Senator Harold Metts on Master Lever

Two things struck me today about the master lever bill and Senator Harold Metts’ words and actions. I wish I had an exact transcript but he made two comments about it that I will do my best to paraphrase and others are more than welcome to correct me if they have the exact words. He said that many people in his district work part time jobs and don’t have a lot of time to go vote, so they vote as quickly as they can and then go back to their jobs. The master lever option works for them because they can run in, connect a line and get back to work. I guess I wonder how much extra time would it really take for them to connect all the lines for the members of the party of their choice. Maybe an extra 10 seconds? 20 seconds? About the amount of time they might spend if they catch a red light instead of a green on their way back to work?

Sen. Metts also talked about how the people in his district like the master lever option because they believe the Democrat party is best for them and is better aligned with poor people. Ok, that’s fine if you think one party and 100% of its candidates are better than the other party, or non-party, but is it really that much of a burden to connect a few more lines? And what of the non-partisan races? And what of the spending questions? Or other referenda? A single line doesn’t do anything about those.

Lastly, the bill was “Held for Further Study” in the Senate committee today. That part was not unexpected. The part that seems strange is that Sen. Metts appears very much in favor of keeping the master lever option, yet he was the one who made the motion to hold the bill. I would think that if the Senator is opposed to eliminating the master lever, as the passage of the bill would do, he would be in favor of bringing it to a vote and then vote against it. Kill it completely. Why is he the one making the motion to let it linger? And in his comments, he sure sounded like a Senator whose mind is made up about the bill. So why hold it for more study? If your mind is made up, then make the motion to vote on the bill and vote against it.

This is our Rhode Island government.

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