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

Friday, December 02, 2011

Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

Who's Hot

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Elizabeth Roberts -> She’s been nearly invisible to the public in the first year of her second term, but Lt. Governor Roberts earned some love this week when Rhode Island became the first state to receive “level 2” funding for its health benefits exchange. No matter how you feel about the program, Rhode Island is clearly leading the way nationally and Roberts deserves credit for working to behind the scenes to make it happen.

Governor Chafee -> Tree-gate got in the way this week, but Governor Chafee did make the right call in pushing for marijuana to be reclassified as a schedule two drug. As the Governor pointed out, virtually every study suggests there is some health benefit to medical marijuana and this seems like a no-brainer move. As long as Rhode Island doesn’t become California with pot dispensaries on every corner, this could be a good thing.

Jack Reed -> Kudos to Senator Reed for looking out for service members who are being screwed over by predatory lenders. This week he introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that will close loopholes that allow banks to skirt certain loan rules and charge exorbitant overdraft fees.

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Devin Driscoll -> The Obama campaign now has someone running the show in Rhode Island. As RIPR first reported, Driscoll, a Providence College graduate, is back in the Ocean State to lead the President’s re-election efforts. The task at hand: Reenergize a base that feels partially let down by the man they elected four years ago.

Charles Lombardi -> The North Providence Mayor is reporting that his town will finish in-the-black for a second consecutive year. When you consider how many cities and towns are on brink of collapse, Lombardi deserves credit for having his town on the right track. And if you just get rid of all the corruption, North Providence could become a model for the entire state.

Patrick Sweeney -> The GOP Executive Director has to be the frontrunner to become the Chairman of the Party now that Ken McKay bailed for a job in Washington. He hasn’t made his decision yet, but for a Party that could desperately use an energetic young person to move it in a new direction, there isn’t a better choice.

Central Falls -> Its tagline is “a city with a bright future,” but for awhile, it appeared Central Falls might be a city with no future. Thankfully, it appears things are turning around and this week, police and fire retirees reached a tentative agreement on pension cuts. Receiver Robert Flanders Jr. deserves credit for working with the unions and retirees to improve the city’s finances.

Carmen Castillo -> Congrats to the Democrat who won the Ward 9 special election in Providence. Here’s hoping she plays a similar role on the Council that her predecessor, Miguel Luna, played. What the city doesn’t need is another puppet that is unwilling to challenge both the administration and the rest of the Council.

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Who's Not

Brendan Doherty -> He appeared to be surging with the GOP primary remaining open and more and more people starting to buzz about how much he has improved as a candidate in recent months, but Ken McKay leaving the Party could be a bit damaging. It was unclear whether McKay supported Doherty over John Loughlin, but the majority of names being thrown about to replace him are squarely in the Loughlin camp. It will be interesting to see how much that affects the race over the next year.

Patrick T. McDonald -> It seems like every week a current or former state lawmaker is finding himself in trouble with the law and it’s getting to be disgusting. We saw all the polls about what voters think about Congress. Can you just imagine what local voters think about the General Assembly?

Don Grebien -> The Pawtucket Mayor has done an excellent job in his first year in office, but getting rid of the RIPTA hub downtown is a shortsighted idea. Hiding poor people that hang out downtown might make the city more attractive, but those people aren’t suddenly going to disappear from Pawtucket.

Holiday Trees -> So much for all those nice national stories about Rhode Island leading the way on pension reform. Now the state goes back to looking like a sideshow for the national media thanks to a meaningless debate over trees.

EngageRI -> The group that led the way on lobbying for pension reform got some bad press this week when it was revealed that 1) it promised an iPad to the student with the best sign at their recent rallies and 2) it never actually gave anyone the iPad. Probably not the best way to keep college kids happy.

Providence GOP -> The city is desperately in need of at least one minority party voice on the Council, but the Providence Republicans face what appears to be a nearly impossible battle. They had a fairly solid candidate in this week’s special Ward 9 election and had the backing of the state Party and they still couldn’t get 100 votes in the race.


 

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