Rhode Island Politics
The ProJo reports that Warwick State Rep. Peter Ginaitt is upset about cost overruns on the Point Street overpass project. Ginaitt said he was troubled by a Dec. 4 article in The Providence Journal reporting that the overpass project’s cost has grown more than 75 percent and that it is more than two years late.…
Only in Rhode Island, right? That the incoming Secretary of State, Ralph Mollis–you know, the general officer who is responsible for running clean elections–and one of his flunkies have been fined for violating campaign laws is quite an accomplishment, even in the RI political theater in which caricature has become reality. The Ethics Commission yesterday…
Hm. I thought the RI State government was losing money this year. According to this ProJo piece, I’m left to conclude that the General Assembly believes in deficit spending (H/T Dan Yorke for reminding me!) : At a time when financial constraints have forced other arms of state government to talk about widespread layoffs, the…
Jim Baron writes: …when I heard there was a [MoveOn.org] meeting scheduled at a home in Barrington last week, I thought I would sit in and see what it was all about. The meeting, replicated in living rooms all over the country on the same night — the national MoveOn organization claims 7,000 people at…
John J. Miller provides a very early take on the 2008 Senate Races in today’s National Review Online. Here’s what he says about Rhode Island…“Bring back Linc!” It’s a slogan that precisely nobody is chanting, though someone is sure to suggest that senator Lincoln Chafee, allegedly a Republican, try to rebound from his defeat last…
I post to defend the honor of Rhode Island chapter of the National Education Association’s Executive Director Robert Walsh. This is the headline of his op-ed that appeared in Sunday’s Projo…Robert A. Walsh Jr.: Straight-party option serves R.I.Yet beneath the headline, the op-ed makes no claim of the sort…Second, [Edward Achorn] implied that public-employee unions…
I remember during the recent RI Senate race that Senator-elect Whitehouse made much of Healthcare, and, in particular, the “broken” Medicare Part “D” program (prescription drugs). In fact, it was number one on his Health Care reform To-Do list. While he was holding “the hands of seniors who are desperately afraid that they’ll wake up…
And since the title of the previous post is based on a quote from legendary hotel magnate Leona Helmsley…We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes,… it should be noted that State Represenatative Bruce Long (R-Jamestown/Middletown) appears to believe that he has also left the ranks of the little people. According to a…
An unbylined story in today’s Projo, working off of a report issued by the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office, fills in some details about how the Rhode Island legislature regularly conducts the people’s business in a less-than-transparent manner…On his way out the door, Secretary of State Matthew Brown has given state lawmakers a D…
Edward Achorn backs up what many have already concluded: the Democrat margins of victory were attributable to straight-party (mostly Harrah’s “inspired”) voters: On Nov. 7, the straight-party system worked its wonders for Rhode Island Democrats. Some 61,357 voters cast a straight-party ballot for the Democrats — a whopping increase of more than 23,000, or about…