Rhode Island Politics
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%…
In an October 11 (Saturday, ahem) ProJo article by Katherine Gregg, … the treasurer’s office acknowledged that the state’s pension fund has lost 25 percent of its value since the beginning of the year, dropping from $8.4 billion to $6.3 billion. LTE writer George Lavoie points out, however, that Katherine Gregg used the wrong benchmark…
….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…
It’s time to admit that the RI GOP’s brand is not only useless, it’s poison. The one state-level victory (knocking out Montalbano) came from an Independent, and the two towns of which which I’m aware that moved in the right direction (Tiverton and East Providence) have non-partisan elections. Consequently, the Republican Party must be deliberate…
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Montalbano lost, but that was about the only good news for the state GOP this year. Aside from Montalbano’s loss, Rhode Island voters yesterday did little to change the dominance of the Democrats in the legislature. Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed, and others appeared to survive aggressive challenges despite…
You’re lovable AR gang is also part of WPRO AM 630’s live team coverage. We’re manning their blog and Andrew and Justin will be reporting from the party HQs. I’ll be at home in my pajamas. Check it out!
URI economics professor Leonard Lardaro can’t believe the inaction in the statehouse: To my utter amazement, in spite of all these economic difficulties and the lessons to be learned from our past mistakes, our leaders apparently have yet to see any need to meet or do anything to deal with this crisis. I have even…
Rather than to the Consumer Price Index, shouldn’t raises for members of the General Assembly in some way be tied to job performance? My own thought would be a factor which combines the growth in jobs in the state with the increase in the median salary in the state. What other factors should be considered?…
A concerned citizen of Rhode Island sends along this brief video history of the Democrats’ success in our state.