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Clean Elections Rhode Island is a non-profit group dedicated to passing clean elections in the state of Rhode Island.
A clean election is a system of taxpayer-financed political campaigns. Candidates that qualify by collecting a prescribed number of signatures and $5 contributions from registered voters in their district can agree to not raise or spend any private money during the primary and general elections. Instead, a set amount of funding for the candidate's campaign is provided from the state budget. If the candidate is outspent by an opponent running a privately funded campaign, the state will provide more funding to the "clean" candidate in order to match the amount spent by the opponent, up to some multiple of the original funding.
Clean elections have been implemented in Maine and Arizona on a statewide level, as well as in Portland, Oregon on the municipal level, and elsewhere. Proponents of clean elections, including those involved in Clean Elections Rhode Island, believe that Clean Elections result in increased voter turnout, political transparency, and diversity of candidates, including fuller representation of women and minorities.
The current goal of Clean Elections Rhode Island is to pass the Rhode Island Clean Elections Act (RICEA), which would implement clean elections in Rhode Island, through the Rhode Island state legislature. Introduced in spring of 2004, it has been brought before the House Finance and Senate Judiciary committees every year since, but has not yet been brought to a vote. The legislative sponsors of RICEA are Senator Rhoda Perry (D-District 3, Providence) and Representative Edith Ajello (Democrat- District 3, Providence).
A steering committee for the Clean Elections Rhode Island campaign was formed in the fall of 2005. Its current members include:
Campaign finance laws in the United States have been a contentious political issue since the early days of the union. The most recent major federal law affecting campaign finance was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also known as "McCain-Feingold". Key provisions of the law prohibited unregulated contributions to national political parties and limited the use of corporate and union money to fund ads discussing political issues within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary election; However, provisions of BCRA limiting corporate and union expenditures for issue advertising were overturned by the Supreme Court in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life.
In the politics of the United States, elections are held for government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is elected indirectly by the people of each state, through an Electoral College. Today, these electors almost always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, the Congress, are directly elected by the people of each state. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective governor and legislature. There are also elected offices at the local level, in counties, cities, towns, townships, boroughs, and villages; as well as for special districts and school districts which may transcend county and municipal boundaries.
John Lester Hubbard Chafee was an American politician and officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, as the Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator.
Democracy Matters is an American non-profit, non-partisan grassroots student political organization that is dedicated to deepening democracy. The organization's mission is to strengthen democracy by: (1) training young people how to be effective grassroots organizers and advocates; and (2) supporting public financing of election campaigns and other pro-democracy and campaign finance related reforms. Democracy Matters believes that it is imperative to reduce the overwhelming influence of big private and corporate money in elections and necessary to empower ordinary people—regardless of race, gender, and/or socio-economic status—to be able to participate meaningfully in the electoral and political process. Democracy Matters is also a part of the Declaration for American Democracy coalition.
A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly funded presidential campaigns via optional donations from tax returns. It is an attempt to move toward a one voice, one vote democracy, and remove undue corporate and private entity dominance.
David Nicola Cicilline is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 36th mayor of Providence from 2003 to 2011, the first openly gay mayor of a U.S. state capital.
The financing of electoral campaigns in the United States happens at the federal, state, and local levels by contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees, and sometimes the government. Campaign spending has risen steadily at least since 1990.
The 2006 United States Senate election in Rhode Island was held on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee sought re-election to a second full term in office, the seat he had held since 1999 when he was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of his father John Chafee. He lost to Democratic nominee, former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse by a 7-point margin.
Frank T. Caprio is an American banker, lawyer, and politician from Rhode Island. His twenty-year political career has included being elected as the 29th General Treasurer of Rhode Island from 2007 to 2011. He was the first political candidate in the United States to use on-demand television to reach voters and one of the first candidates to launch an Internet TV channel for use in a political campaign in 2006.
Electoral reform in the United States refers to efforts to change American elections and the electoral system used in the United States.
Since the Great Depression, Rhode Island politics have been dominated by the Rhode Island Democratic Party, and the state is considered part of the Democrats' "Blue Wall." Democrats have won all but four presidential elections since 1928, with the exceptions being 1952, 1956, 1972, and 1984. The Rhode Island Republican Party, although virtually non-existent in the Rhode Island General Assembly, has remained competitive in gubernatorial elections, having won one as recently as 2006. Until 2014, Democrats did not win a gubernatorial election in the state since 1992, and it was not until 2018 that they won one by double digits. The Rhode Island General Assembly has continuously been under Democratic control since 1959.
Operation Clean Government is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens' lobby and advocacy organization. The organization was founded in 1993 by Bruce R. Lang and others through the union of three Rhode Island good government groups that had formed in response to the credit union crisis in 1991.
Kenneth J. Block is an American businessman, software engineer, and political reformer. He is the founder of the Moderate Party of Rhode Island, the state's third-largest political party, and ran as the Moderate candidate for Governor of Rhode Island in the 2010 election.
Seth Michael Magaziner is an American investment professional and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 31st General Treasurer of Rhode Island from 2015 until 2023. Magaziner won the November 2022 election to succeed retiring representative James Langevin.
Robert E. Craven, Sr. is an American politician and a Democrat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives representing District 32 since January 1, 2013. He serves as Chairman of the House Municipal Government Committee and a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Craven also serves on the R.I. Governor's Justice Reinvestment Working Group.
The People's Pledge is a formal campaign finance agreement between all candidates and their campaigns in a given election. It aims to reduce non-party group spending in an election by limiting expenditures to candidates’ campaigns and party committees. The Pledge requires candidates to pay a penalty if outside spending groups spend on behalf of their campaign. Outside spending is defined as any independent expenditure by a non-party group to benefit a candidate.
The American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA), sometimes shortened to Anti-Corruption Act, is a piece of model legislation designed to limit the influence of money in American politics by overhauling lobbying, transparency, and campaign finance laws. It was crafted in 2011 "by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter in consultation with dozens of strategists, democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum," and is supported by reform organizations such as Represent.Us, which advocate for the passage of local, state, and federal laws modeled after the AACA. It is designed to limit or outlaw practices perceived to be major contributors to political corruption.
Maine Question 1, "An Act To Strengthen the Maine Clean Election Act, Improve Disclosure and Make Other Changes to the Campaign Finance Laws", was a citizen-initiated referendum measure in Maine, which appeared on the November 3, 2015 statewide ballot. As the Maine Legislature did not exercise its ability to pass the bill on its own, it was placed on the ballot and approved by Maine voters.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Rhode Island were held on November 8, 2022, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of Rhode Island, one from each of the state's 2 congressional districts. The elections coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. It followed a primary election on September 13, 2022.
Elections are held in Providence, Rhode Island to elect the city's mayor. Such elections are regularly scheduled to be held in United States midterm election years.