In contrast to WPRI, Congressman Jim Langevin thinks his campaign competitor Abel Collins should be allowed to participate in the televised debates, he told me in an interview today.
“All three of us should be debating,” Langevin said. “The voters on election day are going to be confronted with three options. If they aren’t hearing from all three candidates in the debates, it deprives the voters.”
Mike Riley declined to comment on the matter. A campaign staffer said to me, “We don’t make statements to your blog.”
WPRI will hold a televised debate on Tuesday night between Langevin, the incumbent, and Republican candidate Mike Riley, who is largely financing his own campaign. Collins was not invited to participate. WPRI General Manager Jay Howell declined to comment on why Collins wasn’t invited.
Phillipe and Jorge reported last week that they believe WJAR may invite Collins after all. They wrote, “P&J have a feeling that situation may change.
Abel appeared on Channel 10′s News Conference last Sunday by himself, with both Langevin and Riley apparently standing up host Jim Taricani. Reports from those close to the event said that Our Jimmy was less than amused (read: furious), so after Collins’s solo performance, look for a quick JARhead ‘sorry your invitation got lost in the mail’ weaseling.”
Collins has started a petition drive asking WPRI to include him in the WPRI debate.
My thanks to Congressman Langevin for standing up for free speech and open debates in Rhode Island. And Thanks to you, Bob Plain for your outstanding reporting and journalistic ethos and tenacity.
— Mike Riley declined to comment on the matter. A campaign staffer said to me, “We don’t make statements to your blog.”
And Mike Riley’s campaign should know, if they care enough to read this blog, that his comment means that he does not care about the segment of the population that reads this blog. It would be helpful to the voters if Mr. Riley would publish the list of news source outlets whose readers he does not care about (Warwick Beacon? South County independent?)
So Riley won’t comment to RIFuture? Shocking. Back when I had a column that appeared in the Narragansett Times, Mike Riley was one of my regular correspondents. Herewith a sample of his fan mail:
Dr Mr Sgouros,
Your recent communist diatribe in the “communist times” revealed a giant gap in your knowledge of pensions and education. You couldn’t be more wrong or more communist. People like you need to be educated in some other country. Preferably Venezuela.
Michael G Riley
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Dear Tom Sgouros,
I dont understand why the Narragansett Times prints any of your lunatic ravings.For a look at what a true intellectual might say and a capitalist newspaper might print ,I have attached a recent note from Brian Bishop.
Michael G Riley
Narragansett
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Morning Hugo, that article on banks and hedge funds was truly pathetic
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Needless to say this made him one of my treasured regular correspondents. His notes to me always arrived addressed to “communist” so I’d know who it was from. When he announced his run for office, he sent out an invite to join his network on LinkedIn that read like so:
communist,
I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.- Michael
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So that’s Mike Riley for you: tolerant of opposing viewpoints, humble about his own, committed to reasoned discussion as the route to moving our polity forward. I couldn’t be more sincere about my support for him.
Do I sense some sarcasm here Tom?
I am curious, has anyone seen a statement from Langevin anywhere else than on this progressive blog?
Was there a press release or a letter to the editor that I missed? TV interview?