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

Friday, March 15, 2013

Dan Lawlor, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

Every Friday, Dan Lawlor breaks down who's rising and who's falling in the world of Rhode Island politics. Check out who made the cut this week.

Who’s Hot

For her efforts on scheduling a vote on same-sex marriage and preparing the Senate's "Moving the Needle" legislation, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed landed a spot on this week's "Who's Hot?" list.

Rep. J Patrick O'Neill-> O'Neill, once part of House leadership, stepped away from power when it conflicted with his principles. On Tuesday, O'Neill helped organize a successful vote in the Judiciary Committee for a bill that would restore the R.I. Ethics Commission’s oversight power over state lawmakers. On Wednesday, Speaker Fox removed him from the Judiciary Committee, and nullified the ethics vote. We need more representatives like O'Neill willing to buck leadership to advance the state.

Ken Block-> Kudos for Ken Block! From tackling fraud and waste in the state's Human Services to helping overflow the House Judiciary chamber with opponents of the state's confusing Master Lever, Block, founder of the Moderate Party, was a Rhode Island problem-solver this week. He did it with facts.

Providence School Board-> The Renaissance City—excuse me, Creative Capital—School Board directly challenged the State Department of Education's new graduation testing proposal. Unless the state is serious about financially committing tutoring supports to help current students succeed with the NECAP benchmark, this new graduation requirement will keep youth down.

Angel Taveras-> The last few years have been challenging for students, families, and faculty in the capital city. Too many school buildings are still in need of repair, and some greater cohesion and consistency with principals is a must, yet winning the $5 million Grand Prize from Bloomberg's Mayor's Challenge to support an innovative family literacy initiative is not too shabby. Good job to the Mayor and his team for winning some needed cash to build up community supports.

James Monteiro-> This Mt. Hope community advocate is working hard to build up a proposed "Billy Taylor House"—hoping to provide job training and positive opportunities for young people around Camp St. in the city's East Side. Numerous community centers are struggling, but one with a clear mission and vision might be a good jump start for a neighborhood hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.

Teresa Paiva-Weed -> The Senate President facilitated the release of a range of economic reform proposals—some eyebrow raising, some exciting, but all with a good focus on the economy. In addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee will finally hold a hearing on Marriage Equality next week. I'll remind the Senate President that lack of equal marriage rights for LGBT business owners is definitely a turn-off for out of state business re-location.

Who’s Not

Governor Lincoln Chafee's handling of the controversial Block report on fraud/waste landed him a spot on the "Who's Not?" list this week.

Gordon Fox-> Speaker Fox is running scared of dissenters and open debate. On Tuesday, without prior leadership approval, Representative J. Patrick O'Neill organized a successful vote in the House Judiciary Committee for ethics reform. On Wednesday, Fox had his judiciary chair declare the vote null and void, and removed O'Neill from the committee. Shameless.

Edith Ajello-> The Judiciary Chair was doing her best San Bento impression of good government. Despite voting the previous day to support an ethics reform bill, Ajello locked step with the Speaker and nullified the committee's previous vote of support. Ethics reform is now being held for further study. Ajello, you're breaking my heart.

Met Life Insurance-> The insurance giant will be cutting over 500 positions from its Warwick division. While the state's official jobless rate is now at 9.8%, corporate cuts don't do much for improving the mood. How can we encourage more local business?

Lincoln Chafee -> The Governor fumbled what could have been a slam dunk. Chafee commissioned a report on fraud and waste, but the Governor kept the public report private. After much protest, Chafee released the report to the press. Take away lesson: copying the legislature's style of transparency is never a good play.

The General Assembly-> The Sunlight Foundation is a DC nonprofit that focuses on government accountability and transparency. In a recent legislative ranking on transparency, Rhode Island's General Assembly earned a D (originally we had an F, but after protests they bumped us up). We tied with Maine (D), scored better than Massachusetts (F), and ranked lower than Connecticut (A), Vermont (B) and New Hampshire (A).

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Comments:

Malachi Constant

6:53am on Friday, March 15, 2013

OK...stop. How often do you want to show you know nothing about RI politics?

frank bentley

7:03am on Friday, March 15, 2013

I thought you quit?..write a check to Mcgowan..u owe him for this gig

RI Taxpayer

7:44am on Friday, March 15, 2013

========================================================================

Gordon Fox = Bad government = why RI is in the shape it's in.

It's time RIers voted smarter...for themselves and their children.

Michael Trenn

8:19am on Friday, March 15, 2013

Ah, the Governot!" Hot" one week, "not" the next. He really deserves a permanent spot on the not list for this last one.

jon paycheck

10:07am on Friday, March 15, 2013

blazajewski? is he hot or not?

he agreed with fox, ajello that bill should be pulled but he gets a free ride?

Aaron Regunberg

10:07am on Friday, March 15, 2013

Hey Dan, it's strange and disappointing to put Block on the hot list for, as Sam Howard so articulately put it, his "outrage porn" of a "fraud" report.

Ronald Syper

10:07am on Friday, March 15, 2013

I have been waiting for the day that Paiva-Weed would be praised for the Homosexual Marriage issue and opening the door for a Senate.

Marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman for the purposes of procreation. Homosexual Love is immoral and the acts of homosexuality constitute abnormal behavior.

Michael Gardiner

11:44am on Friday, March 15, 2013

Met life is feeling very hot in North Carolina. If Rhode island provided basic free health insurance to everyone, and removed health insurance obligations from every venture and business they would flock here and thrive. Young entrepreneurs would start businesses here. Part time employees would be able to strive for more hours and full time employees would be cut to part time. So workers would come to live here instead of those who seek subsidy. Nobody would be facing penalties. Everyone would have access to prevention and affordable care you wouldn't have classes of people with an incentive to remain subsidized or earn on the sly. Fund that with sales tax so everyone has skin in the game.

Todd B

1:29pm on Friday, March 15, 2013

"I'll remind the Senate President that lack of equal marriage rights for LGBT business owners is definitely a turn-off for out of state business re-location.

"The insurance giant will be cutting over 500 positions from its Warwick division...."

Let me get this straight. MetLife is moving high-paying jobs to North Carolina. Don't they know that North Carolina recently voted for a complete BAN on gay marriage, which means that state will be economically uncompetitive?

MetLife must not know much about business or creating jobs.

jon paycheck

1:48pm on Friday, March 15, 2013

todd b..dont let the facts get in the way of progressive politics....

that would have been a great question for anyone supporting gay marraige

michael riley

4:05pm on Friday, March 15, 2013

I think the fact that North Carolina has a more attractive tax structure for employees and the business , a lower cost of living, especially property taxes and is a "right to work" state has a great deal to do with the Met Life decision.

Arthur Schaper

5:31pm on Friday, March 15, 2013

Dan Lawlor:

Please contact me at

arthurschaper@hotmail.com

It's time to take the "loser" GOP back to the front line in RI.

It's to tell people the truth, the Democratic Party is eating itself because of its corrupt, monolithic prominence.

Someone has got to stop this insanity!

anthony sionni

6:28pm on Friday, March 15, 2013

fox needs to go, they think they are slick, so much for ethics!

You should have put the whole state on the whos not hot list , we are number 1 in unemployment now!

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

Who’s Hot

Who’s Not

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Comments:

Malachi Constant

frank bentley

RI Taxpayer

Michael Trenn

jon paycheck

Aaron Regunberg

Ronald Syper

Michael Gardiner

Todd B

jon paycheck

michael riley

Arthur Schaper

anthony sionni

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