Rhode Island Politics
Whether by ignorance or deceit, there’s a curious omission from the Providence Journal’s coverage of Governor Carcieri’s plan to bring the state government’s budget out of deficit. It’s not in the summary article by Cynthia Needham and Katherine Gregg. It’s not in the article conveying state workers’ anger, by Richard Dujardin. And at best, it…
Senators Reed and Whitehouse will appear together on the WPRO Morning News with John DePetro tomorrow morning, 7:30 – 8:30. Yes, they will be taking calls and questions: (401) 438-9776 (800) 321-9776
Per Anchor Rising’s rule of thumb for whether inside connections should disqualify one from receiving a particular appointment: After an exhaustive nationwide search, the governor has nominated… his chief of staff to fill a Superior Court opening. I’d say the nomination doesn’t pass the test. Again, I’m sympathetic to the arguments that people who’ve been…
And this is the sound of General Treasurer Frank Caprio breaking the glass rod that made him appear to be arm’s length from the Rhode Island way of politics: He acknowledged the perception of a conflict with donations from eight out-of-state firms that specialize in class-action securities lawsuits. The national litigation firm Grant & Eisenhofer…
Political maneuvering can involve such minute actions as to seem arbitrary. Consider this account from state Representative Rod Driver (D, Charlestown, Exeter, Richmond): During consideration of the state budget, on June 24, I offered an amendment (requested by several towns) to relax the mandate that public-works projects must be performed by contractors who pay “prevailing…
So, last week, Pat Crowley intimated that he may run for General Treasurer of Rhode Island. Those familiar with his body of, ahem, work will likely find it difficult to believe that the notion isn’t a put-on at some level. Today, Crowley announced that RIFuture is something like the state’s online hot potato: RUTURE has…
An interesting email from the Moderate Party’s Ken Block: A flurry of phone calls has been coming into the BOE with folks asking to have their names removed from the MPRI petition sheets. Enough calls have come in such that this could only be a coordinated effort. It won’t amount to much, since we have…
Somewhere in the mire of Rhode Island’s approach to legalized medical marijuana is a lesson about the way in which various forces operate in our legislature: Law-enforcement officials are uniformly opposed to the program that allows an illegal drug to be legally grown and distributed to licensed patients. They also are troubled by the lack…
At about minute forty-four of the podcast of Dan Yorke’s interview with RISC Chairman Harry Staley, Dan poses the “magic wand” question that I’d answered in a union-busting way, and Harry answers as follows: More than anything else, I would like to effect a change in the citizens of Rhode Island from the terrible apathy…
Former state representative Carol Mumford deserves a hear, hear for her op-ed in yesterday’s Providence Journal: Those who believe that Rhode Island is a poor state would be surprised to know that during most of my 10 years in office, the state’s revenue increased at the approximate rate of 3.5 percent a year. While our…