Rhode Island Politics
How can a struggling Rhode Islander not shake his or her head every time this subject comes up? The [Emergency Management Agency] EMA, charged with cutting $200,000, was struggling to meet the figure because the agency had gained an employee from, of all places, the governor’s office. Steve Kass, the former radio talk show host…
Rhode Island Senator Leonidas Raptakis (D, Coventry, East Greenwich, Warwick, West Warwick), who has been open about his intention to run for statewide office, has chosen the Secretary of State position as his target: As a State Senator, I have worked to effectively represent the interests of my constituents. I have successfully fought for passage…
All this week, WPRO’s Dan Yorke has heavily questioned the party loyalty of Mayor Scott Avedisian (R-Warwick) for attending A Certain Gubernatorial Announcement, going so far as to call for the RIGOP to throw him out of the party. This culminated yesterday in an extensive and frank interview with the Mayor [podcast not yet available].…
Michelle Malkin presents an exhibit to go with the almost daily announcements of retiring Democrats: Rasmussen rings in the new year with a new poll showing that the number of Americans who identify as Democrats has fallen to its lowest level in seven years: In December, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell…
As he promised Dan Yorke yesterday, Rep. John Loughlin has penned a letter (via Dan Yorke) to Governor Carcieri apologizing for co-signing a letter drafted by Democratic Rep. Amy Rice and also explaining steps he would take to help ameliorate some of the problems that the Governor’s budget cuts are causing at the city and…
The RIGOP Executive Committee voted to have a meeting to vote on closing their primary (roll call and more info provided by Will Ricci in the extended entry). Chairmain Gio Cicione has stated that he won’t call the meeting until after the 2010 elections and the rank and file are upset, arguing that he’s abusing…
Part of our problem, in Rhode Island, is that our political class likes to treat each issue separately. It focuses on whether policy A is good or bad, but rarely considers whether funding A ought to have implications of the funding of B, C, and D. In other words, our elected officials don’t like to…
Following up Justin’s earlier post, WPRO’s Dan Yorke took Rep. John Loughlin to task for adding his name to the Rice letter and thereby seeming to endorse the overall “it’s not the legislature’s fault” message that it tries to spin. Loughlin admitted his mistake and told Yorke he would be retracting his name from the…
Rhode Island is not alone in facing budget deficits as many other states (if not most) are in the same predicament. As a recent study by the Cato Institute shows, a lot of the deficit problems stem from generous public employee compensation packages. State and local governments face large budget deficits as revenues have stagnated…
If you felt a dip in the collective intelligence of Rhode Island life, yesterday, it was probably because the General Assembly is back in session, gleefully lighting the fuse of 2010 with no indication that legislators intend to turn the state around. The first spark came with a veto override bonanza, including the legislation that…