Rhode Island’s Future - Speaker Murphy to step down next week

Thursday September 2, 2010

Speaker Murphy to step down next week

Posted by: Brian Hull in State House on February 07, 2010

Word on the street is that William Murphy will be relinquishing his post as Speaker of the House sometime next week, before the General Assembly goes on break. This would be a fulfillment of his self-imposed 8-year term limit as Speaker.

Current Majority Leader Gordon Fox will be nominated to take Murphy's place as Speaker. An informal whip count shows that Fox will have the votes necessary to rise to Speaker, despite opposition from Greg Schadone, Stephen Ucci, and the "dissident bloc."

The rumors about Nick Mattiello replacing Fox as Majority Leader appear to be true as well. This may create some pushback from the anti-leadership folk, since there was some speculation that there would be a Fox/Ucci - Speaker/Majority Leader - ticket to dull the edge of the dissidents. Mattiello has been a consistent vote for Murphy (a major reason why Murphy was pushing for Mattiello to be Majority Leader). My understanding was that Mattiello being Majority Leader was a Murphy requirement.

The important follow up question now is, does Murphy even finish out his term, or does he retire from the General Assembly after the budget? It's already been reported that Murphy will not be seeking reelection in November, and since he has lined up a nice national lobbying position, why should he stay?

Tagged in: William Murphy , Stephen Ucci , Nick Mattiello , Greg Schadone , Gordon Fox

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How about Fox?
written by right_of_center, February 07, 2010

Has Fox said if he'll also institute the self-imposed term limit on his Speaker position, or does it want it "for as long as they'll have me"?

Mattiello is drastically UNDER qualified.
written by Jared Paul, February 07, 2010

I've heard from multiple sources that Murphy stepping down early was provisional. That he brokered a deal with Fox to leave ahead of schedule if Fox would commit to supporting Mattiello for Speaker. IT'S AN ABSURD ARRANGEMENT. Mattiello is drastically under qualified and inexperienced and has in no way earned the right to be Speaker of the RI House.

Speaker is such a powerful position; it's an elected post not an appointment.

There are so many people better qualified to become Speaker. How bout Patrick O'Neill of Pawtucket for instance?

Gordon Fox
written by grumpy old man, February 07, 2010

Replacing one ethically challenged speaker with another. Life goes on in the corrupt General Assembly.

...
written by Jared Paul, February 07, 2010

The thing is I like Gordon Fox. I think he has the potential to be a great Speaker. But this is exactly the type of back room dealing that scares progressive working class people out the Democratic Party. I mean really, it's only 10 months till Murphy would have to step down anyway. It makes no sense.

What's really scary
written by Steve A., February 08, 2010

Is that for every backroom deal that comes to light, imagine how many there are that don't become common knowledge. the one way to eliminate that is to get rid of the ones pulling all the strings and starting over. It couldn't possibly get worse if we did.