Rhode Island Politics
Perhaps the most helpful aspect of the Providence Journal’s PolitiFact feature is the significant degree to which it illustrates how even basic discussions of facts become deeply muddled in subjective context. As I’ve previously pointed out, when Democrat David Cicilline makes a statement about Republican John Loughlin’s position on Social Security that is substantively a…
The central topic of Ed Fitzpatrick’s Sunday column is the perceived potential snub of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio by President Obama. As I said on WRNI’s Political Roundtable, to the extent that Obama is seen as favoring Lincoln Chafee, he may help Republican John Robitaille by highlighting Linc’s liberalism, and if Obama endorses Caprio,…
I must need a civics refresher, because I’ve always thought that the attorney general was the top law-enforcement officer in the state — a job which sounds like it ought to keep a fella (or gal) plenty busy. But according to the Moderate Party candidate for the office, Christopher Little, the AG is another executive-branch…
Here’s the audio from this morning’s WRNI Political Roundtable. I have to say that I do regret one phrasing. In stating that conservative reformers should take advantage of the lieutenant governor’s office to undertake some of the lacking tasks that we working people have difficulty funding (cataloging harmful regulations and mandates, for example), I called…
The mayor of Providence has once again been busted for a quizzical expenditure of scarce city tax dollars. This time, it has emerged (kudos to GoLocalProv) that he has handed out an extra half million dollars in bonus vacations. As recently as this morning’s debate on WPRO, the mayor of Providence attempted to deflect criticism…
Ted Nesi reports that Superior Court Justice Michael Silverstein has found the Central Falls receivership to be constitutional: As I mentioned back in July, the big constitutional question here was whether or not putting a city or town into receivership represented a permanent change in a municipality’s form of government. Administration lawyers and Pfeiffer argued…
Two curious items stand out in Ed Achorn’s column from last week, about the legislators “primaried” by the unions in their campaigns for general assembly seats. Here’s the first: State Rep. Douglas Gablinske (D.-Bristol) was among the stunned fallen. He lost by 111 votes of 1,781 cast to a little-known challenger, Richard Morrison, who did…
On last night’s Matt Allen Show, Matt and I talked about Proud to Be Right and the campaign-season mood of Rhode Island. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
The story of Rhode Island’s election season — so far and overall — has been the story of an utter lack of enthusiasm. Perhaps inadvertently, Ian Donnis gives some illustration why by drumming up news about potential challenges to RI House Speaker Gordon Fox (D, Providence) for the speakership: Schadone says he will make a…
State District 72 representative Amy Rice (D, Portsmouth, Middletown, Newport), with nothing apparently newsworthy to say on issues relevant to Rhode Island, has really been on the attack against her opponent, Republican Dan Reilly. First, on GoLocalProv: Reilly’s Democratic opponent, incumbent Amy Rice, accuses him of violating the law. “By filing his papers and having…