RI Reporters and Columnists Covering 2018 Election
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Reporters and Columnists Covering 2018 Election
At a time of change and turmoil in media, Rhode Island is seeing a transformation. The Providence Journal which once claimed a newsroom of more than 120 a decade ago, now has just 10 to 15 reporters.
With numerous political races in Rhode Island now heating up, GoLocal takes a look at the political reporters and columnists that will investigate the claims, analyze the campaign white papers, and dig through the campaign finance reports.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe governor's race alone could spark as much as $10 million in combined spending. The spending level could hit record levels, and so could the number of candidates. The race for Governor may include ten or more -- the number of candidates may outnumber the total count of reporters and columnists.
See Who Is Going to Cover the 2018 Races Below
A competitive race is expected for Rhode Island Lt. Governor — both in the Democratic primary and potentially in the general election. The Democratic primary could see as much as $2 million spent in the primary between sitting Lt. Governor Dan McKee and his challenger Aaron Regunberg -- a sitting State Representative.
The GOP will have a competitive primary for the U.S. State Senate nomination between former Supreme Court Judge Bob Flanders and State Representative Bobby Nardolillo. The winner takes on a vulnerable sitting Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Recent polling shows his public support far under 50 percent.
A Pew Research report found that the number of reporters in statehouses across the country has dramatically decreased. According to the study, the number of statehouse reporters decreased from over 500 in 2003 to 300 in 2014. The numbers have fallen even more quickly since 2014 as newspaper staffing has collapsed.
In Rhode Island, the number has shrunk dramatically over the past two decades. The Providence Journal used to deploy five full-time reporters to the Rhode Island State House, the Pawtucket Times’ Jim Baron was a mainstay, and the Newport Daily News’ Joe Baker was a State House regular.
In addition, each of the television stations had one to two reporters who were regulars. Today, newspapers are shrinking and local TV is also transforming, “From 2016 to 2017, the portion of Americans who often rely on local TV for their news fell 9 percentage points, from 46% to 37%,” reports Pew.
See Who Is Going to Cover the 2018 Races
RI Reporters and Columnists Covering 2018 Election
Ian Donnis
Political Reporter, RIPR
Earned his reporting stripes at the now defunct Providence Phoenix, where Donnis did comprehensive and innovative reporting for the alt-weekly. At RIPR over the past decade, he has been a regular at the State House and appeared as a panelist on WPRI’s Newsmakers.
PHOTO: Twitter
Katherine Gregg
State House Reporter, Providence Journal
The grand dame of the State House. She has been a constant for nearly 30 years at the Capitol building. This year she was inducted into the RI Hall of Fame.
She is likely to be assigned to cover the Governor's race for the Journal.
Kate Nagle
News Editor, GoLocalProv
In 2018, Nagle launched an innovative weekly one hour live broadcast from the State House. The new platform is an extension of GoLocal LIVE -- the daily two-hour live broadcast. The Harvard grad and former Capitol Hill staffer knows both DC and RI.
She will be leading GoLocal's 2018 reporting.
Scott McKay
Columnist, RIPR
McKay is RI's war-torn political columnist. He may be only part-time these days, but still active with his commentary usually with a left-leaning bent. McKay, once a political reporter at the Providence Journal — a decade or so ago — can now be found on RI Public Radio.
On social media, he is often raging against Donald Trump.
PHOTO: Twitter
Ed Achorn
Editorial Page Editor, Providence Journal
He's known for his right-leaning bent, but Achorn can surprise with his leanings, depending on the issue -- he's been known to battle the RI GOP Chair. Achorn's has been filling the holes at the Projo, where the Editorial page once had seven full-time writers and is now down to just two.
Author of the baseball book, "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey."
Photo: Twitter
Robert Whitcomb
Columnist, GoLocalProv
Whitcomb has had a storied media career.
He has served as the finance editor of the International Herald Tribune, in Paris; as a vice president and the editorial-page editor of The Providence Journal; as an editor and writer in New York for The Wall Street Journal, and as a writer for the Boston Herald Traveler (RIP).
His Sunday mega-column is now featured on GoLocal.
He has written newspaper and magazine essays and news stories for many years on a very wide range of publications, has edited several books and movie scripts, and is the co-author of the book "Cape Wind."
He is part William Buckley, a little Ben Bradlee, and a tad Yoda.
Ted Nesi
Political Reporter, WPRI
Nesi’s Notes is a weekly must-read. He is WPRI-12’s political reporter and business writer.
Before joining WPRI, he served a tour at PBN. He is one of the co-hosts of the Nextar affiliate's Newsmakers.
Photo: Twitter
Patrick Anderson
Staff Writer, Providence Journal
An experienced reporter, Anderson has been in-and-out of staffing the State House office for the Projo. In addition, he often covers transportation issues for the paper. He is a former PBN writer.
Photo: Twitter
Bill Rappleye
WJAR-10, Political Reporter
The veteran reporter has been in the Providence market since 2014. He is the host for the Sinclair Broadcasting's affiliate's weekly political affairs show -- 10 News Conference.
Will lead Channel 10's coverage.
Ray Rickman
GoLocalProv, Video Editorialist
Rickman served as a State Representative, Deputy Secretary of State, and has been a leading voice for civil rights in Rhode Island for the past three decades.
He has become the leading voice on civil rights and equity issues in Rhode Island via his weekly video editorials on GoLocal and his panel slot on ABC6's "In the Arena."
Regionals
Reporters who will be covering the regional races include:
Dan McGowan, WPRI -- Will focus on the Providence Mayoral Race
Ethan Shorey, Valley Breeze -- Will be covering the Northern Rhode Island local elections
