Providence, Rhode Island – Common Cause Rhode Island is mourning the loss of Alan Hassenfeld. In the 1990s, Hassenfeld was chair of the RIght NOW! Coalition, with a former executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island serving as vice chair. The coalition led efforts to lengthen terms for statewide officers, reform the General Assembly, strengthen ethics and campaign finance laws, and create a new system for judicial selection following the credit union crisis and other scandals.
“I had not met him before he agreed to chair the RIght Now! Coalition, but I was amazed by his courage as a business leader who had recently become the president of Hasbro,” said Phil West, former executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “Despite being new to his role at Hasbro, he embraced the need for a public role that he knew would be controversial – fixing Rhode Island’s culture of corruption.”
Hassenfeld supported Common Cause Rhode Island’s work for decades. His support included efforts in 2004 to put separation of powers into the state constitution and in 2016 to restore jurisdiction of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission over members of the General Assembly. In 2005, he received recognition as a John Gardner Fellow from Common Cause Rhode Island.
“Alan believed deeply in the importance of good government in Rhode Island,” said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “While his work at Hasbro brought joy to people all over the world, we will remember him as someone who worked to bring much-needed light to Rhode Island government, a cause that continues today.”
