Providence, Rhode Island – Common Cause Rhode Island mourns the recent loss of Alan Hassenfeld. In the 1990’s, Hassenfeld served as chair of the RIght NOW! Coalition, with the former Common Cause Rhode Island executive director serving as vice chair. That coalition led successful efforts to lengthen the terms of statewide officers, reform the General Assembly, strengthen ethics and campaign finance laws, and create a new system for judicial selection in the wake of 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 the work of Common Cause Rhode Island for decades, most recently the successful efforts to put separation of powers into the state constitution in 2004 and to restore the jurisdiction of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission over members of the General Assembly in 2016. In 2005, he was made a John Gardner Fellow, the highest honor bestowed by 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.” 

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