Just look at the time, energy and money spent by independent candidates and 3rd parties in court seeking to level the uneven playing field by filing suit against bad laws passed by members of the 2-party system to keep new parties out.

For our effort in Rhode Island, we had to strike down portions of Rhode Island’s ballot access laws as unconstitutional. We rightly won that fight, but lost half of the election cycle getting it done and then qualifying for the ballot via signature petition (34,000 signatures collected and 23,584 verified in just over 2 months).

Rhode Island’s public campaign finance law seriously discriminates against new parties, denying public funding to the new party while providing tax payer dollars to the Democratic and Republican State Committees. Just take a look at the wretched public campaign finance law that CT is being sued over now.

RI campaign finance law does not allow an individual to invest more than $10,000 annually to help the new party get its feet underneath it.

Lastly for us in Rhode Island, State law mandates that for the Moderate Party to keep our party status post-2010 election, we have to recruit and run a candidate for governor who wins at least 5% of the vote….a very tall order for a new political organization which started from zero on Aug. 18, 2009.

The playbook is the same across the country – deny the new political party the time and money necessary to put a solid financial and support infrastructure underneath it, then require the party to meet a very tough (and expensive) benchmark in a statewide race (in some states a national race) to retain status as a party. In short, snuff the new organization before it is properly standing on its own.

Building a lasting, new political party takes time, colossal amounts of money and a significant grass roots effort. Most importantantly, it takes a level playing field which very few states afford new political parties.

The Moderate Party of RI will be spending much more time in court contesting the discriminatory and unfair laws that stand between us and success.

Ken Block
Chairman, Moderate Party of RI

We have to look at what’s caused the current duopoly to stagnate.

Right on Bro, right on ……….

In the 20th Century John F Kennedy was the ‘Clown In Charge’ that needed a head on centrist rebuttal.

In the 21st Century when Obama [my Yokohoma Momma] starts to talk about ‘change’ I get down on my hands and knees and begin tossing the sofa cushions!