Gallison resignation prompts talk of ethics reform

May 4, 2016 7:57 pm

By Bianca Buono

bbuono@abc6.com

@BBuonoABC6

A government watchdog group is talking ethics reform amidst yet another Rhode Island State House scandal. Former State Representative and House Finance Committee Chairman Ray Gallison resigned Tuesday and is at the center of an FBI probe.

Common Cause Rhode Island says they’ve been trying to push an ethics bill through the legislature for years and it may finally go through in light of the latest political scandal.

"We’ve known for some time that Representative Gallison has had problems and it seems like those signs were ignored," said John Marion, Executive Director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

One of those signs happened just this year when Gallison was fined $1,600 by the State Board of Elections for failing to keep track of his campaign receipts. The first sign was back in 2007.

"He was fined $6,000 which is a really significant fine in the grand scheme of things by the State Ethics Commission for not reporting his income that actually came from a grant from the legislature," Marion explained.

According to political analyst Joe Cammarano, Gallison being at the center of a federal investigation, allegedly involving prostitution, isn’t going to help the state’s political climate.

"2016 has seen an extraordinary campaign season where the establishment candidates have been getting creamed by outsiders in part because everyone thinks the system is fixed and they’re all corrupt and this is more evidence, whether or not it’s fair evidence, it doesn’t matter," said Joe Cammarano, a political analyst and professor at Providence College.

Common Cause said Rhode Island used to have one of the strongest ethics commissions in the country; but that changed in 2009 when the state’s supreme court stripped the commission of oversight of the general assembly. The court sited the "Speech in Debate" clause from the state’s constitution that provides immunity for legislators.

"We’ve been trying to get a measure on the ballot ever since but the only method right now to put that on the ballot is to have the legislature itself do it and we’re having a hard time getting the legislature to regulate themselves," Marion said.

House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello says he’s hoping to introduce a bill that provides conflict of interest oversight sometime this week. He says the timing has nothing to do with Gallison’s resignation.