Though Moderate Party founder and candidate for governor Ken Block finished fourth at the polls last Tuesday, he gained enough votes to keep his party on the ballot and may soon find himself in a position of influence on one of his favorite issues — the efficiency of state government.
Block netted 6.5 percent of the votes last Tuesday on Election Day, more than the 5 percent needed to secure his party's place on future ballots.
Polls conducted prior to the election predicted Block would receive just 2 percent of the vote. One of these was an NBC 10-Quest Research poll conducted in late October with Rhode Island College, local news affiliate WJAR and the American Democracy Project.
The discrepancy between the poll results and election returns was probably due to sample size rather than a late surge in support, said Victor Profughi, professor emeritus of political science at Rhode Island College, who conducted the poll.
"It's almost impossible to be right on target with that," Profughi said.
Block said he felt confident throughout the campaign that he would get the necessary 5 percent and "knew intuitively" that the polls did not reflect the full extent of his support.
This year's gubernatorial race proved especially difficult for the introduction of a new party, Block said. During the last month of the race, several Rhode Islanders approached Block and told him they would vote for him if the race between the leading candidates were not so tight, he said. But voters expressed concern that rather than helping Block, the primary effect of voting for him would be to harm a more viable candidate — whether it was Democrat Frank Caprio, independent Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 or Republican John Robitaille.
"There was a very large number of people playing that game," Block said.
Block was not the only candidate the Moderate Party fielded this year.
It ran one other candidate for statewide office, Christopher Little, who garnered 14.4 percent of the vote in the attorney general's race.
Block said the next plan on his party's agenda is to field candidates for the General Assembly in 2012. He has already heard from potential candidates who have expressed interest in running for the Moderate Party in that cycle, he said.
Block has not decided if he will run in any future elections, he said.
Since the election, a representative in the state legislature has called on Governor-elect Chafee to exploit Block's expertise in his administration. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, D-Woonsocket, submitted a recommendation to Chafee that he work with Block on saving the state money, according to a General Assembly press release.
Baldelli-Hunt said in the release that Block might be able to help Rhode Island the same way he helped the state of Texas, which uses a software system Block helped develop to track welfare and food stamp transactions. Texas saved about $1.2 billion annually for four years in the '90s by cutting down on fraud and wasteful spending using the software, according to the release.
Block's expertise could help Rhode Island's Department of Human Services and other departments save money if the current systems could be upgraded, Baldelli-Hunt told The Herald. State employees "deserve the technology" that would allow them to work more efficiently and eliminate the backlog of tasks they must execute, she said.
The idea occurred to her as she listened to the gubernatorial debates and heard Block reference his attempts to curb wasteful spending, she said.
Block said he would be "more than willing" to work with the Chafee administration in such a capacity. But, he said, it would require a series of initiatives and a team of "hyper-specialists" to implement, he said.
Mike Trainor, Chafee's campaign manager, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that Chafee was considering many options in closing the deficit and would consider any advice Block might propose to him.
