A blue tsunami just washed ashore in East Greenwich
The United States first went to war with Iraq, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and parts of the Berlin Wall were still standing as the Soviet Union continued to collapse. Cheers was the most popular TV show in America, Home Alone had yet to be released on the big screen, and you were probably […]
Flanders, Whitehouse now agree on Kavanaugh accusation
The accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape a 15-year-old girl as a drunken high school student has captured the beltway’s and the nation’s attention. Here in Rhode Island, it’s also shed some light on the campaign between Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat, and Bob Flanders, a Republican and himself a […]
It was a good night to be an incumbent in Rhode Island
While the trend nationally has been to oust the incumbents, and the local pundits and politicos seemed braced for an upset, Rhode Islanders stuck by the status quo in the 2018 primary election Wednesday. Democrats roundly rejected Matt Brown’s upstart challenge to Governor Gina Raimondo, the more moderate incumbent. And they narrowly stuck by Lt. Governor […]
Breakfast with Sheldon Whitehouse
You wouldn’t know it by watching him work the crowd waiting for a breakfast table in Newport, but Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s junior senator who is facing re-election this year, says he’s uncomfortable in the public spotlight. “In the world of people in politics, way shyer than average,” is how he described himself over breakfast […]
Incumbent Democrats face two-front campaigns
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, observed Charles Dudley Warner in 1850, and it seems true enough this campaign season in Rhode Island as the highest-profile incumbent Democrats are each taking fire from not only Republicans, but also the progressive left. Sometimes even on the same issues. Governor Raimondo Governor Gina Raimondo faces the most-obvious two-front […]
Pat Fontes wants a world without war, so she’s challenging Sheldon Whitehouse
Pat Fontes, a stalwart of the local antiwar movement, used to support Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “I did not vote for Obama but I voted for Sheldon Whitehouse,” she told me in a recent interview. Now the 81-year-old peace activist is making her first-ever run for elected office by challenging Rhode Island’s junior senator in this […]
Stage set for progressives to take over Rhode Island
As the deadline to run for elected office came and went Wednesday afternoon, there are more than a few political newcomers—many young, and many centered around social justice—that could constitute the makings of a progressive wave in Rhode Island. Governor Most notable might be the governor’s race, where Matt Brown promises to give incumbent Governor […]
Linc Chafee might primary Sheldon Whitehouse
Lincoln Chafee doesn’t want to be governor again after all. Instead, he wants his old Senate seat back. To get it, the Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat will have to best in a primary Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat who knocked him out of the Senate seat back in 2006 when Chafee was still a Republican. “I […]
Whitehouse debuts $30M fund for coastal resiliency
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse chose the flood-prone Island Park section of Portsmouth as the backdrop to introduce the National Oceans and Coastal Security Fund. With local business, government leaders, and NGOs looking on, Whitehouse announced that the fund received its first $30 million appropriation in last month’s omnibus spending bill. Whitehouse began by showing the two dozen […]
Flanders announces in Central Falls, Dems say he profited off the struggling city
Bob Flanders announced his campaign for a US Senate seat today in Central Falls, where he was once the court-appointed receiver as the city went through bankruptcy. The Rhode Island Democratic Party responded by pointing out how much money Flanders made in that role. “There’s no question that the million dollars Robert Flanders and his deputies collected […]
Sheldon Whitehouse grills Facebook, Twitter, Google on Russian hacking
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse co-chaired a subcommittee hearing yesterday that shed new light on the extent to which Russian operatives used social media to turn American voters against one another in the run up to the 2016 election. “We are trying in the Subcommittee to lay out the Kremlin playbook on election interference generally,” Whitehouse told […]
RI responds slower than Mass, Conn to alleged $3.6 billion gas price manipulation
Two gas pipeline companies manipulated schedules and gas flow to make an extra $3.6 billion from Southern New England ratepayers claims a report that has spurred investigations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and, to a lesser extent, Rhode Island.
Burrillville shines at EFSB’s last public comment hearing
“I think this was an amazing public comment hearing,” said EFSB Chair Margaret Curran after the speakers were finished.
Whitehouse talks war, Trump’s competency, and the state of national politics
“In my lifetime, even back to Nixon, I have never seen a White House so riven with conflicts and leaks,” said the Senator.
Trump’s moves against reproductive rights renew calls for state level action
“I don’t care what my employer believes,” wrote Mel DuPont, from the Committee to Pass RHCA in RI. “I need the insurance I work for to cover my needs. Not theirs.”
Serving up some old time religion at Wexford groundbreaking
Groundbreaking ceremonies are little rituals. Politicians and business people come together, don hard hats and grab shovels in pantomime of laborers, and toss dirt in the air.
RI congressional delegation split on Medicare for All
When it comes to Medicare for All, Rhode Island’s congressional delegation is split down the middle. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman David Cicilline both cosponsor such bills in their respective chambers, while Senator Jack Reed and Congressman Jim Langevin are both still undecided. Whitehouse made news recently as an early cosponsor of Vermont Senator Bernie […]
Whitehouse explains Medicare For All, prospects for bills passage
“It’s to provide the opportunity to people who are not eligible for Medicare to never-the-less join Medicare and have all the advantages of reliability, efficiency, and security of Medicare,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, describing the Medicare For All bill he will be cosponsoring in the coming days. “At this point, it’s pretty aspirational,” he said. […]
Sheldon Whitehouse cosponsors Bernie Sanders’ Medicare For All legislation
Rhode Island will have a signature on Senator Bernie Sanders’ much-anticipated Medicare For All bill set to be introduced on Wednesday as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will be a cosponsor. “It’s time we had a real conversation about creating a national health plan,” Whitehouse said in a statement released today. “We have come a long way […]
RI delegation chides Trump for ending DACA
Rhode Island’s all-Democratic congressional delegation reacted harshly today after the White House confirmed President Donald Trump plans to upend immigration status for 800,000 Americans by eliminating DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. “President Trump’s priorities are backwards,” said Senator Jack Reed. “This decision is shameful and cruel,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “America has […]
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