Marc Comtois
According to this report, Rhode Island is making headway in the “new economy.” As reported by the PBN: Rhode Island moved up to 11th place in the 2008 State New Economy Index released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)….This year’s report cited the state’s R&D tax…
Brendan Miniter of the WSJ: Several years ago Christie Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and EPA administrator, wrote a book called “It’s My Party Too.” She used that treatise to argue for the party to abandon its conservative roots. Even after two serious GOP drubbings at the polls, she has found no takers.…
Dan Barbarisi: All over New England yesterday, the little guy pumped his fist in victory. The kid who was too small to make the team, the one who was told he didn’t have the arm, or was too slow, now has a reason to go into the backyard and take some more groundballs. Yesterday, Dustin…
Joseph Henchman of The Tax Foundation “combine[d] state sales tax rates with the weighted average of local sales taxes” to produce the below map (h/t): As Henchman notes, “Being purple surrounded by brown and white is probably good for your state; being brown surrounded by purple and white not so much.” Rhode Island, the “not…
The ProJo’s Ed Achorn used some of my data in his latest column in which he explains why the straight-party vote option in the Rhode Island is a stumbling block towards a two-party state. This scheme…gets pernicious…farther down the ballot, in legislative races with lesser-known candidates. Minus the straight-ticket option, many voters who are ignorant…
It took historians a full term of George W. Bush’s presidency before they declared he was “the worst president ever.” Now, only days after the election, at least one prominent historian is declaring that the presidency of Barack Obama will be “unforgettable” (h/t). Like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D.Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F.Kennedy, and…
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been looking at the election returns* with a specific interest in straight-party ticket voting. What follows is an analysis of how straight-party voting may have affected a few down-ticket contests. The most extreme example I can offer is the race for 4th District Senator (North Providence, Providence) between incumbent Dominick Ruggerio…
I’ve begun looking at the statewide election result metrics (found at the RI BoE). The first thing I’ve focused on is the straight party ticket vote, and what I’ve learned is no surprise. Statewide, nearly 27% of all votes for Barack Obama came via the straight party ticket vote. That percentage was just above 14%…
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
….Well, a few words, actually. Justin is correct and, save taking the “Dan Yorke Nuclear Option“, the state GOP better start navel-gazing ASAP. Much of what follows I wrote about four years ago and it still seems to apply. Rhode Islanders seem to recognize that something is wrong with their state government, but they continue…