South County Democrats: Beware of DINOs on the Sept. 9 Primary ballot

The League of RI Businesses is a wolf in sheep’s clothing

An oped from Bill Ibelle

There’s a new, big-money player on the Rhode Island political stage that’s targeting many of our finest environmental legislators because they also support gun control.

The League of RI Businesses is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, posing as a moderate, bipartisan, pro-business organization, when in fact, it was created last year specifically to knock off legislators who voted for a ban on assault weapons.

So if you feel safer knowing the guy down the street has an assault rifle hanging in his living room gun rack, then by all means, vote for a League-endorsed candidate. (listed below).

The League’s founder, David Levesque, knows that most Rhode Islanders don’t believe a deer hunter needs to pump out 60 rounds a minute to bag a doe. 

So Levesque and his cohorts rarely mention assault weapons when explaining why the League has targeted so many fine legislators. Instead, in an interview with Ocean State Media, he said that the League is merely targeting legislators who “fail to support the Constitution.” Only when pressed repeatedly by an interviewer does he concede that he’s referring exclusively to the Second Amendment—the right to bear arms.

Apparently, the League believes that James Madison had assault weapons in mind when he introduced the amendment to Congress in 1789. Never mind that an assault rifle, at that time, was a musket, a ramrod, a powder pouch, and a lead ball that took nearly a minute to load and, because it had no rifling, had the accuracy of a pea shooter.

He’s also against renewable energy because it’s unprofitable, doesn’t work, and has driven up electric rates by 27 percent — all untrue. What is true is that he revealed his true colors when he claimed that if we eliminated all state wind and solar programs, “we could literally put almost $30 million a month back in the hands of Rhode Island businesses.” Translation: The heck with our children’s future, we want bigger profits now.

Levesque insists that his group wants “middle-of-the-road, common-sense people” in office. This seems just a wee bit hard to believe, given that Levesque is a vocal Trump supporter who, when asked by the Providence Journal about our president’s second term, said, “I think it’s going awesome.”

So if ICE raids make you feel safer; if you think the war with Iran is the best use of $37 billion in taxpayer money; if you believe the skyrocketing price of oil is the path to affordability; and if you thrill at the grade-school insults our leader routinely hurls at our foreign allies—then by all means, take the League’s advice on who to vote for.

If you’re still not convinced that this organization is poison, consider the League’s subversion of the state’s campaign finance laws. To get around the state’s $2,000 limit on individual donations, they formed 40 separate Political Action Committees (PACs). In an interview with Channel 12, Levesque boasted that “What we did is extraordinary. It’s never been done before. We opened more PACs than anybody’s ever done [in Rhode Island]. This will allow us to give $80,000 to an individual candidate. There’s no other organization in the state of Rhode Island that can put that kind of money into a candidate’s hands.”

Just to be clear, the state donation limit is $2,000 and the League says its armada of 40 PACs makes it legal to give $80,000.

If you would like to reduce the influence of money in state politics, you might want to vote against the candidates the League is financing.

Here is a list of incumbents the League has targeted and the candidates it is backing to unseat them:

The League also endorsed nine incumbents: John Brien, Elaine Morgan, Leonidas Raptiakis, Patrick Maloney, Gregory Constantino, Marie Hopkins, Paul Santucci, Stephano Famiglietti, and six candidates running for open seats:

 

Candidate for local office features uncomfy shoe in her ad aimed at alleged sex criminals

Most women wear shoes that don't match their feet, study finds

By RMIT University

Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

Leah Boisclair wants your vote in the September 9 Democratic Primary in her effort to oust our effective state Rep. Tina Spears. Don't give it to her. Check out the stilettos in her ad appealing to sex crime defendants

Most women in a new RMIT University study wore shoe sizes that differed from the size indicated by their foot length, highlighting the limitations of conventional sizing systems in accounting for differences in foot width and shape. The study of 107 women found 72% wore a different size under U.S. sizing and 65% under EU sizing.

More participants wore a larger size than their foot length indicated—59% under U.S. sizing and 52% under EU sizing. The researchers say this tendency to size up suggests some women may be compensating for shoes that do not adequately accommodate their foot width, rather than simply choosing the wrong size.

Supporting this explanation, women assigned the same shoe size based on foot length varied by up to 40 mm (1.6 inches) around the widest part of the foot under U.S. sizing and 37 mm (1.5 inches) under EU sizing.

The study, published in the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, also found 68% of participants had at least one recurring problem with shoe fit.

MAGA guy wants to buy Charlestown election for pedo-defending lawyer

As early and mail-in voting starts for the September 9, beware of phony Democrats

By Will Collette

As I've reported previously, there is a push by a MAGA group called "the League of Rhode Island Businesses (LORIB)" to oust Democrats around the state, but especially in South County. Some of their candidates are masquerading as Democrats so they can run in the Sept. 9 Primary. Others are running in the General Election.

LORIB is run by a rightwing MAGA guy named Dave Levesque who owns a chain of coffee shops. He lives in Narragansett. He formed LORIB to push his agenda of protecting the rich from taxes and opposing sensible measures to control gun violence. He set up a state Political Action Committee, as well as 39 local PACs, one for every Rhode Island city and town, including Charlestown.

None of these local PACs are actually local. He runs them all and set out this year to challenge just about every South County Democratic woman legislator, including Charlestown’s own state Representative Tina Spears.

In Charlestown, Levesque and the LORIB machine are promoting criminal defense lawyer Leah Boisclair to oust Tina Spears in the September 9 Democratic Primary. They actively tried to get Republicans and MAGA supporters to switch their party registration to Democrat to swing the numbers in Boisclair’s favor.

The deadline to make that party switch was August 10. Nancy Levin reported in the Rhode Island Current on August 17 that only 198 Republicans statewide had switched to Democrat. 

Boisclair’s signs and her mailings (so far) have been pretty low-key and vague. My main take-away from them so far is that she owns a dog. She stripped her Facebook page of dozens of rightwing posts – although not before we captured those posts in screenshots.

One fact she absolutely does not mention is that her law practice is built on representing people accused of heinous crimes, including child rape, human trafficking and domestic violence. She not only represents them but actively tries to recruit such clients with come-ons like this from her own website:

Nice touch with the stilettos and red lace underwear

And what specific sex crimes does Boisclair want to defend against? Conveniently, she expressly tells us on her website:

She has no record of community service, involvement in the Democratic Party or political interests in anything other than MAGA, guns and defending pedos.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall for Boisclair family Thanksgiving dinners. I'd love to hear Boisclair explain to her grandmother what she does for living. 

The money war

But who cares if you have enough cash to create a thick enough smokescreen.

LORIB kicked in $10,500 from six of its PACs that showed up in Boisclair’s campaign finance form for the last quarter of 2025. According to that report, she received $2000 each from the PACs claiming to be in Charlestown, Block Island, North and South Kingstown and Westerly, plus $500 from Newport.

Her most recent campaign finance report filed with the Board of Elections shows TWENTY LORIB PAC donations. All give their addresses as 1140 Reservoir Avenue in Cranston, with Levesque as their leader. Here's the list:

1. LORIB statewide: $2,000
2. LORIB Bristol: $250
3. LORIB Charlestown: $500
4. LORIB Cranston: $1,300
5. LORIB Cumberland: $600
6. LORIB Hopkinton: $250
7. LORIB Jamestown: $250
8. LORIB Lincoln: $250
9. LORIB Narragansett: $500
10. LORIB Newport: $250
11. LORIB North Kingstown: $200
12. LORIB North Providence: $300
13. LORIB North Smithfield: $1,000
14. LORIB Pawtucket: $300
15. LORIB Portsmouth: $250
16. LORIB Providence: $300
17. LORIB West Greenwich: $500
18. LORIB West Warwick: $250
19. LORIB Westerly: $500
20. LORIB Woonsocket: $250

It’s amazing how much interest our local House District 36 race is drawing from all over the state, drawing in a total of $20,000 just from LORIB affiliates.

But understand, it’s all Levesque.

Levesque appears to have some pretty good legal advisors on how to work around campaign finance laws. He avoids the $2000 limit on contributions through his 40 PACs. If he wants to drop big bucks in a campaign, he just cuts separate checks, each no more than $2000.

Four of his PACs gave more than $2000 to Boisclair but again, no problem because there were two checks, one in calendar year 2025 and the other this year. I checked with the Board of Elections, and the $2000 contribution cap is an annual cap.

Boisclair’s campaign finance reports show lots of money from unidentified donors, lumped together as "aggregated donations." 

Again, LORIB’s strategy has been to encourage dark contributions by asking donors to write checks UNDER $200, so the money doesn’t have to be identified by source.

Boisclair may be a nice person who is kind to dogs. But that doesn’t make her a good state Representative. Boisclair made a voluntary career choice in setting up law practice to represent clients accused of terrible crimes. 

She has a right to represent them but her choice to do that means I don’t want her to represent me.

She certainly is no match for our current Representative Tina Spears who has an impeccable record of achievement, integrity and public service. For me, Tina is the only choice.

Other LORIB news of note

As I expected, LORIB has added incumbent wingnut Senator Elaine Morgan as an endorsed candidate. Morgan has been an embarrassment to her district, which includes the northern half of Charlestown, since she was elected.

Morgan has been busted for campaign finance fraud and likes to cavort in places she doesn’t belong, pretending she’s a law enforcement official. The most recent escapade happened last year, when she “raided” a housing for the homeless project in Providence. She claimed she was an official with Elon Musk’s DOGE and was looking for waste, fraud and abuse.

Morgan faces a serious challenge this year from Samantha “Sam” Wilcox, chair of the Richmond Town Council. Go Sam!

Sen. Alana DiMario (Narragansett/So. Kingstown) also faces a DINO/LORIB challenger in the Democratic Primary as does Democrat Bob Craven, Jr. in the race to fill his father's vacant seat. The same dynamics are at play in these races as we're seeing in Charlestown.

LORIB also has challengers to South County Democrats in the General Election, including Charlestown's Democratic state Senator Victoria Gu, but we'll hold off on going into those races until after we've passed the Primary.

While LORIB doesn't seem likely to officially push any candidates seeking office beyond the General Assembly, there are several "LORIB-Adjacent" candidates to flag.

They include DINO Attorney General candidate Joe Solomon whose yard signs seem to appear right next to Lean Boisclair's all over Charlestown. He also tried the ploy of enticing Republicans to cross over to vote in the September 9 primary to vote for him. 

Republican Gubernatorial contender Aaron Guckian, behind in the polls in the Republican primary, announced his candidacy at a LORIB event. 

Finally, the Florida MAGA nut Vic Mellor who is running in the Republican Primary for the party nomination to run for US House District 2 against Seth Magaziner, also seems pretty tight with Levesque and LORIB. Of note, even though Mellor is a serious rightwing nut, he is also a registered agent of the government of Cuba. 

One of my colleagues speculated that maybe Mellor wants to front for hotel and resort businesses after Donald Trump invades Cuba.

Cheating or just trying to win?

Is 2026 the year of the crossover voter in Rhode Island? What the data says.

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Democratic voters in Charlestown, Block Island,
Westerly and So. Kingstown need to know about phony
"Democrats" like Leah Boisclair. They are fronts
for a MAGA guy who set up a network of PACs
to support fake Dems in the Sept. 9 primary

Lifelong Republican Joe Paglia recently disaffiliated from the GOP for the first time in his life.

His views haven’t changed. But the Narragansett resident and small business owner sees the registration change, which lets him vote in local and state Democratic primaries, as a way to change the course of a political path he doesn’t like.

“I don’t want anyone who’s too far left, or even too far right,” Paglia, 59, said. “I just want someone who can get stuff done, 

Rhode Island, like much of the country, has a long history of crossover voting, in which partisan voters change political affiliations to influence the outcome of primary races of opposite political parties. But the strategy has gained renewed attention across the Ocean State this election cycle, widely promoted by a conservative-leaning political group, The League of RI Businesses.

“This is the best time to knock out the worst candidate,” is the declaration on a graphic on The League’s Facebook page. The accompanying post explains that unaffiliated voters in Rhode Island can vote in either party primary. Voters who are registered Democrats or Republicans cannot access the opposite party’s primary ballot.

“In the Rhode Island primaries, who’s on the Democratic ticket decides the election,” said Dave Levesque, co-founder of the League. 

It’s not just about preventing candidates perceived as too progressive from winning. 

Levesque, also a Republican turned independent, also believes there are Democratic candidates who truly represent the business-minded, small government platform that he and other conservative voters embrace. Ten of the 23 state legislative candidates endorsed by the League are Democrats, including Mark Mesrobian, who is challenging Sen. Alana DiMario for the District 36 seat representing parts of Narragansett, North Kingstown and New Shoreham.

Paglia, a district voter, said he appreciates Mesrobian’s business background and emphasis on affordability concerns, including energy costs. Voting for Mesrobian is the main reason he disaffiliated, though he also plans to vote for Joe Solomon Jr. in the four-way Democratic primary for the attorney general’s race, he said.

According to Levesque, the League’s strategy is gaining traction, with many Republican voters verbally committing to disaffiliate to vote in local primaries.

The numbers say otherwise.

AG DINO candidate aligns with League of RI Businesses shabby electoral practices

Joseph Solomon Jr. is asking Republicans to disaffiliate and vote for him in the Democratic Primary for Attorney General

Steve Ahlquist

Here's how Charlestown DINO and sex crimes
defense lawyer Leah Boisclair hopes
to win the Sept 9 Democratic Primary: Get Republicans
to change party registration so they can sneak her in.
Incidentally, if you drive down Route 2, most
Boisclair signs now have Joe Solomon signs
right next to them.  - Will Collette

State Representative Joseph Solomon Jr. is one of the four people running in the Democratic Primary to be the next Rhode Island Attorney General. [The other candidates in the race are Kimberly Ahern, Keith Hoffmann, and Jason Knight.] 

Solomon is a conservative Democrat who voted against the codification of Roe v. Wade into Rhode Island State Law and against the assault weapons ban that went into effect on July 1. 

At the Southside Justice and Policy Debate, Representative Solomon took some hits from other candidates:

Jason Knight: I voted to put Roe v Wade into state law so that Rhode Island women were protected when the Dobbs decision came down and stripped that right away from everyone else in the rest of the country if the state hadn’t covered abortion services. Joe Solomon voted against that bill. That’s a lukewarm response from one of the candidates up here on an issue that is so critical to all of us in Rhode Island, certainly all the people that I care about.

Joseph Solomon Jr.: Let’s get this straight: I am committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose. You hear me say it now, and you’re going to hear me say it forever. I voted for the SHIELD Act, which would protect women and their doctors from out-of-state enforcement. I voted for the Equity in Abortion Coverage Act, which would provide Medicaid coverage for those who couldn’t afford it. And I’m committed to fighting the Trump Administration to protect a woman’s right to choose. My vote from years ago [2019] was before the Dobbs decision.

Once the Dobbs decision came down, it changed the entire landscape. And now I am committed. Hear me now, hear me later: I’m committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose.

Later:

Keith Hoffmann: I support a high-capacity magazine ban and an assault weapons ban because I have two children and I worry about their safety every single day, and so do you. Everybody in this community deserves to be safe from illegal firearms that should not be on our streets. Those laws need to be aggressively enforced by the next attorney general and me, and that is a difference between Mr. Solomon and me as well.

Joseph Solomon Jr.: As a bail commissioner, I need to go after the illegal guns all the time. Over and over, I see the same repeat offenders with stolen guns and with guns with serial numbers shaved off. We need to go after those violent offenders, the ones causing the crimes. We need to be careful not to go after the person who might be a lawful gun owner, because sometimes the laws that are passed, even though they have fancy names and whatnot, if you look at the details, they encompass people just like you and me, who may potentially be committing a crime because of how it was written. It is so important that we look at the details. [italics added]

It should be noted that Representative Jason Knight championed the Assault Weapons Ban bill in the House.

I thought Representative Solomon’s statements about the assault weapons ban were interesting, so I watched his appearance on the July 27, 2026 episode of the Cumberland Unfiltered podcast, hosted by Caleb Minson, Brad Dean, Jason Dean, and Andrew Bacon. Jason Dean and Andrew Bacon are members of the Cumberland School Committee. 

The guests on the show are extremely conservative. They’ve featured Mike Stenhouse, founder and CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a right-wing public policy think tank; Moms for Liberty; and anti-trans Christian Nationalist Robert Chiaradio.

Here’s the video with Joseph Solomon Jr. and a transcript edited for clarity: Joe Solomon - Rhode Island Attorney General Candidate

The League of RI Businesses made a play to sidestep campaign finance limits. Now, it’s game time.

DINOS and MAGAs supported by stealth money

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Vanessa Lopez knew the odds were stacked against her.

A first-time candidate going up against a three-term incumbent, Lopez realized she needed outside help to succeed in her Democratic primary challenge against Sen. Meghan Kallman for the District 15 seat representing Pawtucket and Providence. 

“I have no one in my corner, so I was like, ‘how the heck am I going to do this,’” Lopez, 37, said in an interview. 

Enter The League of RI Businesses. The political group born out of a gun rights campaign was recruiting state legislative candidates to fill open seats and challenge incumbents whose records did not align with its “pro-business” platform. And, under an unprecedented maneuver to create 40 political action committees — one for each city and town plus a statewide organization — The League advertised up to $1 million in donations per year per endorsed candidate, circumventing state campaign finance laws that cap annual donations at $2,000 per candidate. 

No one has received a seven-figure donation from The League yet. But the execution of its multi-PAC strategy is coming into play for a handful of its chosen candidates, including Lopez.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not included in this article is one candidate benefiting from LORIB's cash support. That's self-described "Sex Crime Defense Lawyer" Leah Boisclair. I'll bet a lot of people (e.g. Jim Mageau) with Boisclair signs are unaware of what she does for a living even though her website aggressively recruits clients charged with heinous crimes:

Boisclair wants to unseat Rep. Tina Spears in the September 9 Democratic Primary. Tina's history is in sharp contrast to Boisclair's. From Tina's website: 

Tina has spent the last decade advocating for people with disabilities, and is currently Executive Director of the Community Provider Network of Rhode Island. Her own experience as the parent of a child with significant health challenges led her to become an ardent advocate for families of children with disabilities.

While Boisclair makes her living defending pedos, Tina works to protect kids with disabilities. If you are a Democrat living in House District 36 (all of Charlestown and Block Island, plus sections of Westerly and South Kingstown) you will need to pick which side you're on come Primary day on September 9

League of Rhode Island Businesses: Republican business owners seeking power by subverting campaign finance rules and misleading voters

Behind the mask

Tom Sgouros

Things are seldom dull in the world of politics. This year, Rhode Island has seen the creation of the “League of Rhode Island Businesses,” an organization running several candidates for the General Assembly, many in Democratic primaries. League founder Dave Levesque, who owns the Brewed Awakenings coffee shops in Cranston, Johnston, and Warwick, is a Republican pro-gun activist who feels his point of view is underrepresented at the State House.

You can see a “Lively” interview with him where he calls women’s rights and the repeal of Roe v. Wade “little bitty issues” and tries valiantly to avoid saying that Joe Biden was elected President in 2020. (Kudos to Bill Bartholomew for pursuing him on the points.)

(Full interview here.)

Levesque was to be a featured speaker at a “Rhode Island First” rally planned for this past May, featuring Roger Stone. Yes, that Roger Stone, the treasonous fop with a Nixon tattoo on his back, was sentenced to prison for covering up for Donald Trump’s campaign collusion with Russian operatives in 2016. Trump commuted his sentence, leaving him free to become centrally involved in the 2021 “Stop the Steal” event that led to the January 6 assault on Congress.

Levesque’s League has embraced an innovative strategy to fund its candidates. They created 40 different PACs — one statewide and one for each city and town in Rhode Island — and when you donate through the League web page, it automatically distributes your donation among them so that you can totally evade the disclosure rules for campaign donations. 

To me, the remarkable part is that they boast, right there on the website, that they are doing this to evade disclosure requirements. ➜

 According to the state Board of Elections, what they are doing is indeed legal. It is a loophole in Rhode Island campaign finance law that allows a single organization to control multiple PACs. The League is not the only organization doing this, and a few unions control multiple PACs, as do Amica Insurance and Bally’s. 

Presumably, this is why a bill to close this loophole failed in the General Assembly this year. 

⟵ But for the sake of comparison, here is a chart of information from the Board of Elections showing all the organizations who control multiple PACs. (Thank you, Nancy Lavin, of the Rhode Island Current.) Sometimes a difference in degree becomes a difference in kind, and I marvel that any union would lobby to preserve this kind of disadvantage.

As Levesque has explained, the organizing base of the League is the pro-gun activists who show up to the state house every year to lobby against any proposed regulation of guns. Their website features lots of calls to action like this one. ⬇

As the League, they embrace more issues than just guns. They also inveigh against taxes, road tolls, and business regulation. In other words, standard Republican stuff. However, try as I might, I cannot find the word “Republican” anywhere on their website, or on any of the websites of candidates they endorse.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with advocating for positions I do not agree with. Obviously, I think people who hold positions I disagree with are misguided (that’s what it means), but go ahead and take those positions and defend them. 

What’s remarkable about the League is the extent to which its candidates seek to obscure those positions, mainly by running in Democratic primaries on an essentially Republican platform.

Take Kevin Hoyle, for instance, a candidate in the Democratic primary for House District 32 in North Kingstown. Here’s how he introduces himself on Facebook, an image he included in an email exchange with me.

Challenged to endorse the state’s Democratic Party platform, Hoyle emailed me a detailed list of where he agrees and where he does not. 

I suspect he thought this would end a conversation about what kind of Democrat he actually is by allowing him to say he agrees with most of it. 

But his endorsement is filled with cautions and careful wording, such as saying “Recent IPCC reports may change some of this” in response to the platform’s Environment and Climate section, or noting that investment in transportation and infrastructure is important but not through taxes. 

He supports the party platform on voting rights, but felt it was important to emphasize that he only wants voting rights for citizens. Imagining that there is anyone out there advocating for voting rights for non-citizens is a standard part of the MAGA fever dream, of course. Hoyle even included a strange hedge on the civil rights plank, questioning its use of the word “equitable”.

As an exercise in power, running very conservative, if not covertly Republican, candidates in September’s Democratic primary is not a terrible strategy. As we have seen all too well, many voters are not inclined to do much research on the candidates they vote for, and it is relatively straightforward to mislead them. 

Blake Filippi, who was the Republican leader in the House from 2018 to 2022, first won his seat in a Democratic primary in 2014. After defeating Donna Walsh, one of the leaders of Progressive Charlestown, he was unopposed in November and promptly disaffiliated upon his election. Eventually, he became the House Minority leader, successfully — and repeatedly — winning re-election while never using the word “Republican” on his campaign website. You can say this is essentially dishonest, but you can also say, hey, it worked.

EDITOR'S NOTE: While Rep. Donna Walsh was a Progressive Charlestown favorite and I personally work with Donna on issues and her campaigns, she never had any official connection to Progressive Charlestown.  - Will Collette

So this is the League of Rhode Island Businesses: Republican business owners who are seeking power by subverting campaign finance rules and misleading voters. Hoyle is not the only such candidate, and with the lure of plenty of untraceable money to spend, the League has recruited several others, including Mark Mesrobian in Narragansett and North Kingstown; Vanessa Lopez in Pawtucket; Brian Coogan in East Providence; and Leah Boisclair in Charlestown and Westerly. These are all going to be well-funded campaigns, and here’s hoping that money is not enough in the state’s Democratic primaries.

A guest post by Tom Sgouros, Public policy nerd and data scientist. Currently at work on projects in public finance, immunology, astronomy, and information theory. Also a bus rider.

SteveAhlquist.news is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It’s official! I am absolutely NOT running in the Sept. 9 Democratic Primary for House District 36

Please vote for our terrific incumbent Rep. Tina Spears

By Will Collette

As reported earlier, I accidentally checked the wrong box when I filled out my Declaration form to continue as a member of the Democratic District 36 Committee.

For a short but embarrassing period of just under a week, I became an unwilling rival to our great state Rep. Tina Spears and the DINO-LORIB candidate Leah Boisclair in the September 9 Democratic Primary. 

Boisclair is a self-described “sex crimes defense attorney” who is supported by the MAGA-friendly League of Rhode Island Businesses.

This morning, the Charlestown Board of Canvassers accepted my request to amend my form to reflect my original intent to serve on the District 36 Committee and not run for the District 36 seat itself. 

It was a unanimous decision (3-0), and I thank them for their understanding.

The Board of Elections has been officially notified and has taken my name off the Secretary of State’s candidate database.

House District 36 Committee unanimously endorses Rep. Tina Spear for re-election in September 9 Democratic Primary

Her hard work earns support against challenger

By Will Collette

Today, the House District 36 Democratic Committee voted unanimously to officially endorse incumbent Rep. Tina Spears in the upcoming September 9 Democratic Primary. 

The Committee is filing this endorsement in all towns included in the district. House District 36 covers all of Charlestown and Block Island, plus small sections of Westerly and South Kingstown.

The last time Charlestown voters faced a Democratic primary over who will represent House District 36 was twenty years ago. In 2006, longtime State Representative Donna Walsh defeated DINO incumbent Matt McHugh by 685 to 461 in that year's primary.

Donna never faced another primary opponent and served until 2016 when she was defeated by Blake “Flip” Filippi (Republican/Libertarian), an all-round strange guy who in recent years has railed against seals and vaccines but has mostly stuck to raising cattle and his family’s Block Island businesses.

Flip's surprise announcement in 2022 to drop out of Rhode Island politics opened the door for Tina’s election as our Representative where she has been a productive and effective legislator.

From Tina’s website:

Tina has spent the last decade advocating for people with disabilities, and is currently Executive Director of the Community Provider Network of Rhode Island. Her own experience as the parent of a child with significant health challenges led her to become an ardent advocate for families of children with disabilities. She has been a frequent presence at the State House over the last decade, working to defend Medicaid benefits, increase wages for caregivers and help win paid leave for people who must leave work to care for a new child or an ill family member.

​Opposing Tina in the September 9 Democratic Primary is Leah J. Boisclair who is a self-described “Sex Crimes Defense Attorney in Rhode Island.” On her law practice’s website, she graphically lists what types of crimes she will defend, including child rape, domestic violence, homicide, drug crime, white collar crime and so on.

Don’t take my word for it – go to her website.

I was especially surprised at the way she depicted how she would defend against sex crimes. Here’s a screenshot from her website:

Now, if you switch to Boisclair’s campaign website, you’ll see a very different tone as well as content. She mimics Tina’s priority issues of education, environment, affordable housing and health care. There is no record of Boisclair having actually done anything on these issues, but hey, if you want to run as a Democrat, you must at least pretend.

Boisclair glosses over the sordid details of her law practice saying only:

I went through our local schools, earned a political science degree at URI, and graduated cum laude from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2019. I’m licensed in multiple states and federal courts. Before opening my own firm, I worked on criminal and union cases — and then built The Law Office of Leah J. Boisclair, LLC from the ground up…. As an attorney, I stand up for people who need someone in their corner. [Emphasis added].

Make of that what you will. But remember that attorneys, especially those in private practice, CHOOSE who represent.

And those of us who are registered Democratic voters living in House District 36 also CHOOSE who we want to represent us. So, on September 9, please support Rep. Tina Spears in the Democratic Primary.

DISCLOSURE: For years, I have been a member of the House District 36 Democratic Committee and proudly voted today to support Tina Spears in her campaign for re-election.  – Will Collette

Charlestown Democrats - Don’t be fooled

There is only ONE Democrat running in the September 9 primary

By Will Collette

Boisclair sign in front of Jim Mageau's house.
Photo by Will Collette

The September 9 Democratic primary is important not just for the three statewide contests to pick candidates for attorney general and lieutenant governor plus the epic match-up pitting Helena Foulkes against hapless incumbent Governor Dan McKee.

Here in Charlestown, September 9 will decide who will represent Charlestown in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. 

It will feature incumbent Rep. Tina Spears, running for a third term versus self-described sex crime lawyer Leah Boisclair who is backed by rich MAGA gun nut Dave Levesque.

Here is her "menu" of sex crimes she is willing to defend from her own website:

Rape, child rape, child pornography, sex trafficking, slavery are all crimes Boisclair will defend

Boisclair is running as a Democrat even though she has no connection to the Democratic Party other than to say she’s a Democrat this year. Her signs are popping up along South County Trail, including in front of the house of Charlestown’s most vocal Trumper Jim Mageau.

Her record is that of running a law practice that takes pride in representing child abusers, rapists, spouse beaters, bad drivers, crooks and cheats. She uses her website to advertise these specialties and to seek more such clients.

Sure, under the Constitution, everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence and to legal counsel. But LAWYERS choose who they will represent.

Even public defenders have discretion under the Code of Professional Responsibility to decline representation to a client if they are unable to mount a rigorous defense. In fact, the Rhode Island version of the Code expressly acknowledges “[A] lawyer is also guided by personal conscience and the approbation of professional peers.”

Boisclair CHOOSES to represent scumbags. Don’t believe me? READ her own website, as well as the screenshots I have presented taken directly from that site. I was particularly impressed with her graphics in this section on her representation of men accused of crimes against women:

But wait, there's MORE! Here are the other types of crime she will defend:

How is Boisclair different from, for example, a mob lawyer? Or a Trump lawyer? Or a lawyer defending men in Jeffrey Epstein’s circle of friends? Or any other pedo protector? I dunno…you tell me.

I would not want to spend a lot of time in her office's waiting room.

On this alone, I could never support Boisclair. Frankly, why would ANY Charlestown voter want Boisclair to represent then in the General Assembly? I’d rather bring back Flip Filippi, even though he represented the January 6 insurrectionists, the Oath Keepers. But as the saying goes, “but wait, there’s more!”

Boisclair’s main backer, far right MAGA gun nut Dave Levesque, set up 40, count ‘em 40, political action committees under the banner of the “League of Rhode Island Businesses” (LORIB). He has a statewide plus 39 “local” PACs, supposedly for each Rhode Island city and town. Their registrations all look the same, with no local people on any of the PACs and that includes the Charlestown LORIB PAC.

See if you can find any connection to Charlestown in the Charlestown LORIB PAC:

Levesque uses these PACs to get around the state campaign finance law limiting PACs to $2000 in contributions to a single candidate. Since Levesque controls all the LORIB PACs, he simply cuts checks to endorsed candidates from several of his PACs.

Levesque owns the Brewed Awakenings coffee shop chain and is a long-time anti-gun control activist. The gun lobby is also heavily backing his candidates.

Support - LORIB Main PAC

Levesque also takes in anonymous donations. In fact, he has solicited donations by advertising how they can game the system to prevent having their names reported as LORIB donors.

He set Boisclair up with six LORIB checks totaling $10,500 coming from six LORIB PACs. There’s the Charlestown LORIB PAC of course, plus the LORIB PACs purporting to be from Westerly, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Newport and Block Island.

Levesque also opposes any attempt to tax the rich. He was a big opponent to last year’s “Taylor Swift” tax that imposes a state levy on multi-million properties owned by non-residents. He also unsuccessfully fought this year’s “Millionaire Tax” that imposes a 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires.

His candidates, including Leah Boisclair, toe that line. They should have a generic LORIB bumper sticker reading “Don’t regulate guns. Don’t tax the rich.”

Levesque has targeted nearly every Democratic woman legislator in South County because their progressive stances. He is bankrolling opponents to our state Senator Victoria Gu as well as South Kingstown Dems Teresa Tanzi, Carol McEntee, Alana DiMario, Kathy Fogarty and Bridgette Valverde.

Sen. Alana DiMario and Rep. Kathy Fogarty, both targeted by Levesque, introduced legislation to close what ought to be called the “Levesque Loophole” (2026-S 2720, 2026-H 7450) by extending the $2000 limit to apply to multiple PACs that have the same owner. Unfortunately, that legislation did not pass.

Finally, Boisclair’s land use legal work ought to earn her the opposition of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), especially this case that was covered by ecoRI (CLICK HERE). So should Jim Mageau’s support for Boisclair.

Those are the negatives. Let’s look at your positive alternative

Why you should vote for Tina Spears

Here's where I stand. Photo by Will Collette

Tina Spears has served all of Charlestown and the rest of House District 36 with distinction for two terms and seeks your vote for re-election.

Tina points to these achievements from the recently completed General Assembly session:

We were able to make life in our community better by:

·       Fully funding library aid

·       Increasing education funding, especially for special education

·       Securing funding for the Charlestown Breachway rebuild

·       Passing the South Kingstown High School bond

·       Advancing legislation allowing New Shoreham to increase landing fees, manage its water district, and better structure its taxing authority. ​

I am especially proud to have sponsored and passed two bills: 

The Act on Coasts provides Rhode Island with a roadmap to strengthen coastal infrastructure in the face of rising seas. Rather than debating the causes, I am focused on preparing our communities, particularly in District 36, for the changes we are already seeing along our coastline 

The Purple Alert establishes an early alert system when individuals with disabilities go missing, making Rhode Island one of a small number of states to prioritize this vulnerable population. In partnership with advocates, families, and public safety officials, we turned a tragic situation into meaningful action that strengthens our public safety response and saves lives.​

Tina has a long record of community service, while Boisclair has none. Tina often teams up with other legislators such as state Senator Victoria Gu to boost her ability to get bills passed. She meets often with voters in her district. On top of that, she’s a genuinely kind and warm-hearted person.

Vote for Tina Spears in the September 9 Democratic primary. You must be a registered Democrat to vote in this primary.

And Tina DOES NOT protect pedos.