Side of the Rhode: Who’s hot and who’s not in Rhode Island politics?

Friday, July 16, 2010

by Matthew Jerzyk

 

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Read Side of the Rhode - Who's Hot and Who's Not in RI Politics - every Friday only at GoLocalProv.com!

WHO'S HOT

Patrick Lynch  -> Lynch did both the expected and the unexpected this week when he announced that he was dropping out of the Governor's race.  The move was expected because of the lack of message, organization and fundraising.  But, the move was unexpected because Lynch seemed intent on staying in the race at whatever the cost.  To be sure, Lynch's move - like Matt Brown's in 2006 - might very well pave the way for the Democratic nominee to sharpen his knives on Linc Chafee and pull out a win in the General Election.

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Chris Young  -> What's a Providence's mayor's race without this Chris Farley impersonator?  Young's conspiracy theories and no-holds-barred attacks were a delightful addition to the 2-hour mayoral forum on Wednesday night.  Especially pleasing was Young's comment that he would tax Brown University.  His reason: 'they arrested me.  Of course I will tax them.  I want revenge!'

David Cicilline  -> The Providence Mayor came into the 1st Congressional debate as the favorite and left the debate being more so the clear favorite.  He demonstrated confidence, poise, a progressive vision and polish on stage and on TV.  The other David in the race, David Segal, also did a great job in his first televised debate.  Cicilline also raised the most money of any candidate in Rhode Island for any office by raising more than $430k in the second quarter giving him a huge fundraising advantage heading into the homestretch of this race to replace Congressman Patrick Kennedy.  Time wil tell if and when his 3 opponents come on the offensive for him.

Angel Taveras  -> It came out this week that Taveras raised the most money from the grassroots in the Mayor's race for the 2nd straight quarter - a pretty remarkable feat considering his opponents are entrenched and powerful incumbents and Taveras has refused contributions from city workers and city contractors.  Utilizing social media and an army of small donors, Taveras has raised over a quarter of a million dollars in the 4 months since he joined the Mayor's race.  Taveras also excelled at the Mayor's forum and released a comprehensive plan to create jobs in the capital city.

Jack Reed  -> When Chris Dodd's stock plummeted in the Senate, it was Rhode Island's senior Senator who picked up the ball on financial reform and, yesterday, his hard work was realized when the Senate finally passed financial reform.  Of course, since the bill needed 60 votes, it was not as strong as it should have been on derivatives and too big to fail, but it is a good first step.  The legislation creates a consumer financial protection bureau to regulate the trading of derivatives, ends taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street institutions by establishing a new authority to wind down failing mega-firms outside of bankruptcy and protects small businesses by establishing reasonable and fair swipe fees for debit and credit cards.

Richard Morrison  ->  Kudos to this Bristol father of a special needs daughter for calling out Rep. Doug Gablinske (D- Bristol/ Warren) (who refused to return Morrison's calls for help for his own daughter) on Gablinske's vote to decrease school funding in his own district.  Morrison quickly amassed almost twice the required number of signatures and has been certified as a candidate in the Democratic primary.

Ed Pacheco  ->  Quickly after becoming chairman, Pacheco ran a well-oiled Democratic convention, cleared the field in the Democratic primary for Governor and unveiled an impressive slate of new staffers at the Democratic Party.  He is clearly living up to the billing as a Chairman who will breathe new life into the RI Democratic Party.

Albert Pujols, Yovani Gallardo, Jerry Hairston Jr. & Heath Bell  ->  Kudos to these MLB players who took the occasion of the MLB All-Star game to announce their opposition to the Arizona immigration law.  Pujols said, "How are you going to tell me that, me being Hispanic, if you stop me and I don't have my ID, you're going to arrest me? That can't be.''  Hairston added that "It reminds me of seeing the old movies with the Nazis when they ask you to show your papers.  It's not right. I can't imagine my mom -- who's been a U.S. citizen longer than I've been alive, who was born and raised in Mexico -- being asked to show her papers. I can't imagine that happening.  So it kind of hits home for me."

Rick McAuliffe  ->  Props to this prominent Democratic leader for (somehow) being named by Gov. Carcieri to the exclusive club that recommends nominations to the state's judiciary: the nine-member Judicial Nominating Commission.  He is a former staffer to Jack Reed, Patrick Kennedy and has led a successful government relations company - the Mayforth Group - for the last decade.  McAuliffe is replacing Soloman A. Solomon. 

Chris Blazejewski  ->  This first-time candidate for office, the founder of Drinking Liberally Providence,  is running to replace David Segal in House District 2.  And he's off to quite a start!  In Q2, he raised over $30k in 50 days since launcing campaign on May 11.  Then, he quickly opened a campaign office at 18 South Angell Street and turned out dozens of volunteers to canvass and collected over 150 signatures in just three days.  He will be tough to beat!

Maria Cimini  ->  Maria was the first candidate to qualify for the ballot last week because of her well-organized campaign, asking 7 volunteers to come to District 7 on 7/7 and get 7 signatures each!  Lucky 7s, I guess!  She garnered enough signatures on day one to be the first candidate to qualify.  Not only has Maria been running a strong, progressive campaign for months now but got an added boost when the incumbent she was challenging, Rep. Joanne Giannini decided to retire.   

WHO'S NOT

Anthony Gemma  -> Most everyone who watched the first Congressional debate agrees that Gemma bombed his first debate.   Gemma began the night by offering a nervous and unfocused opening statement.  Then, after moderator Tim White challenged him on his statement supporting the privatization of Social Security, Gemma responded that, in the intervening two weeks, he had "done his homework" and changed his mind.  Then, on two issues that are central to Democratic primary voters, Gemma stated that he was against a woman's right to choose and a worker's right to organize a union free of employer intimidation.   In the "gotcha" moment of the debate, moderator White challenged Gemma on his $1k contribution to Republican Governor Don Carcieri.  Gemma defended his contribution to Carcieri citing Carcieri's work on separation of powers.  White interrupted and noted that separation of powers passed in 2004 and Gemma's donation occurred in 2006.  Uhhhh, no response.  Gemma simply could not account for the two year time difference.  And, Gemma's repeated assertion that the United States has a $1 MILLION deficit (instead of TRILLION) drew stunned looks of from the assembled crowd.

Lincoln Chafee  -> Poor Linc can't seem to get back that ju-ju that forced Democrats to kill each other in 2000.  First, in 2006 the Democrats cleared field for Sheldon Whitehouse.  Now, they have done the same for Frank Caprio in 2010.  Not only is Caprio saved the bruising of a late Primary battle, but he can now save his millions for the General Election - millions that Chafee currently doesn't have in his campaign account (until or if Chafee taps his fortune for this race).  And, Caprio can continue to whack away at Chafee's sales tax plan - a plan that is a tough sell in this election year of economic uncertainty.  One thing is for sure - his team must be rushing to dust-off the 'Democrats for Chafee' campaign signs.

Betsy Dennigan  -> This Congressional challenger to Jim Langevin had another rather paltry quarter of fundraising.  For the second straight quarter, Dennigan only raised $20k, forcing her to put in another $50k of her own money.  During the same time period, she spent nearly the same amount of money: on one mailing and on focus groups.  She has now put in $170k of her own money in this race.  Both her and her family may regret that decision come September 15th.

Steven Costantino  -> Not only are politicos shaking their head that Costantino is talking about 'fiscal responsibility' in the Mayor's race when he just left a $100 million hole in the state budget, but one economic analyst sent out an alert regarding the House Finance chairman's support of the economic deal to give Curt Schilling's video game company 60% of the state's $125 million in job creation loan guarantees.  He cited Providence's need to create about 40,000 jobs to get back to "normal" employment and the fact that this 38 Studios deal would work out to exactly 1% of the jobs that Providence needs - while sucking up 60% of the loan fund.  Why does Costantino think this is a good idea when, the investors here, led by Wells Fargo, take no risk but could enjoy upside gains if the company pans out (which they clearly don't believe will happen since Wells Fargo won't finance the company on its own).  Yet another example of government officials going "all-in" with taxpayer money on a special deal where the public takes the risk and private investors are lined up to reap the award.  What about the other 99% of the problem, Chairman?

Travis Rowley  ->  This Young Republican has been promoting his latest book as a treatise condemning the Rhode Island left, but at only 43 pages, this pamphlet reads more like a series of right-wing-radio rants than anything.  I guess Travis failed to take any English courses during his time at that left-wing Ivy League university that he graduated from - Brown.   

The City of Pawtucket  -> This past week, Fitch downgraded the city's debt obligations two notches and gave a negative outlook for city debt ratings going forward citing inadequate financial controls and “irresponsible” decision making by city officials in the lack of a clear budget plan to address the state’s cut in car tax reimbursements – about $9 million for Pawtucket.  The two new Mayoral candidates seeking to replace outgoing Mayor Doyle need to offer their solutions soon to this fiscal crisis.

Jeremy Kapstein  ->  This Red Sox senior advisor is supposedly running in the Democratic Primary against Elizabeth Roberts for Lt. Governor, but the only media attention he has sought or received seems to be his thoughts on the passing of the former Yankees boss, George Steinbrenner.  Que pasa, Jerry?

Don Carcieri  ->  Bueller?  Bueller?  Anyone???

Email me at mjerzyk at gmail dot com with your hot/not ideas.

 

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