Rhode Island
R.I. constitutional convention ballot question opponents mobilize to convince voters to just say no • Rhode Island Current
Hours before a commission started work Wednesday to lay the groundwork for a once-in-a-decade ballot question in November asking voters if Rhode Island should hold a constitutional convention, nearly 40 labor and civil liberties groups launched a preemptive attack to persuade voters to say no.
Members of Rhode Island Citizens for Responsible Government gathered at the Planned Parenthood offices in Providence Wednesday morning to launch the Reject Question 1 campaign. Speakers declared that well-funded special interest groups could use the convention as a means to constitutionally restrict women’s reproductive rights.
“Our state has made incredible progress over the past five years to make abortion care more accessible,” said the coalition’s chairperson, Vimala Phongsavanh, senior external affairs director for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. “Rhode Islanders cannot go backwards — yet that is what could happen if there is a constitutional convention.”
Rhode Island is one of five states, along with Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa and New Hampshire, where people automatically have the chance to vote to hold a constitutional convention every 10 years. The General Assembly may also propose amendments during any election year.
Overall, 14 states mandated periodic constitutional convention referenda.
Rhode Island’s convention question typically goes on the ballot in years ending in the number four, but voters rejected ballot questions seeking to convene one in 1994, 2004 and 2014. The most recent convention was held in 1986 — the last such of any state in the nation. The 1986 convention featured an anti-abortion ballot question that voters overwhelmingly rejected.
Few seem to fully comprehend what the constitutional convention questions entails, according to a poll released by the University of New Hampshire Thursday. The survey found 53% of respondents said they had heard nothing about the topic. Only 36% said they understood the topic.
That lack of information is placed squarely on the lackluster job done by past commissions, Rhode Island State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse Editor J.H. Snider said in an email Monday.
The problem, he said, is that past commissions have framed the debate on the potential cost and risks without much discussion on the benefits. Proponents for holding a convention to change Rhode Island’s governing documents say it gives the public a chance to update how the state government operates.
“Any serious discussion about the upcoming referendum should start with why this provision exists in Rhode Island’s Constitution; that is, what democratic function it was designed to serve,” Snider said.
The latest commission, made up of eight legislators and four members of the public, is tasked with holding public hearings to learn about potential issues that might be addressed if voters support holding a convention for inclusion in the voter handbook mailed to all registered voters before the Nov. 5 election.
The commission must complete a report by Sept. 1.
With this tight deadline, the commission used its first meeting Wednesday at the State House to establish its purpose and elected its two co-chairs: Rep. Robert Craven, a North Kingstown Democrat, and Sen. Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat.
“Rhode Island’s Constitution is a living and breathing document that charts the course of our daily lives,” Craven said. “We are fortunate that it requires public input every 10 years because that is what true democracy looks like.”
Craven said the panel’s work will include reviewing the work by prior commissions, “but we will also not be bound by what has come before us.”
“Times change and so do the issues the public deeply cares about,” he said.
The commission’s next meeting, tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 30 at the State House,will mostly consist of figuring out the logistics for the next five weeks — along with the potential for public comment on the convention question.
“We’re not trying to answer the question as to whether or not people want a constitutional question,” Euer said in an interview after the commission’s first meeting. “We’re trying to create a framework of understanding of what issues are on peoples’ minds.”
Coalition calls for convention rejection
At the 1986 convention, delegates approved a Paramount Right to Life Amendment declaring that life begins at conception. It was defeated by 66% of voters in the November election that year.
“There’s absolutely no reason to believe the constitutional convention in 2026 would be any more sympathetic to civil rights and civil liberties than the one in 1986,” ACLU of Rhode Island Executive Director Steven Brown said at Wednesday’s press conference.
But Snider said the defeat of the 1986 right to life amendment, along with other recent rejections of anti-abortion referenda in heavily red states, suggest the measure would fail if it were to come up again.
“So what Steve Brown and the others who have been promoting his well-publicized arguments have been essentially saying is that Rhode Islanders will vote against their own interests on one of the most high salience issues in American politics if a convention (or legislature or citizen petition) puts this issue on the ballot,” Snider wrote in his email.
“That, in my opinion, amounts to a direct attack on constitutional democracy, which is the foundation of our system of democracy.”
Brown acknowledged at least one positive change came out of the 1986 convention: the creation of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
“But again, it was the General Assembly, not the convention, that voters approved a constitutional amendment making sure that the legislators themselves were subject to the Ethics Commission,” he said.
Should a majority of Rhode Islanders want to move ahead with a convention, the state would have to set up a special election to select 75 convention delegates to represent each district in the House of Representatives. AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Patrick Crowley said the AFL-CIO is prepared to run a union-backed convention delegate in each district if that is the case.
“We are preparing for the bad news,” he told reporters. “We are not going to let the corporate powers take away our rights.”
Crowley said his organization has already contributed $5,000 toward the campaign to oppose the convention question.
“But make no mistake, we are going to be outspent if corporate money is allowed to pour into Rhode Island,” Crowley told reporters. “There’s just no way that $10 contributions from working people or $20 contributions and low-dollar contributions from Planned Parenthood or the Latino Policy Institute is ever going to compete against someone like the Koch brothers.”
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(WJAR) — While Rhode Island prepares for its 50th Pride celebration, many are looking back on the history of the event and remembering the people who launched the movement.
“Being in the first parade in 1976, it was the bicentennial year,” said Billy Mencer Ackerly. “It was absolutely very scary and we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Mencer Ackerly was among a group of between 70 and 100 people who marched in Providence’s first pride parade in June of 1976, at the time of the nation’s bicentennial celebration.
“People on the sidelines were still looking at us like we just came off of a spaceship,” Mencer Ackerly said. “It was almost like they didn’t believe that we would have enough courage to be able to say who we were.”
Billy Mencer Ackerly was among a group of between 70 and 100 people who marched in Providence’s first pride parade in June of 1976, at the time of the nation’s bicentennial celebration. (WJAR)
For some, it was a chance to come out and be seen. For others, like Billy’s family members who took part in the parade, it was an opportunity to show their support.
“My mother was in a car with two other mothers, and it was driven by a gay guy. And on each side of the car it said, ‘I’m proud to say my child is gay,’” Mencer Ackerly said. “It was the best thing my mother ever did for me.”
But the parade itself was almost shut down before it began.
“They were denied the parade by the police chief who said there would be no parade in providence over his dead body,” retired judge and former civil rights attorney Stephen Fortunato said.
First, the bicentennial commission rejected a proposal to include the pride parade in the bicentennial celebrations.
“They can be gay. I have no qualms about their activity or their private habits. We denied endorsement primarily because their activities do not sufficiently relate to the bicentennial,” said Patrick Conley in 1976. He was the Chairman of the Bicentennial Commission at the time.
Stephen Fortunato, who was a civil rights attorney at the time, took on the case.
“This group was ostracized, hated, discriminated against,” Fortunato said. “These civil rights and civil liberties cases depend on the courage of individual people or groups of people like the gay community at the time.”
Billy Mencer Ackerly’s mother, among other mothers, were in a car that read ‘I’m proud to say my child is gay’ during the first parade.
They took the case to federal court and won, paving the way for not just one parade, but five decades of love, acceptance and visibility.
“This movement is based on love,” said Rodney Davis, the current president of Rhode Island Pride. “I want people to come and experience themselves. Their whole selves, who they are.”
This year, organizers are honoring those who came before as well as the tens of thousands of people who show up every year to continue to carry the torch.
“Our theme for this year is ‘We are the people,’ because without everyone America isn’t America,” Davis said.
NBC 10 asked Davis what he hopes to see in the future.
“I want to get to a point where we don’t have to fight to exist,” Davis said. “It’s gotten better, but it’s not there yet.”
Since 1976, Mencer Ackerly has attended Rhode Island’s Pride celebration nearly every year. This coming weekend, he’s once again looking forward to participating.
“When I’m in the parade, I will also be thinking of all those ’76ers that have passed away over the years and about their bravery and their courage,” Mencer Ackerly said. “And I just believe they’ll be clapping up in heaven and celebrating for all of us.”
This year’s PrideFest kicks off Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. at District Park in Providence.
(WJAR) — Tucked away in the woods of Exeter, a small museum is preserving stories that long predate Rhode Island’s founding, and even the arrival of European settlers in New England.
The Tomaquag Museum is Rhode Island’s only Indigenous-led museum and one of the oldest tribal museums in the United States.
For more than six decades, it has worked to preserve and share the history, culture and resilience of Native peoples across Southern New England.
A historic image from the Tomaquag Museum. (Tomaquag Museum)
“Tomaquag Museum is very unique in that it was founded by women,” said Executive Director Loren Spears.
The museum traces its roots back to 1958, when anthropologist Eva Butler and Narragansett Wampanoag elder Princess Red Wing set out to preserve Indigenous history through an Indigenous lens.
The collection originally began in Tomaquag Valley in Hopkinton, which inspired the museum’s name.
A member of the Narragansett Native American Tribe, Spears said the museum’s mission is to ensure Native voices remain part of the historical narrative.
A painting at the Tomaquag Museum that depicts a harsh scene. (WJAR)
“There is no U.S. history without First Peoples’ history,” she said.
The Narragansett Tribe, based primarily in Charlestown, has a history in the region stretching back more than 30,000 years.
Before English colonization, the Narragansetts were among the most influential Indigenous nations in Southern New England.
A display on historic documents at the Tomaquag Museum. (WJAR)
“We’ve had this interrelationship and this history the whole time and have contributed to the creation and formation of this nation in different kinds of ways,” Spears said.
Today, the museum houses thousands of cultural belongings and hundreds of thousands of archival materials documenting Indigenous communities throughout the region.
Among the artifacts on display is an American flag that flew in Afghanistan in honor of the Narragansett Tribe.
“People are often like, ‘Why is there a flag here?’” Spears said. “It’s here because this exact flag flew in Afghanistan in honor of the Narragansett Tribe.”
A U.S. dollar bill signed by Lynn Malerba, the first female chief of the Mohegan Tribe in modern times and the 45th Treasurer of the United States. (WJAR)
The museum also showcases a U.S. dollar bill signed by Lynn Malerba, the first female chief of the Mohegan Tribe in modern times and the 45th Treasurer of the United States.
“You can’t get any more American than a dollar bill,” Spears said. “To be able to see that an Indigenous woman is the one that signed that as the treasurer, we think is pretty remarkable.”
Visitors can explore the museum’s exhibit, “Revolution to Reclamation: Freedom Through Indigenous Sovereignty,” which includes hands-on activities designed for families and children.
Guests can create corn husk dolls, play traditional games, and learn about Native cultures through interactive displays.
Tomaquag Museum Executive Director Loren Spears and NBC 10’s Abbey Buttacavoli at the museum. (WJAR)
In 2016, the museum received the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries.
The museum is also preparing for a major new chapter. Within the next few years, Tomaquag plans to relocate to a new facility on the campus of the University of Rhode Island, with hopes of breaking ground by the end of 2026.
“There’s an importance to having Indigenous voice in the room and being part of the story,” Spears said.
Ethan McDermott, 22, was arrested shortly after midnight Friday as a “result of an investigation into a motor vehicle crash on Route 146,” the Rhode Island State Police said in a media release.
McDermott was also charged with reckless driving and other offenses against public safety and refusal to submit to a chemical test, according to the release.
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