FairVote Rhode Island gets new director


By Steve Peoples
Published September 2nd 2008 in Projo.com

PROVIDENCE -- A familiar face in State House hallways is leaving town.

Ari Savitzky, the young director of the advocacy organization FairVote RI, is going to law school. The 24-year-old had been on the job for a year.

New FairVote director Matt Sledge, who could be seen at Savitzky's side during the final days of the recent legislative session, announced the job change late this afternoon.

"When you walk into the State House with Ari, everybody knows his name, and for good reason. He's smart, he's politically savvy, and above all he's passionately dedicated to electoral reform," Sledge said in a statement. "Ari deserves a lot of credit for the impressive work he did, along with the other members of our coalitions, on both the national popular vote and youth voter pre-registration bills."

Savitsky will attend New York University School of Law.

Sledge, 22, a recent graduate of Brown University, had been training to take over the director's job since April.

"We have big plans for FairVote Rhode Island this year -- including a dramatic expansion of our youth education program, and key organizational development steps," Sledge said.

IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

Links