Bob Healey’s shadow?

Can Cool Moose’s ghost posthumously swing RI governor’s election?

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

The 2016 results

It’s deja vu all over again in the race to be the next governor of Rhode Island. 

Governor Gina Raimondo, the incumbent Democrat, leads her Republican rival, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, by just two points, 38 percent to 36 percent, according to a new WPRI/Roger Williams University poll that revealed eerily similar results as last time these two squared off for governor, when Raimondo took 41 percent of the vote and Fung won 36 percent in 2014.

Somewhere Bob Healey just lit up one of his signature stogies and a wide smile spread across his forested face. Rhode Island’s perennial third party phenom who passed away in 2016 could prove as influential from beyond the grave as he was on the ballot.

The poll found 17 percent of respondents are undecided, even if the two leading candidates are the same. 

In 2014, Healey, who famously founded the Cool Moose Party but campaigned as a member of the Moderate Party, took 22 percent of the vote. 

It’s entirely unclear if today’s undecided voters supported Healey four years ago, but it’s a fairly safe bet that they aren’t a dissimilar lot.

New front in the fight for the right to vote

Trump made Nellie Gorbea and John Marion happy, Ken Block sad

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

Charlestown's peripatetic state representative Blake "Flip" Filippi

President Donald Trump did something that pleased both Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and Common Cause of Rhode Island Executive Director John Marion. Namely, Trump shut down his controversial voter fraud commission.

“I was not surprised to learn that President Trump has dissolved his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity,” said Gorbea, in a statement to reporters.

“It was clear from the start that this commission was an attempt to distract voters from the real dangers in our election systems – lack of funding for modernization and security, including cyber threats from foreign actors,” she continued. “The commission was plagued with open meeting violations and transparency issues. From the beginning, it faced multiple legal challenges, including one from a member of the commission.

Gorbea noted she “refused to release voters’ private information and did not comply with the commission’s overly broad request for data.”

Marion offered a similar sentiment.

“It’s good the ‘Commission’ was shut down,” he told RI Future. “It was a misguided effort, based on the false premise that millions of illegal votes were cast in 2016. There are real improvements that need to be made to elections in the United States, but that Commission was doing little, if anything, to address them.”

Common Cause challenges Ken Block’s qualifications as well as his findings of RI voter fraud

Ken Block’s voter claims undermined by Common Cause

By Steve Rackett in Rhode Island’s Future

Ken Block’s evidence to Donald Trump’s Election Commission Integrity meeting in New Hampshire was rebuked on Twitter by elections expert John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause RI.

In a series of tweets, John Marion said, “I want to share a few thoughts. Social scientists have done rigorous research on the question of matching voter lists. Suggestions that no one has taken serious look are false.”

Marion, who tweeted at least 12 times on the topic, concluded about Block’s report, “You can’t take this report at face value. Be skeptical, and read the experts.” “Unlike Block’s report,” Marion tweeted, others “dug deeper into how elections are administered & find admin errors likely yield false positives.”

Are firefighters the enemy?

ProJo’s op/ed uses misinformation to foul firefighter platoon debate

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

How did we get to where firefighters are treated like scoundrels trying to abscond with the public’s money?

Corporate-controlled media spewing out garbage like this to the masses, that’s how.

Of course, such a breach of journalistic ethic comes via a Providence Journal editorial about legislation that would prevent cities and towns from reducing the number of daily firefighter shifts from four to three supported by some blatant falsehoods and – of course – some grandiose overstatements of the issues importance.

“Rhode Island has suffered for too long from high taxes, a miserably poor business climate and high unemployment,” is actually the lede of the editorial. “Those who have suffered the most are members of the middle class, who struggle to get by, and the poor, robbed of the means to lift themselves out of poverty.”

Spare me the feigned interest in the poor and middle class.

The issue emanates from a longstanding legal feud in North Kingstown. No one in North Kingstown – or anywhere for that matter – is in poverty or will be lifted out of it depending on how many firefighters work on a given day. 

Final Peeps® push, Narragansetts testify before Congress, Taylor Swift tax and other crazy politics and lots of new job postings

New plate of Charlestown Tapas for the discerning reader

By Will Collette

Things you never knew about Peeps®

Easter is less than one week away. For me, the main reason to celebrate Easter is marshmallow Peeps®, pretty much a forbidden food since I learned that I am diabetic. But it’s great having them around, stale of course, in case of low blood sugar episodes. 

Anyway, I am not the only one with Peeps® on the mind, evidenced by all the Peeps® diorama contests (click here and here for examples. The folks at Mental Floss did their part to contribute to our greater understanding and appreciation of Peeps® with this insightful list of “Twenty Delicious Facts About Peeps®.”

Narragansett leader testifies before US Senate

Narragansett Tribal Council member Randy Noka traveled to DC to give testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on the so-called “Carcieri Fix” on March 25 The "Carcieri Fix" is legislation that would declare the clear intent of Congress that the nation’s laws on the relationship between Indian tribes and the government apply to all tribes, and not just those who have been federally recognized prior to 1934.

Who WAS that guy?

Just Deputy Dan, on the job, breaking the law again

"I'll be watching you....while you vote."

By Will Collette

On primary election day, I received several reports that Charlestown Town Councilor Dan Slattery (CCA Party) was seen lurking around Charlestown polling places checking voters’ names off a list. 

There was some concern about Slattery’s legal right to hang out inside the polling places and the reasons why he was collecting voters’ names.

It seems that every election cycle, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) comes up with new ways to game the system to gain an electoral edge (click here and here), so why not try voter intimidation?

Looking to see who is voting for whom fits Slattery’s skill set. Throughout Slattery’s four year career as one of the CCA Party’s Town Council members, Slattery has often gone off on half-cocked investigations.

His unauthorized probe into “Friends of Ninigret Park” turned out to be a fiasco, when Slattery refused to reveal what he found (even though he summarized them at a Council meeting), admitting that he had absolutely no authorization to conduct the investigation. Even though he said then, and has since repeated, that he is a “former federal agent,” he claimed he was just conducting a private investigation and that the results were private.

Then there was his chase after Charlestown’s “phantom properties,” the “plot” by the state Water Resources Board to acquire undeveloped Charlestown land as open space, the imaginary“ Single Taxing District” crisis, the “Battle of Ninigret Park,” “the Kill Bill Campaign,” RHOTAP and his repeated efforts to circumvent Rhode Island’s open meeting and open records laws, such as his Australian Ballot.

Come out and vote in Tuesday’s primary

Important choices to be made

By Will Collette

If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain. On Tuesday, Rhode Islanders will have the opportunity to pick who will go on through to the General Election in November to compete for the positions of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, General Treasurer and Secretary of State. Democrats are embroiled in hot primaries for all four positions.

On the Republican side, the only hot race is the one for Governor that pits two RINOs, Ken Block and Allan Fung, against each other. Lieutenant Governor Catherine Taylor (R) faces only token opposition from perennial candidate and full-time crazy Kara Young.

All of these positions are open seats because the present office holder is either term-limited from running again or has chosen a different future. There is no primary for Attorney General because incumbent Peter Kilmartin faces no Democratic primary opponent and Republican Dawson Hodgson does not have a Republican challenger.

Click here for the sample ballot. Don't forget to bring your photo ID.

There are no local primary races for any Charlestown positions. In neighboring House District 35, incumbent Spencer Dickinson (D) is in a rematch primary battle with Kathy Fogarty.

Polls open in Charlestown at 9 AM.

Only Clay Pell and Taveras have actual plans on the environment

Gubernatorial Candidates' Thoughts On Environment

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

ecoRI News profiled the six top-polling candidates running in the Sept. 9 primary for governor. We encapsulate each candidate’s environmental platform and share their responses to six targeted questions on specific topics: fossil-fuel divestment, plastic bag ban, funding for environmental compliance, renewable energy, the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) and open-space protection.

DEMOCRATS

Todd Giroux calls for a revolving loan fund to upgrade Rhode Island’s aging housing stock and make it more energy efficient. The Bristol contractor also supports a Workers Progress Administration-style program for green jobs training. EDITOR’S NOTE: Giroux plans to fund his loan fund by taking money from the state pension funds. This is illegal.

He didn't respond to our specific questions.

Clay Pell has a lengthy environmental action plan. He advocates for greater energy-efficiency programs and enhanced development of brownfield sites, open-space protection and expanded recycling. He supports many of the state’s existing energy-efficiency and renewable-energy programs. He would continue the initiatives run by the state Office of Energy Resources. New programs would target specific vehicle-emission reductions.

Other plans include greater use of low-impact development and better management of stormwater runoff; a statewide organics recycling program and enhanced residential composting; and development of a green infrastructure design industry. He would keep the Renewable Energy Fund under the oversight of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation.

Like we need another one

Ken Block is a Barrington version of Don Carcieri

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

“Only an outsider can fix what’s broken here,” said Barrington businessman Ken Block during last night’s first Republican debate for governor.

His opponent, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, may want to paint Block as a opportunistic flip-flopper, but to me he sounded a lot like the last affluent private sector executive from the suburbs to preach the “outsider” gospel.

And we all know how that turned out.

VIDEOS: Hot primary race for General Treasurer

But the choice is pretty simple

By Will Collette

The Rhode Island Democratic State Convention will take place on Sunday, June 22. My wife Cathy and I are both State Committee members so both of us will be there and voting for the candidates our town committee, the Charlestown Democrats, have endorsed.

For General Treasurer, we like Seth Magaziner because he has a record of success as an investor and fresh ideas for how to get Rhode Island’s economy growing again. Plus, we think he’s a helluva guy. 

South County residents can find that out for themselves this Saturday when he comes to the Charlestown Gallery for a fund-raiser party being hosted by friends and supporters. Please bring your checkbook.

As if all of Seth’s positive qualities weren’t enough, Cathy and I would still be voting for him at the State Convention because he is, in our opinion, the only actual Democrat among the three candidates running for the state party endorsement.

His two opponents are former General Treasurer and failed candidate for Governor Frank Caprio and former RI Auditor General Ernie Almonte. Neither Caprio nor Almonte are real Democrats, and I don’t simply mean they aren’t our particular brand of Democrat, which is the progressive variety. Nor are they qualified to be General Treasurer.

Thanks, Donald

Why conservatives play fast and loose with RI’s credit

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

Don Carcieri’s epic economic fail of investing in 38 Studios may have a silver lining for the local conservative movement he once led. And both Republican candidates for governor are for it, while the Democrats are opposed.

The Providence Journal points out that gubernatorial candidates are split along party lines when it comes to repaying the 38 Studios bond.

Allan Fung said the warnings from Wall Street about fiscal repercussions are overstated and Ken Block, who never met a opportunity to issue a press release he didn’t exploit, railed against “the threats coming from Wall Street insiders of dire consequences for the state if they fail to make good on the 38 Studios bond,” according to the ProJo. 

Leading Democratic candidates were equally united that the bond should be repaid and Sam Howard wrote about why the bond payment should be made in a recent post.

Governor's race: Dems lay out plans for the environment, Republicans don't even show up

By ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — The four Democratic candidates for governor laid out their plans on how they would 

prepare Rhode Island for climate change during a 90-minute forum April 24 hosted by the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) and ecoRI News and held in Brown University’s List Auditorium. Republican candidates Ken Block and Cranston Mayor Alan Fung declined to participate.

The forum opened with presentations by two climate change experts, John King, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and J. Timmons Roberts, professor of environmental studies and sociology at Brown. Their presentations outlined the scientific consensus regarding the rapid increase in carbon dioxide emissions and translated that data into expected local impacts, including sea-level rise, temperature increases, warming urban centers, loss of coastal habitats, increased frequency of extreme weather events, ocean acidification and the potential for species extinction at a level rarely recorded in Earth’s history.

Governor candidates debate the environment

Candidates to Share Views on Climate Change
By ecoRI.org News staff

PROVIDENCE — Four of the six candidates in Rhode Island’s 2014 gubernatorial race have accepted the invitation to participate in a forum on why climate change should be a top priority for state action.

The “Climate Change Colloquy” will be held Thursday, April 24, at Brown University’s List Art Building, Room 120, from 9-11 a.m. 

It is being co-sponsored by the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI), an umbrella group that consists of more than 60 environmental and advocacy organizations statewide, and ecoRI News, the main environmental news source for Rhode Island and southern New England. The event is free and open to the public.

Calling out Ken Block's hypocrisy

Ken Block, ideological stringency and the People’s Pledge

By Samuel G. Howard in Rhode Island’s Future

I read with interest Ken Block’s rejection of the People’s Pledge on the following basis:

“I support comprehensive campaign-finance reform,” Block said. “But I won’t do it piecemeal.” And a People’s Pledge wouldn’t address the disadvantage he’d face against incumbents such as Raimondo, “who has spent three full years as treasurer raising money for this race,” he said.

Something similar to “I won’t do it piecemeal” is a common refrain I hear among supporters of change or reform; most notably among left-wing opponents of the ACA (it didn’t go far enough!). I have no desire to rehash that particular battle, but suffice it to say, we have to deal in political realities, not political desires.

Shocking surprise

Republican candidates for governor kick off 2014 with broken promises

By Samuel G. Howard in Rhode Island’s Future

Well, that didn’t take long.

Apparently, the Republican candidates for governor who promised to stay away from WPRO’s talk shows only were going to keep that pledge as long as John DePetro was off the air; making as principled a stand as they dared during the holiday season when few voters are paying attention. Now that the news has turned back to politics with parole offices and the start of the General Assembly’s 2014 session, and DePetro is back on the air… well… Let’s remember what they promised:

Blockheads, rejoice!

Thank you Ken Block!

By Samuel Bell in Rhode Island’s Future - See more at: http://www.rifuture.org/thank-you-ken-block.html#sthash.TNyNJhPR.dpuf

I don’t agree with Ken Block on very much.  But I am here to thank him–for running for governor as a Republican. 

What has always bothered me about Block is that he used his “Moderate Party” label to portray his Republican views as somehow moderate.

But then he became the leader of the conservative group RI Taxpayers (EDITOR’S NOTE: more commonly known as the RI Statewide Coalition), which takes more unabashedly right-wing positions like denying rights to immigrants denied documents.  

And now he has come out as a Republican.

The biggest problem Rhode Island liberals have always had is that Republicans scramble ordinary politics by running for the General Assembly as Democrats (a.k.a. DINOs).  

The campaign so far, Part 2

A scorecard on the state races

By Will Collette

Click here for Part 1.

Every statewide office in Rhode Island, except perhaps Attorney General, will get a new occupant after the November 2014 election which is now just one year away.

This is a rare occurrence brought about by two officials who are term-limited from running for re-election (Lieutenant Governor Liz Roberts and Secretary of State Ralph Mollis). 

In addition, Governor Lincoln Chafee (D) read the tea leaves and the poll numbers and declared he will not run again. 

And our Wall Street land shark, General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, hopes to parlay her millions in donations from her hedge fund and Wall Street cronies into becoming Rhode Island’s first woman governor.

Each state office, except the Attorney General, has more than one Democrat who hopes to win the primary to run as the Democratic candidate in 2014.

Here is a run-down of who’s in so far, along with their latest fund-raising numbers and, SPOILER ALERT, some of my snarky, far-from-unbiased commentary.

VIDEO: The campaign so far, Part 1

Like it or not, the 2014 election campaign has already begun

By Will Collette

Although so many Americans decry our state of perpetual political warfare, it’s a reality that the next campaign season began the night the election results from the last election were announced.

Even in our sleepy little burg, the town’s two main parties, the controlling Charlestown Citizens Alliance Party (CCA) and its nemesis, the Charlestown Democrats began preparing for the next election as soon as the 2010 votes were counted. 

Now, we face the calendar reality that we are one year away, almost to the day, from going to the polls again.

This is the first of a two-part series on where Campaign 2014 stands one year away from Election Day.

Send condolences to Dan Slattery, John Goodman

Block eliminates own relevance, Moderate Party in one fell swoop

By Samuel G. Howard - in Rhode Island's Future. See more at: http://www.rifuture.org/block-eliminates-own-relevance-moderate-party-in-one-fell-swoop.html#sthash.WRtNEZ2O.dpuf

Two of them in Charlestown - Dan
Slattery and John Goodman - are also
CCA Party stalwarts

Break out the dirges, Ken Block put the nails in his own political coffin with the announcement he would become a Republican and run in that party’s primary for governor.

Block has been saying for months that he would only seek the office of governor if he saw a clear path to victory. That path for victory did not lie in the political party he’d spent the last half-decade building and advocating for. This does two things. 

First, for everyone who ever accused Block of being a Republican in sheep’s clothing, it confirms that their suspicions were reality. 

Second, it makes it appear that Block is less dedicated to his causes and more dedicated to himself. Switching affiliations from Moderate to Republican doesn't further the causes Block has championed. It only furthers his own career.

Republicans should no doubt be both happy and annoyed about this latest shape-shifter in Rhode Island’s political landscape. They should be happy because it removes Block as their personal gadfly; GOP partisans have long suggested Block’s candidacy is what prevented a Gov. John Robitaille from being inaugurated in 2011. Now, come September 2014, Block will either be their standard-bearer or defeated. The smart money is on the latter.