Projo Politics Blog

The citizens-advocacy group Operation Clean Government has a new best friend.

Who? The state Republican Party, which issued an e-mail under its own e-Pluribus banner last week reminding one and all of OCG’s “Second Annual Forum.”

And why would the state’s hugely outnumbered Republicans give the organization’s May 10 breakfast at the University of Rhode Island a free election-year plug? Perhaps it’s the theme.

“The General Assembly: Private Deal$ and Public Corruption.”

According to the statement, “the lively discussion will include: a review of legislative corruption and high profile violators; is our legislature worse than those in other states; how corruption affects you; causes of corruption at the legislature; how effective are the existing tools to battle legislative corruption; what else needs to be done to reduce legislative corruption.”

The scheduled panelists include former Republican Attorney General Arlene Violet; WPRO talk show host John DiPietro; Channel 10 political reporter Bill Rappleye, former Senate policy adviser Kenneth Payne; Ross Cheit, a Brown University political science professor and member of the state Ethics Commission; and Edward Achorn, deputy editorial page editor for The Providence Journal. Onetime Channel 6 anchor Dave Layman will moderate. Further information on the cost and location is available at www.ocgri.org

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