One can infer that a politician is on the ropes when he insists that his constituents look to the future rather than the job that he held until six months ago (and for which he can credit his subsequent political advancement):

“This poll reflects some disagreement about some of the decisions I made in Providence, rather than my work as a new member of Congress for the past five months,” [David Cicilline (D, RI)] said in a telephone interview. “I intend to continue to work hard every single day to earn the support and trust of the people in my district by doing everything I can to get people back to work and rebuilding our state’s economy.”

The problem is that, while Cicilline may be able to escape to Washington, the people of Providence and Rhode Island cannot. Election to higher office is not a born-again baptism:

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has said the city faces a $180-million structural deficit for the current fiscal year and next. An independent auditing firm concluded the Cicilline administration overspent its budget and nearly depleted the city’s rainy day account in its final budget year. And a City Council report asserted that the former mayor violated the city’s Home Rule Charter, inflated revenue estimates and ignored budget procedures.

So here’s the lingering question: Where was the city and state’s newspaper of record back when Cicilline was still in the state and in the office? Where was the paper, that is, other than attacking his opponent with bleedingly obvious bias through its PolitiFarce mechanism?