{"id":2283,"date":"2024-07-06T19:05:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T23:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/?p=2283"},"modified":"2024-07-07T01:23:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T05:23:59","slug":"state-representative-merlin-urges-patience-from-the-public-in-new-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/state-representative-merlin-urges-patience-from-the-public-in-new-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"State Representative Merlin urges patience from the public in new press release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The tenth Congress continues to be a turbulent one. This morning, Chief of Staff Jade Storm resigned from her position, following the high profile resignations of State Representatives Astra and Emilie Lillegard-Marino<\/a> and the arrest of Governor Ella Bright-Starr on felony charges<\/a>. With the government in turmoil, freshman Tommy Merlin has attempted to provide some clarity to the public with a press release issued to Shout News and Weazel News. Merlin\u2019s missive is clearly well-intentioned and gives us clarity — but also highlights a few more problems with the tenth Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin\u2019s press release reads as follows, and is shared in its entirety with no edits or abbreviations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the wake of recent events I feel it needed to comment publicly on the state of our government. While I am saddened by the news of recent resignations, I want to wish those stepping down nothing but the best in all they do moving forward. That being said I want to reassure the public that I have no plans of stepping down and I am in this until my term ends or you the voting public vote me out of office. I do want to stress patience with the legislation while we wait for the vacant seats to be filled. This does not mean I will stop working on what I have in the pipeline which are in the very early stages of feasibility checks. However no votes will be held until we have a full legislative body so that the people can have their voices heard.

Now to address the recent news regarding what’s going on within the executive. While I have not spoken with Governor Bright-starr or any members of the executive branch regarding this issue. My comment is that the legislative branch will take no action during the trial and I will block any attempt from the legislation to interfere in the legal proceedings. Once the trial is over the legislation will make a decision based on the ruling. I was not there on the day of the incident and it would be a disservice to the public to comment in that regard. What I will say is there are three sides to every story. Her\u2019s, theirs and the truth and that all persons are innocent until proven guilty. I believe that the truth will come out and justice will prevail.

As stated before I have no intentions of resigning. With the resignation of Representative Emilie Lilligard-Merino and barring no objections from Representative Burton I will take up the role of Acting Speaker of the Legislation as the role of Speaker is far too important to leave vacant until the vacant seats can be filled by the special election. However once the seats are filled we will hold a new vote for the speakership. This is not a decision I take lightly but after careful consideration is action I feel needs to be taken. I feel the people need to see that in spite of recent events your government is still strong and here to fight for them. I again ask for patience during this time as there are a lot of things that need to be done and I want to make sure things are handled correctly, within the law and the Constitution of the State of San Andreas.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In conversation with Shout News, Merlin stressed that this statement was \u201c100% just me,\u201d and drafted with the intention of having his thoughts out to the public for some clarity in such a chaotic time. He acknowledges that \u201cI have spoken with Representative Burton and the Secretary of State, and they both expressed concerns. They felt it was premature to announce I\u2019d be stepping in as Acting Speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Merlin \u201cacknowledges their points,\u201d he states: \u201cI feel as though the position of Speaker is too important to be left vacant.In the absence of action, I’ve made the decision to fill the seat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shout News reached out to Representative Burton, who stated that he did object. \u201cI understand that this is a unique situation, and we\u2019ve re-iterated this to Merlin. We appreciate what Rep. Merlin is doing. The initiative is good, and I like it, but it\u2019s very premature. He\u2019s an inexperienced Representative, as am I.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am steadfast that I do not agree with this, I do not think it is the right course of action. There are two of us.\u201d Burton notes that there is no Secretary, nor enough Representatives to even pass a vote or appoint an official. \u201cThis is a solid no from me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin wanted to emphasise that this is not a power grab, or an attempt to permanently take the position. “I don’t want to be Speaker,\u201d he told Shout News. \u201cI really don’t. I’m a freshman representative who’s new to politics as a whole. I’m more than happy filling in the role as someone trying to do the job to the best of their abilities and writing legislation that’s going to benefit the people of Los Santos. Right now, like I said, it is important that the position be filled.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not long before Congress is filled; candidates can begin to campaign shortly. Shout News will be covering the Special Election; voting begins in just a few days. As soon as the Special Election is concluded, Merlin says “I hope they’d be willing to sit down and have an urgent meeting to have a vote to pick a Speaker. And if they feel I can do the job, sure, I’ll give it a try. But realistically, it doesn’t have to be me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJack and I agree that we\u2019re not going to try to push legislation through with two people,\u201d says Merlin. \u201cBut something important I think we can<\/em> do is fill this position. And if after this article, members of the public wish that I not take this position? I\u2019ll step aside until the election. If that\u2019s the will of the people, I\u2019ll respect the will of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tenth Congress continues to be a turbulent one. This morning, Chief of Staff Jade Storm resigned from her position, following the high profile resignations of State Representatives Astra and Emilie Lillegard-Marino and the arrest of Governor Ella Bright-Starr on felony charges. With the government in turmoil, freshman Tommy Merlin has attempted to provide some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[30],"class_list":["post-2283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Becks Lawson","author_link":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/author\/beckslawson\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/218_20240608102426_1-300x268.jpg","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/218_20240608102426_1.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/author\/beckslawson\/","display_name":"Becks Lawson"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>","Politics<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>","Politics<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 6 July 2024","modified":"Updated on 7 July 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 6 July 2024 7:05 PM","modified":"Updated on 7 July 2024 1:23 AM"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":30,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"beckslawson","display_name":"Becks Lawson","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Untitled-design-2024-02-05T222616.315.png","url2x":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Untitled-design-2024-02-05T222616.315.png"},"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shout.newdayrp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}