Rhode Island Politics

A Troubling Power Grab from the State

By Justin Katz | July 27, 2010 |

Between its efforts to scrub religious heritage from the public square, the ACLU does occasionally address issues of wider concern, and I agree with its Rhode Island head on the issue of the state’s placing Central Falls in receivership: Brown’s problem with the receivership law is Article XIII of the state Constitution, which concerns home…

The Cover Provided by 1 Administration Crony

By Marc Comtois | July 26, 2010 |

The long, front page piece in Sunday’s ProJo about current EMA PR guy Steve Kass reinforces every status-quoists talking point about cutting the fat outta the “administration” or “up top” before slashing the benny’s and pay of the average working man and woman at all levels of government. For the truth is that the shuffling…

Candidates Who Made the Ballot (Coverage Courtesy of Jim Baron at the Paw Times and Definitely Not of Some Apparent Neophyte at Fountain Street) and a Possible Challenge to Candidate Order

By Monique Chartier | July 25, 2010 |

Naturally, being agog for the last week about who did and did not made the ballot, I clicked on an article in today’s ProJo which looked like it might answer the question. Immediately, however, the headline They’re off! Candidates for offices across R.I. file paperwork posed more questions than answers. Candidates had “filed papers” –…

Is Rhode Island Getting Full Value of the G.T.’s Time?

By Monique Chartier | July 23, 2010 |

The RIGOP is not wrong to raise this matter. (Press release.) The Rhode Island Republican Party today called on General Treasurer Frank Caprio to account for the value of his time and energy spent campaigning rather than doing the job he was elected to do. Citing a steady stream of campaign events this week, the…

Digging into Government

By Justin Katz | July 23, 2010 |

Calling in to the Matt Allen Show, Wednesday night, Andrew described the series of posts on and pending on Anchor Rising addressing some of the basic facts of Rhode Island governance. Stream by clicking here, or download it.

The Nine RISC Business Network Endorsed Candidates

By Monique Chartier | July 21, 2010 |

Interesting mixture of Dems, Repubs and Independents; incumbents and challengers. House Lisa Baldelli-Hunt (D, Woonsocket) – Incumbent facing a primary Jon D. Brien (D, Woonsocket) – Incumbent facing a primary Douglas W. Gablinske (D, Bristol) – Incumbent facing a primary Brian Newberry (R, North Smithfield) – Incumbent Stephanie Santos Sivalingam (R, East Providence) – Challenging…

Patrick Lynch Dropping Out

By Monique Chartier | July 15, 2010 |

WPRO’s Steve Klamkin report during the 6:30 am news that the AG will be withdrawing from the governor’s race sent me to projo.com which had a confirming article by Katherine Gregg and Tracy Breton on the front page. On Wednesday, a source close to Lynch said, the two-term attorney general was telling people close to…

Donations for the Powerful

By Justin Katz | July 13, 2010 |

As a third party locked out of tax-form-based public campaign donations, the Moderate Party is striving to prevent the unfair system from continuing through this election season without repairs for fairness: The party, which sued last month in federal court, argued in a request for an injunction that the formula used to divide the money…

Spending Priorities Are a Consequence of Policy Priorities

By Justin Katz | July 9, 2010 |

Complaints that the State of Rhode Island has allocated more money for the Department of Corrections than for higher education miss the point. Put aside the fact that the comparison is arbitrary; the real concern should be the underlying policies that wind up making imprisoning people such a large expense. That would be a pretty…

Chafee and His Supporters Get National Play

By Marc Comtois | July 8, 2010 |

The national press loves the independent candidate and USA Today (h/t Ian Donnis) is the latest to report about them in this year of the disgruntled voter. RI’s own Lincoln Chafee plays prominently in the story and all of the classic Chafee themes are there. First, there’s the typical RI attitude towards “name candidates” like…