Projo Politics Blog

The State House equivalent of the high school yearbook was released last week.

The secretary of state’s office received the first 1,000 copies of the 2007-08 edition of the Rhode Island Government Owner’s Manual. The book contains all manner of trivia about the state’s 113 legislators: occupation, employer, date of birth, names of spouses and children, community group memberships, and where each lawmaker attended high school and college.

Astute observers will be able to tell which lawmakers were unhappy enough with their 2005 photos to get a new photo taken this year. (Hint: Any photo with a conspicuous American flag was taken this year. The flag photos mark the lawmakers who were newly elected last year and those who had their photos replaced.)

The book also contains contact information for other arms of government, from the state’s congressional delegation on down through the judiciary, the general officers, state departments and agencies and all of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns.

The book has Rhode Island census data, incorporation dates for each city and town, and a list of villages with the city and town in which they’re located.

It’s got the full text of the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions, and the rules by which the Rhode Island House and Senate operate (that is, until the rules are suspended each year in the final days of the session).

One thing the new book contains that the previous edition didn’t have: a list of everyone registered to lobby at the State House during the 2007 legislative session.

Those who want a hard copy of the 390-page book should drop by the secretary of state’s office soon. The office expects to receive an additional 5,000 copies this week, but the 6,000-copy print run is expected to run out quickly.

The entire guide is available online at www.state.ri.us, where it will be regularly updated, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis said. “I will make increasing online access to government a priority,” Mollis said in a statement announcing the guidebook’s release.

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