting Friday.

"I'm ready to go to war on this," Block said.

Board of Elections Executive Director Robert Kando declined to comment on the case when asked Monday, citing a state law that blocks board officials from discussing investigations before they are finalized.

"We have nothing to say about any meeting that may have occurred," Kando said. "We follow the law religiously."

Block, who personally donated $20,000 to the Moderates for "party building" over one week in September, blasted the deal and looming legal action as being "100 percent politically motivated."

"Instead of sending a warning, and saying, 'Send it back,' what we get is nuclear war against the Moderate Party," said Block, the founder of the party that brought a civil rights lawsuit against the state to win ballot access earlier in the year. The Board of Elections, along with two other state agencies, was ultimately ordered to pay nearly $34,000 in legal fees after losing.

The Board of Election's director of campaign finance, Richard E. Thornton, said that it is illegal for an individual to donate more than $10,000 in one calendar year for party building.

"I pride myself on being impartial," he said. "We're governed by the law, not by politics."

The basic facts of the case, as reported by The Journal earlier this month and detailed in campaign finance reports, are not in dispute.

On Sept. 21, Moderate Party founder and current chairman Block personally donated $10,000 to his organization's state committee. The donation matched the annual individual maximum allowed by state law for party building, which covers expenses related to staffing, rent and utilities, but not individual elections.

On Sept. 26, Block, a Barrington software engineer, wrote another $10,000 check. This time the recipient was the Barrington Moderate Party Town Committee, which had been formed just two days before.

And on Sept. 28, according to state filings, the Barrington committee sent $10,000 -- all but $100 in its bank account -- to the state committee.

 Tags  Moderate Party

Comments

Sman12 said:

I find it absurd that this is what the election board deemed worthy of the largest fine ever. Especially when in recent history the attorney general wasn't fined at all for originally misclassifying petty cash spendatures because he clarified things prior to the ruling.

I guess impartial only goes as far as which party you belong to in RI or what your last name is.

Link | November 23, 2009 7:14 PM
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Paulson said:

The moderate party now has my vote. It's been said by many posters that the Dems would attack
soon and it has begun. The board of elections is not political? How did you get the job then?
Kando-Thornton. You people just put another nail in the Democrats coffin. People are so tired of the sh---t being pulled by the Democrats. The revolt has begun. Jusy look how many disgruntled voters showed up at the state house for the 2 day fiasco. You were trying to sneak in a perpetual contract bill and binding arbitration but couldn't because you were beinng watched closely.
It's not going to get any easier for the GA next year because of all the people watching you guys. The day of reckoning is fast approaching
and when it comes changes will be swift. There will be no more meeting in the stair wells and bath rooms.

Link | November 23, 2009 7:30 PM
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WM85 said:

It does not surprise me, that they would try to sock it to the Moderate Party. They are after all a threat to the power structure as it exists in R.I. Amazing, the largest fine handed out by this board, not to the Democrats, not to the Republicans. I wonder why.

Link | November 23, 2009 8:44 PM
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