Marc Comtois

Chafee Talks Future: His and Avedesian’s

By Marc Comtois | March 5, 2007 |

File under “Moderates on the March”: Providence Phoenix editor Ian Donnis spoke to Lincoln Chafee and got a couple interesting tidbits out of him: During one of Lincoln Chafee’s last news conferences as a US senator, he faced the inevitable questions about his political future. Noting how he had bought a home near Brown University,…

Cote Withdraws, Supports Cicione

By Marc Comtois | March 5, 2007 |

According to frequent AR commenter Scott Bill Hirst, Dave Cote has withdrawn his candidacy for State GOP Chair and asked fellow Republicans to support Gio Cicione. Awaiting additional confirmation. UPDATE: Off the top of his broadcast, WPROs Dan Yorke mentioned that Cote pulled out around noon today.

Imagine if the CVS CEO Served in the Legislature…

By Marc Comtois | March 5, 2007 |

Douglas Gablinske, a Bristol Democrat, wrote a spot-on piece this weekend: As a private person, Rhode Island resident, taxpayer and small-business owner, I have wondered about something for years: How can state legislators who are full-time business agents of unions write, promote, and move legislation through the General Assembly, yet not be in violation of…

RI GOP Nominating Committee Endorses Cicione to be Chair

By Marc Comtois | March 4, 2007 |

Following the Governor’s lead, the RI GOPs nominating committee has also endorsed Giovanni Cicione for GOP Chairman. More: Cicione has been active in statewide Republican politics for more than a decade, first in city and town GOP committees in Providence, Cranston and Barrington, and in 2002 as a candidate for Congress from Rhode Island’s First…

RI GOP Leadership Race: Governor Carcieri Publicly Endorses Gio Cicione

By Marc Comtois | March 2, 2007 |

Via N4N comes news that Govenor Carcieri has issued a press release endorsing Gio Cicione as RI GOP Chair: “Giovanni Cicione has played an active role in the Rhode Island Republican Party, and I am confident that he has the experience and the energy to continue building the party in the state,” Governor Carcieri said.…

Cut Fees, Save Money

By Marc Comtois | March 2, 2007 |

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian has made the seemingly counter-intuitive proposal of cutting beach fees to increase city revenue. To be more succinct, the proposal is meant to save about $12,000. Now, why would cutting fees save money? The mayor said he recommended the action after department directors reviewed ways to cut expenditures and it was…

OPEN FORUM: RI GOP Leadership Races

By Marc Comtois | March 2, 2007 |

OK, here you go. I know that the conversation has started around here already, so this Forum is an attempt to centralize the discussion about the upcoming RI GOP leadership races. State your case, keep it clean and try to stay away from innuendo. Have at it.

At CPAC, Focus Shifts to Congress

By Marc Comtois | March 2, 2007 |

This week is the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. (Andrew went last year). It appears that these active conservatives, disgruntled with the current crop of Presidential candidates, are turning their eyes towards Congress: Conservative leaders, who are gathering in Washington today for the first Conservative Political Action Conference…

Union Intimidation Tactics: An Extreme Example

By Marc Comtois | March 1, 2007 |

So far, I’ve posted on how the Democrats in the House have attempted to remove the ability of workers to vote via a secret ballot if they want to unionize and how most workers dislike union card checks, which is the “approved alternative” of the House Democrats and their Labor Boss buddies. One area of…

Workers Don’t Like Card Checks

By Marc Comtois | March 1, 2007 |

In the comments section of my recent post on the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act”, MRH contends: This isn’t as black and white an issue as you’re making it seem. I’m sympathetic to the argument that, in general, secret ballots are a good thing. However, in practice the kind of secret balloting used to certify…