doherty – RI Future

November 5, 2012November 5, 2012

Progress Report: Defining Moment in Cicilline, Doherty; Ugliest Campaigns; What EG Is Debating; Guy Fawkes Day

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Happy Guy Fawkes Day. Disclaimer: RI Future does not condone and does not like violence.

A defining moment of the David Cicilline v. Brendan Doherty campaign was captured by Phil Marcelo of the Providence Journal this weekend … both candidates were in a South Providence fruit store when a Cicilline “Spanish-speaking emissary,” according to Marcelo, said of Doherty, “He shouldn’t be in this neighborhood. He talks about undocumented immigrants posing a threat to our neighborhood.” Doherty denied the accusation but the woman retorted that it is right there on his website.

Here’s a few of the reasons why this exchange defines the campaign: In so many different ways, Cicilline is running to represent the people who shop at this market, and Doherty is running to oppress them … from immigration to economic policy. Doherty is pretty acutely anti-immigration. He doesn’t support the DREAM Act. But also, Doherty likes to distance himself from his conservative leanings – so much so that he actually claims it’s negative campaigning when Cicilline links him to his own party, let alone his own policies…

That said, if David Cicilline holds on to his seat in Congress it won’t be because of favorable media coverage – this story was buried inside the Sunday ProJo and it’s been pretty disheartening to see the tacit and overt biases exemplified against his campaign – it will be because the 1st District loves liberals. The local media, not so much…

Scott MacKay has some brilliant 11th-hour observations about the election … including dubbing East Providence the Ohio of the CD1 contest.

GoLocal ranks the ugliest campaigns of this cycle … they give the top honor to the Mark Binder/Gordon Fox contest and rank the Cicilline/Doherty race as number 3. Anthony Gemma appears no where on their list.

Speaking of Anthony Gemma, you know the campaign season must be winding down because he has re-followed me on Twitter! Welcome back, Anthony!!

The ProJo Political Scene team eviscerates Gina Raimondo this morning for trying to keep her fundraising efforts secret. Tey report that at least half of the money she raised last quarter came from out of state … who are these non-Rhode Islanders that want Raimondo to be governor, and whose interest do they represent? The state’s or their own?

A great story of a Smithfield farmer who has tripled in size since 2008, without the benefit of any new tax breaks … more evidence that local agriculture is great economic development!!

Not only will the House vote on marriage equality next session if Gordon Fox holds on to the Speaker’s gavel, he says it will vote early too … that means the media will have ample time to press Teresa Paiva Weed and the State Senators (a great 50s’ band name if ever there was one) into doing likewise!! Just a vote, TPW … that’s all we ask!!

Just in case you thought all Rhode Island towns are suffering in these though economic times, take a look at the questions candidates for East Greenwich School Committee are being asked about why they should be considered for office: “Do you favor iPads (or the like) for every EGHS student? If so, how quickly would you like to see that take place? Should the EGSD expand language offerings (i.e. to include Chinese and/or Arabic), even if that means current language offerings would have to be reduced? Are you in favor of high school students starting later?” I’m pretty sure these aren’t the same questions being asked of school committee candidates in West Warwick, Central Falls or Pawtucket…

Coventry fire fighters are the best!! Some of ’em work for free; others deliver babies.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day … on this day in 1605, Fawkes is caught in the basement of Parliament trying to blow the joint sky-high. To celebrate, Anonymous says it’s gonna take down Facebook.

And happy birthday to one of the world’s most progressive (and best?) basketball players of all time, Bill Walton.

October 16, 2012October 16, 2012

David Cicilline Wins Debate Against Brendan Doherty

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David Cicilline said Brendan Doherty would side with conservative House Republicans if elected to Congress and effectively do damage to social security and Medicare, while Doherty said he would be his own man who would work to protect social security and Medicare.

Can both be true? Cicilline may have made such a point at the WPRI debate at PPAC Tuesday night when he said because Doherty supports the very conservative House Republican leaders how he would vote is less important than who he would vote for.

By the time it comes to voting, Cicilline said, the damage would already have been done. “They don’t need him at that point. He already put them in power.”

Another area where the two candidates disagreed: Cicilline said he would improve the local and national economy by investing in the manufacturing sector; Doherty said he would do so by drilling for more oil.

Seriously, in his appeal to Rhode Island voters, Doherty actually recycled the old Sarah Palin logic of “drill baby drill.”

Cicilline, on the other hand, said high wages in China and rising costs for transportation are making manufacturing a more viable option for growth again. Since we can bring more manufacturing jobs than oil drilling jobs to Rhode Island, the advantage on this one has to go to the incumbent.

A highlight was when moderator Tim White asked Doherty is he took exception to Cicilline’s previous career as a criminal defense attorney. Doherty said it only became a campaign issue because the Cicilline campaign took him to task for not supporting the Violence Against Women Act, to which White said, “You’re basically saying he started it.”

He started it is not indicative of uncommon integrity. Just sayin.

Another interesting moment was when neither candidate would endorse the landmark pension reform bill the General Assembly passed during a special session last year.

“Pension reform is best done by negotiations,” said Ciciline. “People made life decisions based on those commitments.”

Doherty added, “I wish it was done fairer and more equitable. We know we needed pension reform. I wish they put a little bit more effort into it.”

September 13, 2012September 13, 2012

Progress Report: Cicilline vs. Doherty, or Policy vs. Smear; Two Democratic Parties; Tax Cuts Don’t Stimulate, Tobin

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downtown from providence river — Downtown Providence from the Providence River. (Photo by Bob Plain)

The new best political narrative in Rhode Island is also the biggest battle for progressives: Congressman David Cicilline’s reelection battle against Brendan Doherty. Cicilline is among the most liberal legislators from the Northeast and Doherty would be one of the most conservative. That’s the case Democrats will be making these next 54 days, while Republicans will run more of a smear campaign. While the local mainstream media will probably care more about the character issues, we’re betting voters will care more about policy.

We don’t often find opportunity to write this sentence but here goes: there’s truth to what Donna Perry writes in GoLocalProv this morning about their being two very different factions of the Democratic Party at the State House. The blue dog Dems support tax cuts to the rich and retirement benefit cuts for the working class, marriage inequality and voter ID laws, while the progressive wing doesn’t. Which one sounds more like the traditional Democratic Party to you?

Speaking of tax cuts for the wealthy, a new study shows they don’t stimulate growth. Then again, Rhode Island is another study that depicts this trend…

One of the reasons Rhode Island has Democrats that skew to the right is we allow people who are completely out-of-touch with mainstream values like Bishop Tobin to define them.

But the Green Party will be on the Rhode Island ballot this November. This will help David Cicilline and progressives.

Providence Schools Superintendent Susan Lusi is encouraging all the city’s public schools to become charters; so far nine have taken her up on the offer.

Anti-America protests in Egypt, Libya and now Yemen, too.

Today in 1971, the Attica prison riot comes to an end after inmates held guards hostage for four days in a failed attempt to negotiate for more humane living conditions.

August 9, 2012

Gemma, Doherty Both Caught by WPRI

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WPRI has been particularly tough on Congressman David Cicilline so far this campaign season, but recently the TV station has spread around its journalistic efforts to his opponents as well.

First, there was Anthony Gemma, Cicilline’s opponent in the Democratic Primary. Despite trumpeting the need to create more jobs here, it turns out the businesses rather than ones here in Rhode Island. Someone should tell Gemma that the world’s best jobs plan, let alone his, isn’t going to bolster the economy if we don’t spend our money here.

Then, a Brendan Doherty suppoter got caught – on video, I might add – trying to spy on Cicilline. The young man called and asked for some campaign information. Unfortunately, he called from Doherty headquarters so Cicilline staffers knew to get him on film when he arrived. Here’s the video:

Worst part is that the kid got suspended from the campaign for a few days, as if he went rogue and the campaign didn’t know he was going over there. That’s almost as far fetched as Gemma’s jobs plan.

July 30, 2012July 31, 2012

Doherty Disses DISCLOSE Act, Backs Citizens United

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I don’t know what’s worse for Rhode Island: that Republican congressional candidate Brendan Doherty is so conservative that he doesn’t support legislation that would help bring a bit of transparency to political advertisements or that he actually takes money from Citizens United, the namesake of one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever and the worst thing to ever happen to campaign finance.

Unfortunately for Rhode Islanders, we don’t get a choice as both are true.

“It’s much worse than we thought,” said Bill Fischer, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party, in an email press release. “Standing with Citizens United is disturbing enough, but to also publicly pronounce your opposition to basic campaign finance reform is simply alarming. Brendan Doherty has bought into Citizens United’s mission hook, line and sinker, all for the lowly price of $10,000 and he’s indicated that he is standing with the more extreme flanks of the Republican Party, another sign he is far removed from the political positions of most Rhode Islanders.”

Doherty has been trying to parse himself as a moderate Republican. But his continued opposition to health care reform and his anti-working class and anti-women positions make this harder and harder to believe … now that we know he doesn’t even support the DISCLOSE Act, maybe he doesn’t even support the American people’s right to know who is paying for the propaganda they are watching on TV.

“Doherty’s ‘I’m a moderate’ position is about as thin as an outdoor skating rink in the Mojave Desert,” added Fischer. “The more Mr. Doherty talks frankly about the issues, the more voters of the First Congressional District are going to find out Brendan is a conservative in moderate’s clothing.”

July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

National and Local Democrats Hit Doherty

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It’s worth checking out the dossier the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put together about Brendan Doherty and his political baggage. Among other things, they say crime went up across the board in Rhode Island while the candidate for CD1 was head of the State Police. It also paints the picture of a far-right Republican who wants to take rights away from women and hurt the working class.

The DCCC file has video of almost all his on-air interviews and appearances, links to all the local news coverage he’s received and a full-on history of his life, including every piece of property and promotion he’s ever received. Did you know he was on the board of directors for Beacon Mutual when the insurance company was mired in a scandal for giving price breaks to choice companies? (Update: Marc Comtois says he remembers Doherty being brought in by his friend Gov. Don Carcieri after the scandal broke)

But the interesting part for me was while national Democrats put together a file on Doherty’s local record, local Dems are hitting him on national issues. In a video released last week, the Rhode Island Democratic Party said Doherty will work hard to repeal health care reform and will generally move in lock step with conservative Republicans like Paul Ryan and John Boehner.

May 21, 2012May 21, 2012

RI Progress Report: Who Still Supports Carcieri?

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Former Gov. Don Carcieri seems to have lost all his political allies because of his historic blunder in giving his friend and political ally curt Schilling $75 million to make a video game in Rhode Island. It will be interesting to see if Brendan Doherty and Mitt Romney – the two candidates Carcieri is really pushing for this cycle – remain loyal to him…

The issue with Rhode Island’s instantly-infamously loan guarantee program is not that the public sector is helping the private sector, it’s that former Carcieri and former EDC chief Keith Stokes made a monumentally awful decision to give one company a huge sum of taxpayer money, not even to mention that it was a video game company run by an ex-baseball player.

Even ask House Minority Leader Brian Newberry, a fiscal conservative who told the Projo, he eventually voted for the loan program because he assumed the addition $75 million would be spread out around the free market. “Nobody anticipated the EDC would give away the store to one company,” he told the Projo. “Who does that?”

Scott MacKay of RIPR has a great op-ed today on how Gov. Chafee has to again clean up a mess left by Carcieri.

Massachusetts has better funded public schools than Rhode Island, they beat us to the casino punch and knew better than us to avoid financing Schilling’s pipe dream … here’s another way our neighbor to the northeast is serving its citizenry better.

File this one under education inequality in the Ocean State: At high schools in Woonsocket, Central Falls and Pawtucket students sometimes have to share textbooks because there aren’t enough to go around, while in East Greenwich the school committee is considering getting every high school student an iPad.

Did you know the Southside Community Land Trust operates about 40 community gardens on vacant lots all over the city? How cool is that!

Good for Congressman David Cicilline for taking issue with some of the often-oversimplified opinions of Projo columnist Ed Achorn … we keep wondering how Achorn will manage to blame the 38 Studios debacle on Stephen Iannazzi and public sector unions (just wait, it’ll probably happen!).

Congrats to Maureen Martin, who GoLocal Prov honors as a “Power Player” this week.

May 11, 2012May 11, 2012

RI Progress Report: Tobin Corners ‘Creepy’ Market; More on Marriage Equality, Barrington’s Tuition Proposal

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It won’t happen this session, but we’d be real surprised if opposition to marriage equality in the Rhode Island Senate can fend off the legislation for another year. Ted Nesi reports that the Senate’s opposition to gay marriage is “softening.”

Meanwhile, Ian Donnis reports that Rev. Gene Dyszlewski is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bea Lanzi … Dyszlewski is the chair of the Rhode Island Religious Coalition for Marriage Equality and has told a Senate committee that “same sex marriage is god’s will.”

Speaking of the church and marriage equality, we wonder if Bishop Tobin realizes that the news value in him calling someone’s statements “creepy” is the irony of it. He’s practically cornered the Rhode Island market on creepy statements and positions and the Catholic church is among the creepiest institutions going. Bishop Tobin should really spend more time helping the poor and much less time engaging in useless and bigoted behavior.

And speaking of picking on people, if you haven’t read the Washington Post story about Mitt Romney bullying a fellow student while in prep school, click here.

More on Barrington’s proposal -and it is still very much just a proposal – to offer out-of-town students to pay tuition to attend the high-performing schools. It’s amazing how much the idea has evolved in just 24 short hours … for as well as Barrington students fare on standardized tests, you’d think its school committee could have figured out to get a legal opinion before going public with a proposal so fraught with legal and moral conundrums.

Good move, state Senate, in voting to repeal former Gov. Don Carcieri’s limits on how long families can collect welfare benefits … even with the repeal, Rhode Islanders will still be able to collect for less time than the average American. 35 states, reports Phil Marcelo, cap the time a family can collect welfare benefits at 60 months. RI would go from 24 months to 48.

Did you see the US Chamber of Commerce’s TV ad for Brendan Doherty? You can watch it here, if you’re into that kinda thing…

April 23, 2012April 23, 2012

RI Progress Report: Taveras Budget, DD Cuts, Welcome Wickford Junction

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Providence Mayor Angel Taveras announces his proposed budget tonight … it’ll be interesting to see how he plugs that $22 million hole in the city’s operating expenses. We’ll learn tonight if any more of the local non-profits decided to pony up and help out the Capital City.

A great editorial from the Projo about the cuts the General Assembly made to services for the developmentally disabled. They write, “…how do administrators’ salaries play in all this? There has been a tendency in some non-profits as well many for-profits for the salaries of top people to rise even as those at lower levels are cut. (Our winner-take-all society . . . .)”

Starting today, you can take the train from Wickford Junction to Providence for $2.50.

Scott MacKay handicaps the one congressional race, CD1, that seems to have grabbed Rhode Island’s attention. And if you’re ready to start paying attention to the campaigns for seats in the General Assembly.

Common Cause says ALEC, the pro-business lobby group that drafts conservative model legislation for state legislatures, is abusing its status as a non-profit.

This page may be updated throughout the day. Click HERE for an archive of the RI Progress Report.

April 15, 2012April 16, 2012

See Gemma Run

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Dark clouds hung over Providence’s Prospect Terrace Park as businessman Anthony Gemma, lately of Mediapeel, said, in a roughly 15 minute speech, that he would bring “change” and “new ideas,” while redefining what service meant for the office of U.S. Congressman.

While the congressional hopeful spoke, supporters looked on, and a quartet picnicked despite the light sprinkling of rain. Cupcakes and cookies were laid out for the decently sized crowd.

Mr. Gemma attempted to put his candidacy in the paradigm of former Democratic Party presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, whose New Deal and New Frontier programs, respectively, remain major touchstones of the Democratic Party.

Thus Mr. Gemma introduced that his candidacy would run under the theme of the “New Idea”. However, he did not once say what that New Idea would be, leaving the door open to speculation.

Mr. Gemma also said that there was a very real chance that the Democrats could win back control of the House of Representatives this election, and that it might be as close as one seat. He said that he had the best chance of defeating Republican nominee Brendan Doherty in November, though polls show him in a poor position against Doherty, with a large portion of the electorate undecided.

In a speech that was big on sweeping abstractions like “vision,” “courage,” and “confidence,” Mr. Gemma mentioned only that he had a jobs plan, not what was in it. No single concrete policy was announced, only that they would be rolled out over the course of the campaign. He claimed he shared the same anxiety and anger as many voters in the 1st Congressional District.

Anger was a major theme of the speech, as Mr. Gemma attacked Mr. Doherty for having “zero understanding” of how to create jobs. Claiming that Mr. Doherty was a creature of the public sector, Mr. Gemma said that he alone of the candidates for the office of U.S. Congressman understood how to create jobs. But as for his opponent in the primary season, incumbent Congressman David Cicilline, Mr. Gemma never once deigned to mention him by name, instead making a veiled reference to Mr. Cicilline’s recent apologies by saying “I won’t have to apologize to you for lying so that I can win your vote.”

He never once made clear how he intended to take on Mr. Cicilline, who has the support of the Governor, the Treasurer, the current Mayor of Providence, the rest of Rhode Island’s congressional delegation, and a massive advantage in funding. Perhaps though, the cross-section of politicians Mr. Gemma rallied to his conference offers some insight. Mr. Gemma thanked Providence councilmen Davian Sanchez, Wilbur Jennings, and Nick Narducci for attending, along with former mayors John Lombardi of Providence and said that Charles Lombardi of North Providence had not yet arrived.

Upon finishing his speech, Mr. Gemma made a beeline towards the park’s exit, working only the part of the crowd that stood between him and the street, as the press tagged along. He then climbed into a waiting GMC sports utility vehicle and drove away, prompting one supporter to exclaim that the press had chased him away from his own press conference.