Petition expert Chip Faulkner of the Citizens For Limited Taxation of Massachusetts was in fine form as he entertained and taught 35 Voter Initiative signature gatherers the finer points of getting signatures. The Saturday AM event (Sept. 24th) at the Wickford Senior Center inspired attendees that gathering petition signatures is both easy and fun to do.

The State House Rotunda was full of cheers and applause on Tuesday AM, (Sept. 27th) as more than 150 people gathered to give Voter Initiative an official launch. Three rousing speeches by Justice Robert Flanders, (shown at top at podium) Senator Marc Cote and Governor Don Carcieri (shown above) work the crowd into a high pitch of excitement. The Governor then signed the petition. The Providence Journal noted the event in a front page illustrated story the following morning as did the Pawtucket Times.

This is the home page of www.voterinitiative.org -- the newly enhanced web site for the voter initiative campaign. Designed by Megan Rohrer, a San Francisco based web designer. Working under the direction of public relations consultant Jim Barr and Bev Clay, the site offers a variety of information and links for people exploring voter initiative. Its most outstanding feature: citizens can sign the petitions online!

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The fourth annual OCG picnic was held at Goddard State Park on the 25th. More than 50 attended, enjoying the foods prepared by Linda Meyer, pictured here with June Spink. Many thanks to Linda and her Husband Hal for the massive effort to organize this picnic.

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OCG’s ‘State of the State’ cable TV program had two tapings that made it through the cuts to become a finalist at the PEG Award Ceremony held on the 30th. Although not a winner this year, it is the first time that the program has been among the finalists. John Carlevale extends thanks and appreciation to the hard working production crew that turns out these programs week after week, particularly Chet Ham, Bob Haiken, Andy Galli and Roy Pruett. [return]

This past Wednesday (Oct. 12), The Four Freshmen, a nationally known jazz ensemble performed at the Toll Gate High School Auditorium in Warwick, hosted by The RI Mentoring Partnership (www.rimentor.org). A portion of the ticket sales by OCG members were donated to OCG. Special thanks to the RI Mentoring Partnership for the fundraising efforts, as well as OCG volunteers Linda and Hal Meyer, John Carlevale, Mary Langhorn and Alan Palazzo for helping with the event. Several voter initiative petition signatures were even added to the drive. [return]

When Will Barbeau asked David Clarke to don his fencing gear for the eNews photo, he replied "en garde!" with a smile.

David Clarke is moving up the ladder in OCG’s structure: he’s now 2nd Vice Chair, a member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the upcoming Candidates’ School for which he’s been holding regular meetings. The 34 year old lawyer matriculated at Roger Williams Law School, and now is involved with a busy practice in Pawtucket. In his “spare” time he is an avid fencer, and puts a lot of time into computing – amongst which tasks he puts out this e-alert. He and his wife Andrea live in Barrington. [return]

Each and everyone of us who believes that Voter Initiative would improve our state government and make Rhode Island a better and more affordable place to live, doing away with corruption and sweetheart deals for the special interests, needs to work to make it happen. We the people have power if we band together for the common good. What can we as individual members and friends of Operation Clean Government do? Each of us can commit to signing the petition asking the General Assembly to put a voter initiative question on the ballot in November 2006 to Let The People Decide if Rhode Island needs Voter Initiative.

Voter Initiative is the one way the citizenry of Rhode Island can exercise people power. We do it through the power of the vote. Voter Initiative provides the mechanism for the people to propose and repeal legislation and amend the constitution for the common good just as our fellow citizens do in neighboring Massachusetts - especially when our elected representatives fail to serve the best interests of those whom they are elected to represent.

We need to present a large block of voters demanding that we put voter initiative before the people for a public debate and finally a vote. We need a minimum of 20,000 signatures on the petiton. Do you realize that if 1,500 members of OCG get 15 signatures each, we would exceed our goal of 20,000 signatures by an additional 2,500 and get the attention of the General Assembly leadership.

Will you take action to make voter initiative happen? If you are already a member of OCG, you will soon be receiving a petition in the mail. If you would like to request a petition, please contact Sandra Thompson 884-9483. [return]