Home
The fight has moved to the airwaves.
Kenneth Block, already challenging the state's ballot-access laws in a federal lawsuit, will begin pushing his Moderate Party's message on radio stations across the state Tuesday.
"There's very little that's good about these troubled times, but it does show you where the real problems are," says a pleasant female voice on the party's first paid advertisement, according to a sneak preview Block distributed by e-mail. "In Rhode Island, it's largely about our lack of political choices. We have a few Republicans, far too many Democrats, and not nearly enough real public servants."
Block told us today he didn't know the exact cost of the ad buy, but "I think it's more than $10,000." The 60-second spot will run on Rhode Island's Citadel Broadcasting outlets, including WPRO.
The Moderate Party's political action committee had just around $2,300 in the bank at the end of January, according to its latest campaign finance report. Block said that "private donors" have helped pay for the ads.
"I'm personally paying for some of it; some other people helped out as well," he said, declining to name them. "It's not cheap. It's a leap of faith to some extent, but I'm a firm believer that you have to put your money where your mouth is."
He continued: "It's the right time for it. It's the right message for the state. And you have to do what you have to do to get to the next level."
Block has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Rhode Island's ballot-access laws, which he says make it very difficult for his party to gain access to the ballot and the related public funding.
Currently, state law provides two ways for a new party to be listed on the ballot: if a party-picked candidate for statewide office in the prior election garnered at least 5 percent of the vote, or if it presents a petition bearing a number of signatures equal to at least 5 percent of the turnout in the prior election.
Block expects to have to collect signatures -- at least 23,500 -- but state law prevents the party from beginning to gather them until Jan. 1 of 2010.
He told us that he hopes the radio ads, at the very least, will help make the signature collection easier.
The ad continues: "A new party is trying to emerge -- something the long-entrenched powers are trying to block... We can beat them, but only if you get involved, only if you know the truth."
