Summer is zipping by, with August coming up fast and the September primary not far behind. So thanks for stopping by for the return of my weekly column. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1. The battle for governor remains Rhode Island’s marquee political race of 2018. But the legislative rematch between Cranston Republican Steven Frias and Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello certainly has big implications for the General Assembly. Frias lost to Mattiello by just 85 votes in 2016, so seemingly anything could happen this time around. Frias has been framing his latest challenge as a way to send a message to Smith Hill — a theme that could resonate with Rhode Islanders who take a dim view of the legislature. But is the Republican overselling his ability to make an impact in the House of Representatives? It’s a pertinent question since Frias, if victorious, would be a backbencher in a GOP minority (currently 11 reps) that has lost ground in recent cycles. “I don’t believe I’m overselling,” Frias said on RI Public Radio’s Poltical Roundtable this week, “because I believe that my victory would send a strong message. Because if you defeat the most-powerful guy with all the resources he has at his disposal, it will cause other state reps, I think, to think twice before they vote in a manner that they have been voting that’s contrary to their constituents’ desires and wants.” For his part, Mattiello can use the advantages of incumbency. That includes being in office while Rhode Island’s economy has been on the rise, and claiming pride of authorship for the car tax phaseout that has put money back in Cranstonians’ pockets — even though Mattiello targeted that initiative in the heat of Frias’ last challenge.
2. If the PawSox leave for Worcester, will Steven Frias bear some responsibility? The prospect of another Frias challenge to Speaker Mattiello loomed in the background of the Pawtucket stadium issue, after all, throughout the most recent General Assmebly session. “People will say whatever they want to say about what my role is,” Frias said on RIPR’s Bonus Q&A. “What I can tell you is, whatever I had to say wouldn’t have mattered if the voters wanted this deal. The voters didn’t want this deal; Mattiello knew that, number one, Number two, the speaker had all the power, and he made a deal in the end that nobody likes. In the end, if they leave, people can turn to him, they can turn to me, but I think voters will say to themselves, ‘we didn’t want this deal and it didn’t happen.’ ” Meanwhile, Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo is among those calling Worcester a likely destination for the PawSox. Pawtucket sources say such predictions are premature.
3. RIHEBC may be just an unfamiliar acronym for most Rhode Islanders. But the quasi-public RI Health and Educational Building Corporation has issued more than $8.7 billion in bonds since 1966, helping fund the construction of schools, colleges and hospitals throughout the state. As I recently reported for RIPR, two of the firms sued by the state over 38 Studios, now known as Moses Ryan and Hilltop Securities, have earned millions while working for RIHEBC. Both firms paid millions in settlements to the state without acknowledging liability or wrongdoing, and they continue to work for RIHEBC. In related news, RIHEBC this week announced a successor for the agency’s longtime executive director Robert Donovan (current salary: $183,092): Kimberly Mooers, who most recently served as senior VP, manager and principal at Unibank Fiscal Advisory Services in Whitinsville, Massachusetts.
4. RIPR health reporter Lynn Arditi has been all over the strike at Rhode Island Hospital, describing the hospital’s response, as well as how unionized hospital workers crossed the picket line.
5. Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin‘s decision to delete his Twitter account has received a lot of attention, including in The Washington Post, after being spotted by Ted Nesi. Tobin said tweeting had become a distraction, an obstacle to his spiritual life and “an occasion of sin for me and others.” In some ways this is surprising. Tobin was a fast study on Twitter, mastering the pithy idiom of the medium and gamely renouncing allegiance to his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers in an April Fool’s tweet that fooled some people (including me). Then again, for those of us who monitor hundreds of feeds during our waking hours, Twitter can be both a blessing and a bane. It’s a great way of staying on top of the news and for distributing stories. Yet there’s a lot of vitriol and reflexive reaction on the medium, too. For what it’s worth, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley is still on Twitter, as is Pope Francis.
6. It’s not every day when a top aide to House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello is accused of asking a Republican (Patricia Morgan) to criticize Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo. But that’s what Morgan described to the ProJo’s Kathy Gregg. (Mattiello chief of staff Leo Skenyon denied Morgan’s account.) Mattiello has publicly expressed his support for Raimondo’s re-election. Yet the RI Democratic Party didn’t publicly criticize Cranston Mayor Allan Fung around the time of the Carpionato story (perhaps since Cranston Democrats also benefited). Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the RI Dems, rejected the idea that party isn’t solidly behind Raimondo: “Governor Raimondo won the state party’s endorsement because Democrats overwhelmingly support the job she has done on behalf of working-class Rhode Islanders,” he said. “Over the next [roughly] 100 days we will demonstrate that support by doing the kind of grassroots organizing that ensures she is re-elected, because it’s imperative that we continue the progress we have made under her leadership.”
7. Andrew Roos, who came in as Gina Raimondo‘s chief of staff when she was gearing up for her 2013 gubernatorial run, has a new gig: principal at GPS Impact, a public affairs and multimedia advertising company with offices in Washington, D.C. and four other U.S. cities. Roos most recently served as head of elections for Democratic elections at Google, after helping launch the company’s Elections and Issue Advocacy Team. Roos, who will remain based in Rhode Island, served as chief of staff for General Treasurer Seth Magaziner before moving over to Google.
8. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown is out with his health care policy proposal, entitled Medicare For All. Brown said his plan “will create a state health insurance system that mirrors the most successful, affordable and comprehensive health insurance provider in the country – Medicare – and covers the health care needs of everyone in Rhode Island. Moving the state to a Medicare for All system in which a statewide Medicare plan buys health care services and prescription drugs would save Rhode Island money every year. Around 12% of all private health insurance spending goes to administrative costs and salaries. For Medicare, it’s less than 2%. A Medicare for All system would save money by eliminating administrative costs, middleman fees and other expenses in the current system, and by using the bargaining power of a combined insurance pool of the one million people in Rhode Island to push down monopolist drug and medical device costs. With only one buyer for health care, doctors and hospitals would save an estimated $1 billion in billing costs alone – allowing them to reinvest in equipment, new therapies and salaries for doctors and nurses.”
9. Time will tell whether Republican gubernatorial candidate Allan Fung‘s unconventional 2018 media strategy helps him to win the governor’s office. It began with a decision by Fung’s campaign to not make him available to take questions after his campaign announcement last October, and has continued into the present. For now, Fung’s reluctance to comment on some issues is drawing attention from reporters (“…. is it acceptable for a candidate for RI governor to repeatedly ‘decline to comment’?” asked the ProJo’s Kathy Gregg), and rival candidates (“Allan Fung is playing the state’s best game of hide and seek and it is truly pathetic,” independent candidate Joe Trillo said in a statement.) Meanwhile, despite repeated invitations since the fall of 2017, Fung seems unlikely to appear as a guest on RIPR’s Political Roundtable/Bonus Q&A ahead of the September 12 primary, the only major party gubernatorial candidate to not do so. Does that make sense? “You’ve asked me a lot of good questions, and this is one of the first I’m having a difficulty answering,” Steven Frias, a Fung supporter who serves as the RI GOP’s national committeeman, said on Bonus Q&A this week. “I understand your situation, I understand your frustation. Personally, I think the mayor will come on to your show eventually ….”
10. Scenes from the gubernatorial race: Gov. Gina Raimondo continued to defend her incentive program, crediting it with creating as many as 13,000 jobs; she also called for an expansion of RI’s free tuition program …. Cranston Mayor Allan Fung counter-attacked, saying many of the jobs aren’t worth the money spent to produce them …. Patricia Morgan released her education plan …. Giovanni Feroce was out front on blockchain …. Joe Trillo called Raimondo’s tuition initiative a “pathetic attempt to get votes.”
11. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse this week pledged to reject corporate PAC money — a stance applauded by the Democratic organization End Citizens United. “Whitehouse is one of just seven sitting senators to take this position as an unprecedented number of candidates and an increasing number of members are refusing to take money from corporate PACs,” the group said in calling Whitehouse a “champion in the fight against Big Money.” Lesser-funded GOP rival Robert Flanders, who boosted his most recent fundrasing haul with a personal loan, sought to apply jujitsu to the senator’s stance; Flanders called on Whitehouse to give his past contributions from corporate PACs to nonprofits advocating for term limits.
12. Poli/media people on the move: Lexi Kriss is leaving her producer gig at WPRO and WPRI to pursue a master’s in law and diplomacy, focusing on the intersection of social media and public policy, at Tufts’ Fletcher School … Menawhile, Ian Prior, who ran Brendan Doherty‘s 2012 GOP challenge to Democratic U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, has joined the Washington office of Mercury, a global public strategy firm. Prior was most recently principal deputy director of public affairs for the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Justice. He previously worked for American Crossroads, Republicans’ Senate Leadership Fund, and the National Republican Congressional Committee. “I am thrilled to be joining Mercury and am excited for the opportunity to work alongside such a phenomenal team of policy and public affairs experts,” Prior said in a statement.
13. Out of town media attention on Rhode Island and the abortion issue: Mother Jones has a story entitled, “Inside the Surprisingly Difficult Fight for Reproductive Rights in One of the Bluest States” As Dan Spinelli reports, “Anti-abortion Democrats are not exactly a novelty in Rhode Island. Even though less than 12 percent of registered voters are Republican, over 40 percent of Rhode Islanders are Catholic, and priests in the Ocean State are not shy about preaching politics from the pulpit. At St. Thomas More, a 134-year-old church in Narragansett, the pastor asked parishioners to lobby against the “pro-death legislation” that Tanzi and others had sponsored. The letter, which was signed by Pastor Marcel Taillon and included in the weekly church bulletin, named Tanzi and two other lawmakers specifically and included their pictures. Taillon did not respond to multiple requests for comment.” …. 2) Meanwhile, Rhode Island also gets a mention in a Governing story on states that still have abortion bans on the books.
14. Steven Frias has an unorthodox idea for boosting the Republican presence in the General Assembly: emulating the approach in Connecticut and Maine that makes (or is supposed to make) public matching funds available for legislative candidates. Common Cause of RI was trying to nudge along that kind of “Clean Elections” approach in 2005, but it got overtaken by court decisions. Frias’ thinking goes against GOP orthodoxy, but he said there could be value in examining how Maine and Connecticut make their systems work.
15. The latest Morning Consult survey shows Gov. Gina Raimondo‘s approval rating at 44 percent. That’s up from 39 percent in April, although still below Raimondo’s 46 percent disapproval rating. It also continues a trend in which Raimondo has not been able to hit a 50 percent approval rating in public polls. Then again, if the first-term Democrat beats primary rival Matt Brown in September, she may benefit from the large field of candidates. Independents Joe Trillo and Luis Daniel Munoz, marijuana advocate Anne Armstrong, and Moderate William Gilbert will all figure in the November contest, reducing the percentage needed to win the race. But by how much?
16. While Rep. Brian Newberry (R-North Smithfield) has backed legislation in the past to require civics literacy in Rhode Island schools, Massachusetts is moving ahead with a similar measure. Via MassLive: “Under the bill, schools would be required to teach U.S. history and social science, including civics, ‘to promote civic service and a greater knowledge thereof and to prepare students, morally and intellectually, for the duties of citizenship.’ Students would also have to complete a hands-on civics project. It would not be a graduation requirement for students.”
17. Fun Fact: Regular sessions of the Florida legislature last only about 60 days. I found that out after driving by Tallahassee while on vacation last week. (The number of bills passed in the Sunshine State has been plummeting — that may be good or bad, depending on your point of view.) Yet tradition and inertia will probably keep Rhode Island’s General Assembly sessions from getting any shorter. State Sen. Donna Nesselbush (D-Pawtucket) had a bill this year to create a hard deadline for ending the legislative year, but it didn’t go anywhere.
18. The RI Dem Party’s Kevin Olasanoye shares word that the party’s 2018 platform committee plans to put forward its proposal on September 16. “This party recognizes and welcomes input from all Democrats,” he said, “and while we may not always agree on specific issues from time to time, we always agree to the fundamental principles that unite us: supporting the equality, dignity and rights of every single man and woman – regardless of party, and we will fight to ensure those rights are always protected.” Olasanoye said entire state committee will vote on the platform after the November election.
19. Providence City Council President David Salvatore this week raised questions about a past contract with GoLocalProv. GoLocal CEO Joshua Fenton said the web site did what it was supposed to by publicizing public meeting and that Salvatore was striking back because he didn’t like the site’s coverage of him.
20. Via TechCrunch: “The pace of cord cutting in the U.S. is increasing faster than expected, according to a new forecast released this week by eMarketer. The analyst firm is now projecting the number of those ditching their subscriptions to cable and satellite TV will climb 32.8 percent this year to reach 33 million people – a figure that’s higher than the 22 percent growth rate and 27.1 million cord cutters it had estimated around this time last year.”
21. “Grammar purity is one big Ponzi scheme.”
22. One woman’s attempt to stop plastic from ruining the environment: “Many countries, including the U.S., contribute plastic pollution, and it all adds up. For example, in 2010 alone (the year’s worth of data that [Jenna] Jambeck’s Science study was based on), a total of 8 million metric tons of plastic entered the world’s oceans. The research made a big splash. In 2017, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee invited Jambeck to testify about the problem. Holding up a bag full of plastic trash, she explained to the senators that 8 million metric tons of plastic is equal to ‘a volume of five grocery-sized bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.’ ”