Cicilline’s Former Campaign Manager Joins Raimondo Team
Eric Hyers, the former campaign manager for Congressman David Cicilline’s 2012 re-election campaign, has joined General Treasurer and likely 2014 gubernatorial candidate Gina Raimondo’s team.
Raimondo, who has not yet announced whether she will run for governor in 2014, confirmed the move this morning, but has not revealed what Hyers’ role will be.
Hyers, a Massachusetts native, told GoLocal, “My job is to get Gina and her team ready for her end of the year deadline.”
After graduating from Skidmore College in 2006, Hyers began his political career as a field organizer for Kristen Gillibrand’s successful Congressional campaign and later served as a field organizer on former presidential candidate John Edwards’ 2007-2008 Iowa caucus campaign.
Hyers went on to manage Cicilline’s congressional campaign in 2010, as well as his re-election campaign in 2012.
Earlier this year, Hyers managed New Jersey State Senator Nia Gill’s successful re-election campaign earlier this year. Most recently, Hyers managed Massachusetts State Senator Karen Spilka’s unsuccessful Congressional bid.
2014 Rhode Island Gubernatorial Race
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, who announced his candidacy last month, is currently the only major Democratic candidate to join the race. GoLocal first reported last month that Clay Pell, grandson of the late six-term Senator Claiborne Pell, is also considering entering the race. Todd Giroux, who ran as an Independent in 2010, announced last month that he’d run as a Democrat in 2014. Raimondo has stated that she will announce whether she will run for governor by the end of this year.
On the Republican side, former gubernatorial candidate Ken Block and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung have both officially joined the race.
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Jorge Elorza to announce candidacy for Mayor of Providence.
Former Providence Housing Court Judge Jorge Elorza will announce his candidacy for Mayor on Monday, November 18 at 10 a.m. in front of his childhood home in the West End of Providence.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Elorza served as an associate justice on the Providence Housing Court from 2010 to 2013. Elorza, who currently lives in Silver Lake, was also a tenured professor at Roger Williams University until recently leaving that position to campaign full-time.
Aside from Elorza, the current field of Democratic mayoral candidates includes City Council President Michael Solomon, lobbyist and political consultant Brett Smiley, and Lorne Adrain, managing director at Ballentine Partners.
GoLocal first reported last week that State Representative and former Acting Mayor of Providence John Lombardi is also seriously considering running for mayor of Providence.
The winner of the Democratic Primary will face Republican Dr. Daniel Harrop, who is running for mayor for the third time.
Sen. Whitehouse to deliver 50th weekly climate change speech.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will deliver his 50th weekly speech on the topic of climate change today at 4:30 p.m. In his speech, Whitehouse plans to urge his colleagues to “wake up” and take action on climate change.
Specifically, today’s speech will make the case for action on climate change; call out climate change deniers who collude with polluting industries to cast doubt on sound science; and express confidence that we can soon move past the political gridlock preventing serious action on this issue.
Whitehouse’s past speeches have chronicled the ways in which carbon pollution and associated climate change is affecting our planet and local communities – from sea-level rise and ocean acidification, to extreme weather and compromised public health.
Cicilline joins bipartisan effort to support American entrepreneurs.
In an effort of bipartisanship, Congressman David Cicilline joined Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and U.S. Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) earlier today to introduce a resolution that would designate November 30, 2013, as Small Business Saturday.
“I am proud to work across the aisle to introduce this resolution and stand with more than 93,000 small businesses that make up the backbone of Rhode Island’s economy,” said Cicilline. “Small Business Saturday is a commonsense, bipartisan effort to support the hardworking men and women who create jobs and bring life to our local communities, and I look forward to working with members of both parties to support this initiative.”
Aside from the Small Business Saturday measure, Cicilline has also introduced the Make It in America Manufacturing Act, which is designed to help small manufacturers retool their facilities and retrain workers with the skills they need to compete for current manufacturing jobs.
Cicilline also plans to support Rhode Island small businesses this year with a tour through the First District for Small Business Saturday.
Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin has signed onto a letter urging three of the leading smartphone manufacturers – Google/Motorola, Samsung and Microsoft – to develop a technological means to protect smartphone users by drying up secondary markets for stolen devices and eliminate the economic incentive for theft.
With this new letter, Kilmartin is now a member of the Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.) Initiative, an effort to encourage the smartphone industry to implement a solution to end a troubling trend of robberies involving mobile communication devices, which is known as "Apple Picking."
"From talk to text to knowing our exact location in mere seconds, the technology of smartphones is far reaching. With all of the research and development smartphone manufacturers put into making mobile communications indispensable, I strongly believe they can easily develop a solution to deter thefts of these devices that is not only in their best interest but also in the best interest and safety of their customers," said Kilmartin.
The S.O.S. Initiative is an international coalition of prosecutors, police chiefs, state and city comptrollers, and public safety activists. By joining the initiative, Kilmartin and other attorneys general agree that they are committed to press the smartphone industry to find an effective way to combat the rise in violent street crimes involving smartphone thefts.
In the United States, one in three thefts involves a mobile communications device. Consumer Reports estimates that 1.6 million Americans were victimized by smartphone thieves in 2012.
