Rhode Island Politics

Invitees to Gov-Elect Chafee’s Budget Summit

By Monique Chartier | December 15, 2010 |

List courtesy WPRI’s Ted Nesi. The summit takes place this Friday at RI College; Nesi provides schedule and format details here. John Simmons, Executive Director, Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council Robert Flanders Jr., Chairman of the Board of Regents Ray M. Di Pasquale, Commissioner of Higher Education Elizabeth Roberts, Lieutenant Governor (tentative) Anne Nolan, President…

Doreen Debuts as Representative Costa

By Justin Katz | December 9, 2010 |

Fresh from orientation at the General Assembly, State Representative Doreen Costa (R, Exeter, North Kingstown) told the crowd of about 100 people attending last night’s RI Tea Party Strategy meeting about her day: Of particular note, Costa mentioned that the equipment is in place and almost final to post the results of every vote of…

Keep an Eye on This, Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | December 7, 2010 |

I’ve argued again and again, to anybody who would listen, that bond issues on Rhode Island’s ballots are part of a scam whereby the local government spends the money that we’ve allocated to it on non-essentials and then promotes that which it has left undone as evidence of the dire need for more revenue. Anybody…

An Indication of the View from the Top

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2010 |

Anybody who wonders what lesson the General Assembly’s Democrats took from the last election need only read this: “In our effort to achieve savings, we have worked diligently to manage the legislative department within the enacted budget levels without seriously impacting day-to-day operations,” wrote [House Speaker Gordon] Fox in a cover letter that also spelled…

Questions about the EDC’s Loan to Trainor

By Marc Comtois | December 3, 2010 |

I note a couple things from the ProJo story about Chafee spokesman Michael Trainor’s defaulted loan from the RI EDC. 1) Trainor and his partners approached the RHODE ISLAND EDC for a loan for a business based in CONNECTICUT. 2) The business plan centered on the purchase of three companies in the south that would…

NEA RI Official Busted for Campaign Dirty Tricks

By Monique Chartier | November 30, 2010 |

NEA RI Assistant Executive Director John Leidecker was arrested this morning by Bristol and RI State Police accused of the online impersonation of Bristol State Representative Doug Gablinske. Mr. Leidecker, who holds a law degree from Roger Williams University School of Law [edit] and is a practicing attorney, allegedly sent phony e-mails to constituents using…

Getting to Budget Cuts

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2010 |

I’m not sure how else executives could pursue budget cuts than asking the folks beneath them to provide suggestions, but it’s eminently predictable that they would respond to requests for budgets that show significantly lower spending in such a way as to make the cuts seem impossible. So, the Department of Public Safety insists that…

Can the Opposition Machine Work?

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2010 |

Bill Felkner, of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, which today announced Mike Stenhouse as its new Executive Director, recently offered a review of where the RI center-right stands as a coalition: And while [Lincoln Chafee was running left and wooing the unions], the center-right was splintering to ineffectuality. Ken Block, the Moderate candidate, thought…

Chafee’s Aimin’ to Give It

By Justin Katz | November 29, 2010 |

What’s the famous H.L. Menken quotation? “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” I suspect that’s going to be the unofficial slogan of the Linc Chafee years in Rhode Island. It came to mind when the Department of Revenue found that Chafee’s…

East Providence as Emblem of Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | November 26, 2010 |

Ed Achorn laments the political reality of East Providence. Noting that voters supported a local tax cap, he points out that they removed from office the very people who would strive to meet it. The unions, in short, outhustled, outspent, out-deceived and out-organized the public-spirited incumbents in East Providence, making sure that they won’t be…