Rhode Island Politics
No, the headline isn’t a mistake, the Democrats really did close their primaries, as did the Republicans and every other state party. A “closed” primary means that to vote in a primary with a particular party, you must be a member of that party. You cannot be an unaffiliated voter and vote in a primary.…
Moderate Party founder Ken Block has been circulating an interesting letter: I have been waiting for someone to call out Bob Walsh on his comments in the September, 22, 2011 Providence Journal article “Business Coalition Backs R.I. Pension Reform.” Since no one else has yet taken Mr. Walsh to task, I will now do so.…
On Thursday morning, a member of the Board of Governors for Higher Education, Attorney Eva Mancuso, appeared on WPRO’s John Depetro Show to explain why the BOG was considering extending in-state college tuition to illegal alien students. Unfortunately, her answers fell short in a couple of key areas. Asked by her host why the BOG…
I’ve been formulating some thoughts about a question that’s been lingering around the aggregate Dan Gordon controversy: How could this happen? I still intend to put an answer down in writing — although my focus has understandably been on answering the same question with respect to paying my bills. In the meantime, Monique has offered…
Newsflash, Lincoln Chafee is not liked by Rhode Islanders! Ok, maybe that’s not too surprising, but in a recent GoLocalProv.com poll, Lincoln Chafee has an unfavorable rating of 47%. Well, he could like at the bright side in that he only received votes from 36.1% of the voters and now 45% give him a “favorable”…
It looks like the next domino is falling for Rep. Dan Gordon (R, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Little Compton): Military service records for a Rhode Island lawmaker who has said he sustained combat injuries in the 1991 Gulf War do not list a Purple Heart award or any Middle East deployments. State Rep. Daniel Gordon’s Marine Corps…
Mangeek’s comment to my post about the very Rhode Island background of the prospective head of hte 195 commission is just too appropriate not to reproduce for additional commentary: “when Kane’s father was a principal of a Providence elementary school” I had the pleasure of attending that school during Principal Kane’s tenure. He was an…
It’s difficult to read the Providence Journal’s profile of Colin Kane — whom Governor Chafee has appointed to head the powerful commission addressing the land freed up by the I-Way project — without feeling that strong sense that there are two Rhode Islands: His family’s relationship with the Chafees goes back to 1976, when Kane’s…
Given the popular impression of the AARP, I’d wager that this activity would strike most people as a bit like AAA advocating against a fuel allowance for state workers: The hand-wringing over Rhode Island’s pension crisis has the state chapter of the AARP so worried it has taken out a half-page newspaper ad and booked…
Under Patrick’s post, Max Diesel asks Does anyone know how much this clown’s pension was bumped with and without the disability after coming back as chief? The answer is that, in Rhode Island, a regular pension is taxable. A disability pension is not taxable. And this continues for the life of the retiree. But why…