Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in RI Politics?

Friday, November 11, 2011

Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

Who’s Hot

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Unions -> Give credit where credit is due. The Unions know how to throw a rally. Over 4,500 public employees turned out earlier this week and a day later, the revised pension bill included adjustments to the COLA plan and to the age a retiree can receive full pension benefits. Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t still try to kill the legislation entirely next week.

Mindy Myers -> Senator Whitehouse’s top aide is going to run the Elizabeth Warren campaign in Massachusetts. That is likely to be one of the most talked-about races in the country next year, something Myers is no stranger to (she also ran Richard Blumenthal’s successful Senate campaign against Linda McMahon last year).

Dawson Hodgson -> Everyone calls him a rising star in the state GOP and the State Senator took another step in the right direction in many Republicans’ eyes this week by calling for part-time state employee benefits. Hodgson believes benefits should be reserved for full-time employees.

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Leo Fontaine -> Speaking of Republicans, the Woonsocket Mayor cruised to re-election this week without a challenge. He may be the leader of a cash-strapped town, but his constituents seem to support him and he’s another one with a growing support base of Republicans outside of Woonsocket.

Alex Morse and Daryl Finizio -> Congrats to these two newly elected Mayors with Rhode Island connections. Morse, a close ally of Congressman David Cicilline, won in Holyoke, MA and Finizio, a former Councilman in Westerly, is the new Mayor of New London, CT.

Frank Lombardo -> Did Pauly D really have to bring the smell of Jersey back to Johnston with him? Kudos to Senator Lombardo for calling for swift action to address the stench coming from the landfill.

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Who’s Not

Gina Raimondo -> The Treasurer comes out the winner in pension reform again, but she did make a major political mistake that will follow her for the rest of her career: The fist pumping at the EngageRI rally is going to force a lot of lower and middle class voters to question her motives in the future.

Lincoln Chafee -> Maybe the media has beat up on him too much in his first year, but he has managed to lose the support of the unions and the now that municipal pension reform has been tabled, mayors of most cities and town cannot be too happy with him either.

James Langevin & David Cicilline -> The two Congressmen signed on to a letter this week urging secretaries of state in all 50 states to oppose voter ID laws. That’s fine. But it’s unfortunate that neither Langevin nor Cicilline were willing to talk to GoLocalProv about the letter. Their spokesmen both failed to reply to multiple requests for comment.

Jack Reed -> Speaking of staying quiet, why hasn’t Senator Reed offered his opinion on same-sex marriage. He is the only member of the Delegation that isn’t supporting the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Again, that’s totally fine. But Reed should let his constituents know where he stands on these issues.

John McCauley -> At this point, the State House ought to be known as Wyatt-light. It’s a shame this Rep. ended up in the hospital last week, but it’s never a good sign when the Feds are investigating your work office. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Cumulus Media -> It’s bad for Rhode Island to have a corporate giant come in and slash jobs at such an influential media outlet. In particular, getting rid of Bob Plain, who was doing an excellent job as a digital reporter, was a foolish move. Here’s hoping the layoffs are complete.

Joe Paterno -> Nobody should feel bad for a guy who did next to nothing to address that disgusting situation at Penn State.

Rick Perry -> You know how Bob Walsh says he liked Candidate Chafee a lot more than he likes Governor Chafee? Well it’s just the opposite for Republicans and Rick Perry. If his status as a serious contender in the Presidential race hadn’t already evaporated, it did this week.

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