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

Friday, September 02, 2011

Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

Who’s Hot

John Tassoni -> Kudos to Senator Tassoni for calling for an investigation into National Grid’s response to Hurricane Irene. He’s not completely throwing the company under the bus, but he’s right to question whether it was prepared for the storm.

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Barry Hinckley -> As the local GOP endorsements start to roll in for Barry Hinckley, it’s looking more and more like the Republican challenger to Senator Whitehouse in 2012 will not face a serious primary opponent. This is a big win for Hinckley, who can and will spend the next 14 months hammering the Democratic incumbent instead of having to fight it out amongst his own Party.

Susan Menard -> She’s back. The longest serving Mayor of Woonsocket is weighing another run at the town’s top job and could instantly become the favorite. Her biggest problem: You can’t play the “we’re going bankrupt” card when you ran the show for such a long time.

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Providence -> The capital city may have handled its response to Hurricane Irene better than anyone in Rhode Island. Mayor Taveras and his team were at Emergency Operations Center from the minute it opened Sunday morning and they made sure to stay on top of things throughout the storm. For anyone keeping score, Mayor Taveras hasn’t done everything right, but he passes the test when it comes to his handling of storms.

Jessica Kershaw -> Congratulations are in order for Congressman Cicilline’s Communications Director, who is heading off to work of President Obama’s reelection campaign. She did a solid job in her short tenure and if she can handle Rhode Island politics, Presidential politics should be a piece of cake.

Frank Ciccone -> It’s about time someone look into the spending at some of these quasi-public agencies. Hopefully Sen. Ciccone and the Government Oversight Committee can look into ways to make these agencies run a little more efficiently.

James Sheehan -> Good call by Sen. Sheehan for wanting to raise the minimum car tax exemption in cities and towns across the state to $3,500. The decision to lower the exemption to $500 has been met with outrage by residents in a number of communities and while still not perfect, Sheehan’s plan would at least provide some relief for tax payers.

Who’s Not

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Governor Chafee -> The Governor’s last-minute letter to the Board of Regents suggesting they look at moving the proposed Achievement First Mayoral Academy to Providence instead of Cranston is just his way of stalling on a plan he has never supported.

Board of Regents -> Here’s the question no one from the Regents bothered to ask when they skated by on a difficult vote Thursday: Will Achievement First even be willing to change its plans and move to Providence? There are currently a dozen states asking for Achievement First. Why would they want to put up with another drawn out battle in Rhode Island?

Achievement First -> Made a key mistake by not inviting Governor Chafee to New Haven to see how one of its schools operates sooner. This gave him the opportunity to use his “thoughtful pause” argument to his advantage yet again.

National Grid -> They might have the most difficult job of all during storms, but it is unacceptable for people to be out of power for a week after Hurricane Irene hit. One can only imagine what would have happened if this were a category 2 or 3 storm.

Mike Tarro -> Rough week for the Providence-based State Rep. He looked bad last weekend when he continued to demolish the old Grove Street School even after the Mayor ordered him to stop and then he was let go from his position as Assistant City Solicitor later in the week.

North Providence -> At this point, North Providence has to be the perfect case study for small-town corruption in this country, right? It’s unfortunate for the residents that so many leaders have so little regard for the law.

Leo Medina -> The ultimate example of an official who "allegedly" will stop at nothing to make a few bucks, no matter how much it hurts others. How in the world could anyone have elected this man to the General Assembly?

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