UPDATED with new info on Red-light cameras....Charlestown Tapas

Pumas? This, and many more threats to Charlestown’s peace and serenity in this week’s news briefs

By Will Collette

UPDATE: Red light cameras STILL not working

Even though the obstructing tree limbs have been clipped and the warning signs have been posted, Charlestown's red-light enforcement camera operator, Sensys, has still not activated the system. There are two sets of cameras covering the northbound and southbound approaches on Route One to East Beach and West Beach Roads. CPD Chief Jeff Allen says the problem is "Something about the modem."

It’s not just Charlestown’s Town Council that’s crazy

Sparks fly over Abel Collins selection as SK Town
Council Prez

Not for the first time, we have reason to wonder if there’s something in South County’s water that makes our area Town Councils act crazy. First we have Charlestown’s fake swearing in ceremony. Now, in South Kingstown, the nominally Democratic-controlled Town Council has erupted with some ugly in-fighting.

During their opening session, the SK Council tended to the first order of business, namely picking Council leadership. Margaret Healey (D), the top vote-getter was duly nominated as Council President, but proceeded to lose on a 2-3 vote.

Then independent Abel Collins, who works as a lobbyist for the RI Sierra Club, was nominated and then won by 3-2. Ms. Healey was then voted in as Council Vice-President.

At first, Healey was magnanimous in defeat, but later wrote on Facebook, "Thank you Abel for disrespecting me. I never saw you as a liar. I was wrong." Healey told the Narragansett Times that she thought she had Collins’ pledge of support.

Deepwater Wind gets its final federal approval – ready to build

Campaign fund raising chess match

CCA Party fat cat donors laying low

Here they come!

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance emerged on Charlestown’s political landscape in 2006. They seized control of town government in 2008. All that time, the CCA Party has had two keys to victory – spreading fear across the community of some boogeyman that only the CCA can defeat, and big bucks mostly from its non-resident supporters.

The new campaign finance reports are in and they show the CCA Party with little money in the bank – only $2,228.18 after spending $882.06 on “Directors & Officers” insurance to cover their leaders, presumably their steering committee, from liability for their actions. 

That insurance, by the way, is a smart move since the CCA’s main method of spreading fear is to tell lies. Sooner or later, those lies are going to come back and bite them in the ass.

In the past two election cycles, the CCA Party has violated their own sacred oaths about transparency and honesty when it came to reporting their campaign finances.

In 2010, the CCA Party hid most of their income and expenses by having CCA Party leaders fund campaign activities out of their own pockets. They spent more than $10,000, many times more than all their opponents combined, but reported hardly any income or expenses under after the election. 

Then, on Election Day, the CCA Party leaders turned in their expenses and got reimbursement checks.

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee filed a complaint with the Board of Elections, which upheld the Democrats’ complaint, ruling that the CCA Party did indeed illegally cover up their income and expenses.

In 2012, the CCA Party tried a new wrinkle. This time they reported their income and expenses in a timely fashion, but listed their non-resident donors’ addresses not by their actual residence, but by their Charlestown vacation home.

Is Cameron Ennis really through?

No-show at his own appeal hearing

By Will Collette

"Y'er OUT!"

First-time candidate Cameron Ennis of Charlestown made a whole bunch of rookie mistakes in his effort to mount an independent challenge to first-time incumbent state Senator Catherine Cool Rumsey.

Though he started off with a promising looking campaign website, he failed to pass the first key test all candidates must pass: gathering 100 valid voter signatures on his Nomination Papers.

Ennis apparently collected 100 signatures and apparently no more than that. And that was his first rookie mistake.

UDATED: Ennis is out

Fails to make the ballot by two signatures, despite “do-over”

By Will Collette

UDATE: Ennis says he plans to appeal his failure. See his e-mail message at the end of this article.

The Rhode Island Board of Elections has determined that Cameron Ennis of Charlestown failed to collect the 100 signatures required to qualify for the November ballot to run as an independent against incumbent state Senator Cathie Cool Rumsey (D). 

The BOE credited Ennis with only 98 valid voter signatures on his Nomination papers.

On Monday, the BOE allowed Ennis an additional 72 hours to get his signatures validated after Ennis made the error of turning in all 100 of his signatures to Charlestown Town Clerk Amy Weinreich.

The candidates’rule book (see page 10) issued by the Secretary of State directs candidates who are running for election to represent more than one town to collect the signatures on separate sheets for each town. Then they must deliver the signed forms to the appropriate Town Clerk.

Charlestown Tapas

State Senate nail-bitter, and other tasty tidbits

By Will Collette

Cameron Ennis – despite break from BOE, still might not make the ballot

Cameron Ennis of Charlestown, a newly minted lawyer, filed his declaration to run as an independent against first-term incumbent state Senator Catherine Cool Rumsey. Apparently Ennis forgot to read the candidates’ rule book published by the Secretary of State and collected signatures on his Nomination petition without regard to where the signer lives.

The rulebook says each town within a district must be on a separate page so that the signatures can be turned in to the Town Clerk in each municipality – e.g. Charlestown signatures go to Charlestown, Richmond to Richmond, etc. Ennis simply turned in all of his 100 signatures to Charlestown Town Hall, thinking Town Clerk Amy Weinreich would take of this for him.

Wrong. Charlestown only validated the Charlestown signatures – 49 of them – leaving Ennis 51 signatures short of the required 100. Ennis appealed to the state Board of Elections and the BOE decided to cut him a break, even though he failed to follow the rules. They gave him an extra 72 hours to get his signatures from the other towns validated by the other towns.

Did Cameron Ennis of Charlestown qualify to run for state Senate?

Candidate’s error results in low signature count 

By Will Collette

The race for Senate District 34, currently represented by Sen. Catherine Cool Rumsey, is either going to be a three-way race or a head-to-head battle depending on the belated final tally of signatures on nomination papers. District 34 includes most of the northern half of Charlestown.

As of Monday afternoon, according to one of the contenders, that final tally is far from final.

In addition to incumbent Democrat Senator Cathie Cool Rumsey and endorsed Republican Elaine Morgan of Hopkinton, Cameron Ennis of Ennis Road in Charlestown declared his intention to run as an independent. Even before he filed, he set up the framework of a nice looking website (click here) to promote his candidacy.

The first key test for candidates for elected office is getting enough signatures on nomination petitions (100 for candidates for State Senator) to qualify for the ballot. The reasoning is that if you can’t get 100 valid signatures, you don’t have much of a chance to mount a credible campaign.

As of Sunday, it had appeared that Ennis failed that test, collecting only 49 signatures, less than half the number required to run.

However, after I e-mailed Ennis for comment and for him to explain what went wrong, he sent me this message:

Election 2014: Who's in, who's out

Tallies of nomination papers almost complete
By Will Collette


After candidates declare their intention to run for office, the next crucial step is to collect enough signatures - a minimum of 50 - of registered voters on their nomination papers to qualify to appear on the ballot.

There will not be any local candidates on the September 9 primary ballot even though this year's Democratic primary features hot contests for the offices of Governor, General Treasurer, Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor.

Signature counts have been slowly going up on the Secretary of State's website as the names have been verified by the Charlestown Board of Canvassers.

The current count shows that all declared candidates for Charlestown Town Council, Planning Commission, Moderator, and Chariho School Committee have turned in at least the minimum number of required signatures to go on to the General Election.

Here's how the field shapes up.