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Friday, May 16, 2008
As part of its advocacy for Obama's campaign, MoveOn is seeking nationwide hosts for what it calls its Bush-McCain Challenge:
Sign up to host a Bush-McCain Challenge table on Wednesday, May 28th. We'll give you everything you need to hold a successful event, including a start-to-finish guide and all the materials.
• You should hold the event in a place with lots of foot traffic at the time of your event, so that you can ask lots of people to take the Challenge. • The ideal place is in a public area like a park or open square, where setting up a table won't cause congestion or require a permit.
• You could also hold your event in a dense shopping area, near a tourist-friendly monument, or in front of a friendly grocery or natural foods store. Just think of the best place in your community to attract lots of Challenge participants.
• If you have a choice between places, opt for the one that is most accessible to media.
The best time to hold this event is at 12 noon, because we'll be inviting the media to cover our Bush-McCain Challenge.
You can also check out this droll video.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Monique, at Anchor (via the Valley Breeze) has RI GOP chair Gio Cicione's insurrectionary clarion call to the local populace:
It is said that every man and every woman - somewhere over the course of their life - must have their moment.
It is a moment of recognition that something larger than the day to day details of our own family life is beckoning and we must answer to it. I would propose to you that such a moment has arrived for Rhode Islanders.
The checklist of unfavorable economic conditions in which our state now exists should be by now frighteningly familiar:
* A structural deficit at more than half a billion dollars and growing.
* Seventh highest property tax burden
* Overall fourth highest tax burden
* Worst business climate - including small business climate - in the nation
* Among most generous states in pay and benefits to state workers
* Eighth most highly paid teachers/school results in bottom fifth of nation
Haven't you had enough? If you have, I ask you to take action.
The Rhode Island Republican Party asks you to make a run for the General Assembly to show you are not going to abandon our state. This is your moment that the citizens take back the state from the special interests.
The Rhode Island Republican Party does not owe anything to the grip of greed of the public employee unions and their contracts - and many who do their bidding in our legislature - which have driven this state to its present condition of bankruptcy.
The Rhode Island Republican Party firmly believes the smallest state in the nation has no business being among the most free spending in the nation to those employees in nearly every measurable benefit, especially for the size of their retirement pensions which we cannot afford.
A bankrupted state cannot adequately finance its schools or public universities. It will leave all of our school age children with inferior educations when compared to other states and diminished prospects for college and beyond.
A bankrupted state does not attract businesses that provide jobs, careers and financial stability to college graduates and young people hoping to start families. It drives your own college-educated son or daughter far away from home to more prosperous states where they take their future earning power with them.
A bankrupted state will not nourish the stable, safe, small business-thriving, friendly communities many of us grew up in. Rhode Island is headed toward deteriorating into a state of rundown, boarded-up, forgotten neighborhoods offering far less prosperity, stability and safety to families here. If this is not the future state you want for your children, it's time to say "Enough."
Come join us. We will help you launch your campaign if you will help us fight back.
It doesn't take lots of money or any sacrifice greater than the ones you would make for your family on any given day. Like all things worth doing in life, it just takes desire and hard work.
When you win, we will together pursue a plan to drastically cut our out of control spending, immediately reduce your property and income taxes, put education dollars back into classrooms not just contracts, protect our environment, and to bring companies and good jobs back to Rhode Island. Oh yes, we can!
Contact our office at 401-732-8282. Contact me personally at 401-289-2380.
Giovanni Cicione
R.I. GOP chairman
Via the NYT:
WASHINGTON — The Republican defeat in a special Congressional contest in Mississippi sent waves of apprehension across an already troubled party Wednesday, with some senior Republicans urging Congressional candidates to distance themselves from President Bush to head off what could be heavy losses in the fall.
The victory by Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat elected in a once-steadfast Republican district on Tuesday, was the third defeat of a Republican in a special Congressional race this year. In addition to foreshadowing more losses for the party in November, the outcome appeared to call into question the belief that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois could be a heavy liability for his party’s down-ticket candidates in conservative regions.
Republicans had sought to link Mr. Childers to Mr. Obama in an advertising campaign there. Republican leaders said they were looking to Senator John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican nominee, as a model whose independent reputation appears to allow him to rise above party in a year when the Republican label seems tarnished.
But Mr. McCain’s advisers said the Mississippi race underlined his intention to distance himself as much as possible from Congressional Republicans. Mr. McCain has already been openly critical of some of President Bush’s strategies.
The level of distress was evident in remarks by senior party officials throughout the day.
John McCain has gotten so little critical press coverage in recent months that it's easy to forget he's the Republican nominee. Now, as the media turns to the general election contest, my Boston Phoenix colleague Adam Reilly has suggestions for 10 topics worth covering. Here's a taste:
1) It’s the economy, Senator
This past January, the Huffington Post reported that, in a meeting with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, McCain said he “doesn’t really understand economics.” McCain denied the report. But as his then-rival Mitt Romney noted in a subsequent press release, McCain actually has a long history of such remarks. (One example, drawn from a December 2007 Boston Globe story: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. I’ve got [former Federal Reserve chair Alan] Greenspan’s book.”) How does McCain assess his economic knowledge now? And what concrete steps, beyond a wide array of tax cuts, would he take to keep America’s economic woes from worsening?
2) His Islam problem
McCain is going to argue that Obama is dangerously inexperienced on foreign affairs. He’s already hammered Obama for his willingness to meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But there’s reason to question McCain’s foreign-policy aptitude as well, especially regarding things Islamic. In 2006, McCain said he’d deal with ongoing problems in Iraq by sitting down together Sunnis and Shiites and telling them to “stop the bullshit.” This year, he’s confused Sunnis and Shiites on multiple occasions. Understanding Islam and the Middle East is absolutely essential to America’s national security. Does McCain grasp them well enough to be president? And can he demonstrate this understanding while speaking off the cuff?
3) Money and politics as usual?
Vague hints of an extramarital affair notwithstanding, the aforementioned Times story contained a kernel of a valid question: does McCain’s reputation as a reformer dedicated to reducing the influence of money on politics — a reputation McCain assiduously cultivated after he was implicated in the Keating Five scandal — square with his own actions? Consider this passage from David Brock and Paul Waldman’s recent book, Free Ride: John McCain and the Media (Anchor):
For his 1998 Senate run, McCain took $562,000 in contributions from the communications industry. . . . Before his next reelection campaign, he received $900,000 more, lagging only five senators among telecom beneficiaries. Between 1993 and 2000, McCain collected $685,929 from media companies, the most of any sitting member of Congress. What do these companies have in common? They all have interests before the Senate Commerce Committee, which McCain chaired at the time.
So: does McCain’s reputation as a campaign-finance reformer pass muster or not?
4) Taken-on faith
Obama’s lengthy history with Reverend Wright was his biggest weakness in the primary, a role it will probably reprise in the general election. But McCain has pastor problems of his own. During his 2000 presidential run, McCain thrilled liberals by calling Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance.” This time around, however, he’s cozied up to assorted figures on the religious right — including the late Falwell (McCain spoke at the commencement ceremonies of Liberty University, which Falwell founded, in 2006), Rod Parsley (an Ohio minister who’s urged the eradication of Islam, and whom McCain called a “spiritual guide” this past February), and John Hagee (a televangelist who, among other things, has called the Catholic Church the “Great Whore”). On the one hand, McCain has said that he doesn’t share all his endorsers’ views. On the other, he hasn’t condemned any of these individuals in the emphatic way that Obama eventually repudiated Wright. What does McCain actually think about the most problematic views of Falwell, Parsley, Hagee, et al.?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
So says a new report by Citizens for Tax Justice:
The report finds that:
• The majority of the benefits of the tax cuts for capital gains and dividend income go to the richest one percent in every state.
• Revenue collected by the capital gains tax was much higher during the Clinton administration, when the tax rate on capital gains was higher.
Karen Malcolm, executive director of Ocean State Action states, “The timing of this well-researched report is important to understanding the economic woes we face here in Rhode Island. We see a significantly widening gap between rich and poor, a declining middle class, and a structural state budget deficit that is used as an excuse for gutting Rhode Island’s social safety net, and steep increases in property taxes.”
The new report shows that among Rhode Islanders more than 65% of those benefiting from the Bush tax breaks earn over $422,000 annually, with an average income of $1.2 million. The tax windfall realized by these wealthy households under the Bush tax cut averages $20,482 each. Malcolm points out, “Rhode Island’s wealthiest have hit the trifecta. When you add the federal tax windfall to the state’s cut in the tax on capital gains and the alternative minimum tax available only to the highest income households, this group saves more than $30,000 a year for themselves. This comes at significant cost to Rhode Island’s middle, moderate and low-income families. The cost of just these two state tax cuts will be $62.4 million in 2009, at a time when there is a desperate need for revenue to close the state’s deficit.”
As middle, moderate and low-income Rhode Islanders continue to struggle with skyrocketing gas, housing and food prices and as the state enacts deep cuts to healthcare, education and other important social programs, Malcolm argues, “we must be ever-vigilant in ensuring that every Rhode Islander contributes their fair share in Federal and State taxes to help meet top priorities and to ensure every person has the opportunity to get ahead.”
Monday, May 12, 2008
B ill Moyers was being interviewed on NPR today as I prowled for lunch in the N4N-mobile. He made the point that the uber-controversial Jeremiah Wright's most controversial statements are a relative blip in the scheme of the pastor's ministerial career.
That won't make a whit's worth of difference this fall, of course, assuming that Obama is the Democratic nominee. As Monica Crowley predicted this week on the McLaughlin Group, the GOP will try to portray Obama as being apart from America (scary pastor, periphal link to the Weather Underground, Michelle Obama's less-than-helpful remark about patriotism, etc.) Thin gruel though this is -- particularly in comparison to the litany of woe accrued by George W. Bush, she's probably right.
So the 2008 election could turn in large degree on the Democratic campaign's effectiveness in being on the offense (a la Bill Clinton in 1992), rather than the defense (John Kerry in 2004) or out to lunch (Mike Dukakis in 1988).
I was reminded of the significance of this after taking part in last week's Local 121 screening of The War Room. Although it's easy to forget now, Bill Clinton's presidential campaign faced early threats from a bimbo erruption involving Gennifer Flowers and symbolic political rhetoric about his activities as a student in the then-Soviet Union. Thanks to Clinton's message mastery, not to mention the efforts of James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, Clinton went from almost also-ran to two terms in DC.
Writing in the current Phoenix, Steven Stark makes the point that Obama would be lucky if his Reverend Wright issue has the same staying power of Flowers.
The election is a mere six months from now, but six months in politics constitutes the proverbial eternity — which is good news for Obama. Plus, the “Feiler faster” thesis, popularized by Slate columnist Mickey Kaus, holds that stories burn themselves out far faster in the Internet age.
But there are two worrisome aspects of this episode that have the potential to continue to spell trouble for Obama. The first, of course, is Wright himself. There may be more tapes of incendiary sermons; he may make more appearances. In his Detroit speech, Wright mentioned that he’s working on a book that, in his words, “will be out later this year.” If it’s before the election (and if he wants to sell any copies, it will be — most likely in October), he will go on a book tour. And the whole controversy will begin again.
Also troubling for the Obama camp, there are many more ways to keep a story like this alive than there were with the Clinton episode. Ultimately, there were only a few people that the media could go to for Flowers stories: the candidate (no luck there), Flowers herself (old news), and maybe a state trooper or two who could have indirectly witnessed something.
So says Anchor Rising's Andrew about Wednesday's Reagan-Lincoln Day fundraiser at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet:
We don't generally promote specific political fundraising events here at Anchor Rising, but will point out that this Wednesday's Reagan-Lincoln Day Fundraiser at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet is a little different from the kind of event that RI Republicans usually sponsor. Though this year's Reagan-Lincoln Day Dinner has been planned and advertised as a statewide gala, the money raised will not go to the state party account. Instead, 75% of the value of each ticket purchased will go to the local city or town Republican committee it was purchased from (the other 25% going to Rhodes to cover the expenses of the event).
It is worth noting that this event represents a movement within the Rhode Island Republican party amongst those who believe that the top-down strategies favored by party leadership in the recent past, i.e. focus on a few statewide offices and hope for coattails, have hit the wall, and that the party can only become competitive again by rebuilding its grass-roots strength in the cities and towns.
Kathy Gregg offers some info familiar to readers of the RI blogosphere in her roundup today on the 2010 governor's race, but she does score a scoop by reporting on how Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian is backing away from the contest. These are the most specific remarks Avedisian has made about 2010, and quite a contrast from the time last year when Linc Chafee was talking up the mayor as a gubernatorial candidate:
On the Republican side, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian flirted with the idea of running for state office, with Chafee, on an independent slate, but said early last week that he was most interested in running for Rhode Island’s 2nd Representative District seat should James R. Langevin, the Democratic incumbent, opt out. Langevin spokeswoman Joy Fox says the congressman has no plans to leave.
But Avedisian, who is up for reelection as mayor in November, said: “I don’t see myself running for governor at this point…. My first choice is to still wait for a chance to run for Congress.” Lest there be any doubt where his party loyalties lie, he is also burnishing his Republican credentials by running for a seat on the Republican National Committee.
Chafee, meanwhile -- in what I recently tabbed as a dream contest for local political junkies -- seems to be edging ever closer to a gov run.
. . . as he goes from one stop to another on his book-selling tour, Republican-turned-independent Chafee talks about what he calls the “magnet pull” to jump back in. “Even in the supermarket, I’ll be looking at a head of lettuce and someone will say … I am sorry I voted against you for the Senate. They feel compelled to tell me: ‘Don’t take it personally … I hope you run for governor.’ ”
Monday, April 28, 2008
Robert Manning, RI's GOP National Committeeman, says the varying alliances of himself (with Steve Laffey) and Scott Avedisian (with Linc Chafee) are unrelated to Avedisian's challenge to his position.
Last week, N4N reported that Avedisian and Joe Trillo are challenging Manning for the National Committeman post. The election for the position will be held in June.
Asked what this about, Manning told me a short time ago, "They're interested in extending their service to the party." Asked if it has any relation to maneuvering for the 2010 gubernatorial race, he said, "No."
Manning defeated former LG Bernie Jackvony for the Committeeman slot four years ago, after it was discovered by Laffey allies that the previous holder of the post, Mike Traficante, had disaffiliated in Cranston and was therefore ineligible.
Manning confirmed that he intends to fight for the National Committeeman post. He claims credit for helping to put Rhode Island on the path to be included in Super Tuesday voting in the next presidential election cycle -- a move that would have to be approved at the Republican National Convention. Manning says he has also worked to get funding from the Republican National Committee for the state party, in part through a coalition of smaller states.
Calling the RNC "basically a seniority-based organization," Manning says that if someone were to replace him, "we're going to [have to] start all over again."
Thursday, April 24, 2008
UPDATE II: AVEDISIAN, TRILLO COMMENT (I've left a message for Manning).
Avedisian, Trillo, and the RI GOP's Donna Perry all downplay the significance of the three-way Republican National Committeeman race in relation to particular candidates and the 2010 gubernatorial race. They might be playing it straight. "Basically, it's a figurehead position," says one Smith Hill Democrat. If someone's running for governor, says the source, it could be a waste of their time and effort.
As Perry explains it, the National Committeeman post carries with it membership in the Republican National Committee and the role as chief liaison to the RNC. "It's an important post," she says. "[The Committeeman is] our person to attend informational meetings with the [national] party. We rely on the national party for institutional support." In terms of 2010, and a possible Chafee-Laffey matchup, Perry says, "I don't think it's relevant to focus on who's been aligned with who." It's more about who's going to work hard for the party, she says.
The matter is slated to be decided June 12 by the RI GOP's state Central Committee. Perry says that party chairman Gio Cicione will remain publicly neutral, but that the RI Republicans' nominating committee, chaired by Mia Caetano Johnson, will make a recommendation.
Avedisian tells me that his Committeeman run "does not change anything" in terms of making a 2010 gubernatorial campaign any more or less likely. "It has no bearing on [2010] whatsoever."
After 28 years of involvement in the RI GOP, 25 of them on the state Central Committee, "I decided this was the next thing that I wanted to do," says Avedisian.
Trillo says the party needs fresh blood in the Committeeman post. "I think I have done a lot to help this party, and I would like to do more," he says. "In the past, I just haven't seen the job done at the level that I think it could be done. The place we have continually run short is in raising money. I think the National Committeeman is in a better position to get money out of the RNC. Our current people haven't been able to get any money of any significance. I don't know what they're doing."
Trillo says a small state such as Rhode Island could be "a prime experiment" of whether the national GOP can takeover a blue state.
Asked about implications for 2010, the Rep. says, "[For] either one of them" -- Avedisian or Manning -- "it could be, but I don't see it necessarily for the upcoming gubernatorial race. I'm more concerned with working on the party on legislative races."
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UPDATE: State Representative Joseph A. Trillo of Warwick will also be competing for the RI GOP National Committeeman post. "He's definitely in," says Donna Perry, executive director of the Rhode Island Republican Party . . . More to follow.
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Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian is challenging Robert Manning of Charlestown for the RI GOP National Committeeman post, N4N has learned.
This is an interesting development, considering how Avedisian is pals with Linc Chafee, and Manning is a Steve Laffey guy. The vote for the position is in June. As we know, Chafee is a possible gubernatorial rival for Laffey in 2010.
On the female side of the equation, longtime GOP National Committeewoman Eileen Slocum is not seeking reelection, and a number of contenders, including former RI GOP chair Patricia Morgan, are in the hunt.
I have a call in to Avedisian, and will report back if I get more on this today.
Monday, April 21, 2008
From the House Republicans:
State House- The House Finance Committee will be meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22 to consider legislation (H 7627) that would establish more stringent public disclosure requirements for all legislative grants. The meeting will take place at 1pm in room 35 of the State House.
The legislation sponsored by Representative Nicholas Gorham (R-Dist. 40 Foster, Glocester, Coventry) calls for the inclusion of all legislative grants in the state budget. Also required would be the grant recipient’s name, a contact person for the grant recipient, the sponsoring legislator, a statement of whether the House or Senate Finance Committees have held hearings on the proposed grant, and a brief description of the nature and purpose of the grant.
Aside from the greater disclosure requirements, the inclusion of all legislative grants in the state budget would require that they be voted on by the full General Assembly. This would be a dramatic change in procedure, as the current system requires no such vote.
The full text of this legislation is available at http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText08/HouseText08/H7627.pdf.
Speaking of Laffey, he, during his Channel 10 appearance, outlined a bold plan to grow GOP representation in the General Assembly. Why isn't it happening? asked Jim Taricani.
As I recall, Laffey said the responsibility belongs, in part, with the governor's office.
In related news, the state GOP has this announcement:
WARWICK, RI – The Rhode Island Republican Party today announces the appointment of Ivan Marte of Cranston to a diversity outreach leadership post within the Party. Marte will become the new Chairman of the party’s RI Republican Hispanic Assembly. He replaces David Quiroa who resigned several weeks ago.
“Ivan Marte is an active leader in the Hispanic community, is active within his own Cranston community and is an energized Republican who will serve us well,” states Chairman Giovanni Cicione. “We are thrilled to bring him on board to this leadership post which is very important to our ongoing outreach efforts to the Hispanic and other diverse communities.”
Marte says he is pleased to take the chairman’s post for the Party. “I am glad to serve the state Republican Party in a Hispanic leadership post because I support the Party’s goals,” Marte says. “I want to help them fight the Democrat leadership at the statehouse and fight to help the family run small businesses which many Hispanics own, which are struggling in Cranston and across the state.”
Marte will also play a pivotal role with the Party’s ongoing candidate recruitment effort, having been a candidate himself who is eyeing another run this year. Marte ran unsuccessfully for Cranston Senate District 28, losing to incumbent Josh Miller in 2006. He expects to announce his intentions about a race this year very soon.
“Ivan has run for office, knows the issues, knows the shortcomings of the opposition, and is well positioned as a candidate himself,” Cicione adds.
Marte, a native of the Dominican Republic, is a professional banker who has worked at the Dominican counterpart of the Federal Reserve Bank and currently is in management with Domestic Bank locally. He has served on the Cranston Mayor’s office Cranston Diversity Advisory Committee, has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at the Cranston Public Library and is a past recipient of the Dominican American Award. He is married and the father of seven children.
Steve Laffey makes for entertaining TV, so would he make for an entertaining (and effective) governor? These questions will come front and center as we move closer to 2010.
During an appearance yesterday on 10 News Conference, Laffey repeated many of the talking points that he shared during an interview for my recent story on Lincoln Chafee:
Laffey says Rhode Island could become “a wining place” by bringing state spending on social programs and other needs into line with the average of the other 49 states, and he supports remaking the state pension system as a 401(k) program, creating a more competitive tax structure, and increasing school choice, among other things.
During the show broadcast yesterday, Laffey strongly endorsed Governor Carcieri's executive order on immigration.
Yet as Matt notes, there some good followup questions that could have been asked of Laffey on this subject:
Question #1 that was not asked: Your executive order in 2005 as Mayor of Cranston stands in stark contrast with Gov. Carcieri's recent executive order. The key component of many city's "Sanctuary City" policies is to issue government-sponsored ID cards - which is exactly what you did in issuring an executive order giving out ID cards in cooperation with the Guatemalan and Mexican consulates while you were Mayor (ProJo article here). .... If you support this policy to this day and you said that you did. Do you stand by this policy decision and would you issue state ID cards to undocumented immigrants if you are Governor?
Question #2 that was not asked: Many advocates for undocumented immigrants signed the "Draft Laffey" letter urging you to run for the Senate, including, Maria Alvarado, President, Guatemalan-American Association of RI; Julio Cesar Aragon, President, Rhode Island Mexican- American Association; Humberto Castillo, President, Central American United; Juan Garcia, Coordinator, Immigrants in Action Committee at St. Teresa's Church; Aida Hidalgo, Director Hispanic Ministry, Catholic Church and David A. Quiroa, Chairman, Newport Republican Party and President, Latino-American Outreach Project. Do you support the efforts of your supporters above (including Aragon, who you traveled to the Mexican border with) to have Gov. Carcieri rescind his executive order and do you still count these immigrant leaders as supporters for any future campaign efforts?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Yes, they can pull defeat from victory if they keep it up, says Bob Herbert:
So what are the Democrats doing? The Clintons are running around with flamethrowers, gleefully trying to incinerate the prospects of the party’s leading candidate, Barack Obama. As Bill Clinton put it last month: “If a politician doesn’t want to get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office.”
Senator Obama, for his part, seems to have lost sight of the unifying message that proved so compelling early in his campaign and has stumbled into weird cultural predicaments that have caused some people to rethink his candidacy.
While some of those predicaments raise legitimate concerns (his former pastor, his comments in San Francisco) and some do not (stupid questions about wearing a flag pin), he has allowed them to fester unnecessarily. The way for a candidate to eventually change the subject is to offer policy prescriptions so creative and compelling that they generate excitement among the electorate and can’t be ignored by the press. ...
That raucous laughter you hear in the background is coming from the likes of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, President Bush and Senator McCain. They can’t believe their good fortune.
The issues still favor the Democrats. More and more Americans are losing their jobs, and many of those still employed are working fewer hours and cashing smaller paychecks. Vacation plans are being curtailed because of declining family income and sky-high gasoline prices. The value of the family home is eroding.
Instead of capitalizing on the political advantages presented by these issues, the Democrats, with their increasingly small-minded approach to this election, are squandering them.
There was always going to be resistance in the U.S. to putting a black person or a woman of any color in the White House. To overcome that built-in resistance, three things are crucially important: new voters have to be brought into the process; the nominee must have an exciting and compelling message; and the party has to be extraordinarily unified behind its standard-bearer.
John McCain, meanwhile, is looking to go wide:
ARLINGTON, Va. — Senator John McCain’s political advisers said Friday that they believed his potential appeal to independents could make him competitive in up to two dozen tossup states, twice as many as Republicans seriously contested in the 2004 presidential race.
The campaign is working to expand Mr. McCain’s electoral map by employing an unusual, decentralized structure in which it will dispatch 11 regional campaign managers across the country, assigning some to traditional closely fought states like Ohio and Florida, others to states they hope to pick up, like Minnesota, and a couple to some less common targets for Republicans, including New Jersey.
The McCain campaign, which won the primaries on a shoestring budget, is staffing up now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee. It has around 150 people on its payroll, up from less than 100 last month, and has beefed up its communications division, added a speech writer and brought on board a team of pollsters. And it is working to overcome its fund-raising disadvantage by working in tandem with the better-financed Republican National Committee.
Friday, April 18, 2008
A nascent political force? We know the state GOP needs all the help it can get.
Providence, RI – The College Republican Federation of Rhode Island ends a successful year as the Nation’s Most Improved Federation in the Country this Saturday at its annual convention from 10 AM – 4 PM at the University of Rhode Island Memorial Union Ballroom where Mayors Laffey, Avedisian, National Treasurer Esther Clark and Group Representatives will speak to College Republicans from across the state.
“The College Republican Federation of Rhode Island has spent the year organizing a grassroots organization of unprecedented proportions that will bear fruit this Fall. This Saturday marks the end of our federation’s most successful term ever, and the beginning of the next generation of College Republicans that will continue this momentum,” stated Chairman Ryan Bilodeau
Others slated to speak include Rhode Island Republican Assembly President Ray McKay, candidates for office and more. A hundred or so students from across the state are expected to attend.
Outgoing State Chairman Ryan Bilodeau concluded, “This year we were able to update our constitution in an effort to make the organization more transparent and accountable, to provide websites for our chapters, to create a PAC, to modernize our infrastructure by attaining a P.O. Box, to provided training to chapters in the form of a chapter manual and a training event and launched comprehensive website that takes online donations, has a store, and contains resources for chapters.”
The College Republican Federation of Rhode Island is an umbrella organization serving student-run clubs on campuses throughout Rhode Island. The state organization is composed of a five-member elected executive board and appointed members. For more information about the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island, please visit the statewide organization's website at http://www.crfri.org.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Speaking of Chafee, he has declined to sign on with the Moderate Party of Rhode Island, main Moderate Ken Block tells me, but Block has enlisted the backing of former attorney general Arlene Violet, my regular co-panelist on Newsmakers.
In hindsight, I was a bit too quick to dismiss Block's effort when I wrote last November about why RI Republicans fail. As he explains it, drawing people to the center, and away from the ideological extremes, could help to focus energy on the state's top problems. It's worth a shot, and if he encourages more people to run for office, that's good, too.
I offer a short look at Block's ongoing efforts in this week's Phoenix:
Block, a Barrington resident who owns a Warwick software company, says he’s long been frustrated by the shortcomings of the local status quo, in which Republicans don’t offer a viable alternative and legislative Democrats operate with a lack of accountability. As a businessman with elderly parents and school-age children, Block, a self-described centrist, says neither party adequately addresses his various concerns.
If his nascent Moderate Party could pull enough people into the center, he reasons, it could have an impact, helping to put some pressure on the ruling Democrats.
While efforts to develop third parties have had little success amid America’s two-party duopoly, a poll recently commissioned by Block, among other results, found that 78 percent of the respondents felt that neither major political party represents their views on the way state government should be run.
Seventy-four percent of the respondents said they would be supportive of a new moderate political party that was “not beholden to the state’s labor unions and special interest of the left or in lock step support of Republicans on the right.”
The Moderate Party of Rhode Island (moderate-ri.org) advocates the immediate adoption of five core principles:
• Toughen ethics laws and employment agreements to make our elected, appointed and employed state officials far more accountable for their actions.
• Stop spending money that is not well spent.
• Induce businesses to locate to Rhode Island by bringing RI's business taxes in line with Massachusetts’ business taxes.
• Bring the total compensation packages (including wages, benefits, pension amounts and pension eligibility) for state employees in line with what private sector workers earn.
• Produce a balanced budget by reducing spending and waste and by not relying on one-time gimmicks like selling tobacco settlement funds or revenue anticipation bonds.
Block says he is focused on raising awareness about the Moderate Party, attracting support from such individuals as former attorney general Arlene Violet, and starting a related political action committee. In time, he hopes to establish the Mods as a state-sanctioned political party, an effort that would require the gathering of a number of signatures equal to five percent of the voting in the last gubernatorial election.
The bit about compensation packages may be more complicated than some believe, as Brian J. Jones wrote about here. But Block seems motivated by a sincere call to public-minded civic action -- and you can't knock that.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
On the other side of the aisle, the South Kingstown Republican Town Committee has this event planned for Thursday:
On April 10th at 7 PM, the SKGOP is inviting all candidates for RIGOP National Committeeman and National Committeewman to speak.
This will be occurring at Casey's Grill and Bar on 191 Old Tower Hill Rd in Wakefield. While there, you can also buy tickets for the May 14th Reagan-Lincoln Day Dinner.
Monday, April 07, 2008
The Moderate Party's Ken Block just e-mailed with some poll findings:
The people of Rhode Island are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the performance of the General Assembly and both major political parties in solving the state’s problems, and nearly 75 percent would support a new party that promised to do things differently.Those are the key findings of a telephone poll conducted among 400 registered Rhode Island voters recently by Alpha Research.
The poll was commissioned by Kenneth Block, a Warwick business owner and Barrington resident.
“I’ve been concerned for several years about the effects of fiscal mismanagement and corruption on the state’s economy,” said Block. “I had to find out if I was alone or if others believed the state was entering a death spiral and had to change its ways.
“This scientific poll shows beyond a doubt that well more than a majority of Rhode Islanders are fed up with the performance of their government and ready to elect different leaders.”
Some of the major results:
• 91% of respondents felt that things in Rhode Island have gotten seriously off on the wrong track.
• 75% felt that the Democratic Party was doing a fair or poor job helping to solve the state’s problems.
• 80% felt that the Republican Party was doing a fair or poor job helping to solve the state’s problems.
• 82% felt that the General Assembly was doing a fair or poor job helping to solve the state’s problems.
• 78% felt that neither major political party represented their views on the way state government should be run.
• 74% said they would be supportive if a new political party was created that was moderate in its political thinking and not beholden to the state's labor unions and special interest of the left or in lock step support of Republicans on the right.
Since receiving the poll results, Block has met with political activists in all parts of the state to drum up support for setting up a new party and recruiting candidates for General Assembly seats in this year’s election.
“For the many Rhode Islanders who know we need new leadership but believe there’s no point in fighting the entrenched powers, this poll shows that the opposite is true,” said Block. “Put yourselves out there with a message of real reform, and you’ll get elected -- because the majority of Rhode Island voters are ready to make the change! By providing competition for legislative seats that have gone uncontested, and by providing voters the option of a centrist candidate, we should be able to influence current lawmaking because our legislators will know that they will be held accountable for their actions in the election booth.”
More information about the Moderate Party of Rhode Island, issues that we support and how to get involved can be found on our website at (http://www.moderate-ri.org). Party representatives will be at the Operation Clean Government candidate school on Saturday April 12.
In contrast to the scrutiny received by Rudy Giuliani -- ok, a fair share of it was self-inflicted, the presumptive Republican nominee has barely gotten a close look. Yet the advocacy group MoveOn has some things to say about John McCain:
10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Gio Cicione, chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, is in New Mexico for a gathering of GOP counterparts from around the country. Gio, who talked with me via telephone this afternoon, says the assembled state party chairs heard a short time ago from the campaign manager for John McCain.
Even more interesting, however, is what Cicione said when I asked about the recruitment of legislative candidates back here in Rhode Island.
"It looks like we have a really long list of potential candidates," he says, adding that he was surprised by the volume of prospects. Two to three people have expressed interest in competing for a number of the legislative races that went uncontested the last time around, he says -- a development that can be attributed to the state's budget woes. "I was blown away," says Cicione. "We are way ahead of where we thought we would be."
The party chair declined to specify an estimate when I asked what percentage of legislative seats will be contested this year by Republicans. The filing deadline is in June.
Cicione says the party will now focus on spending a lot of time talking to the prospects to "find out if they are quality candidates, what their intentions are, and if they're willing to work hard."
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
In "Ready to rumba," my comprehensive 2003 story on increasing political activity by Latinos in Rhode Island, I looked at how the national GOP was trying to make inroads among Hispanics, and what it meant locally:
A popular East Providence politician once told Dan Garza that being a Republican in Rhode Island is like trying to pee up a rope. And as Garza knows, trying to cultivate Latino Republicans is even more difficult. Even with the chairman’s steady work and articulate manner, the Rhode Island chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly has only about five members. But Garza, a pithy Ohio native and former Democrat who traces his heritage to Texas and Mexico, believes the GOP message of family, church, and self-reliance still has a lot of resonance for Latinos in the US.
Now, however, while Governor Carcieri's recent executive order on immigration has ginned up his support among critics of illegal immigration, Matt has the story of how it could erode backing for the GOP in Rhode Island:
Former Republican candidate for the RI House in District 73 and current chairman of the RI Hispanic Republican Assembly, David A. Quiroa has penned a scathing letter announcing his resignation from the RI Republican Party:
Adios RI GOP
It is with great pain and sadness that I write this public announcement to state that I officially resign from my affiliation to the RI GOP and any other RI Republican committee, subcommittee, and appointments that I hold.
Effective on April 2, 2008 I become an unaffiliated voter thus seeking “Political Asylum” in the independent column. As an American citizen of Hispanic heritage I cannot remain as a member of a party where the leadership lacks vision for an integral inclusion of points of view – the tent is small and empty.
The Immigration Issue is an important issue for me, my family, my church, my friends and my brothers and sisters of the immigrant community. Not because I want open borders or want the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to become a sanctuary State, but rather because I want the American spirit to be free of political correctness and opportunism – We need solutions.
These are times that need leadership. We need leadership with a foundation of solid political valor not political demagogy or speeches full with hypocrisy or cries of change that hide behind political correctness.
The current actions of the RI GOP have set the party back 50 years in the eyes of minorities. I make this statement as a proud American who has lived firsthand the unfortunate effects of discrimination. As such, I can tell you that racial profiling is REAL and it does take place everyday. Making our local and state police departments ICE venues does, at the subconscious level, put duress on our good and brave officers to engage in racial profiling. This added burden on our officers does not bring any solutions but rather complicates matters for the worse – Public safety will suffer.
I will remain active in civic public service, as I believe it is my duty as an American to better my country. However, I say Adios to the RI Republican Party and enter the independent field riding my brown elephant into the fields of independence.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
John McCain's key to cultivating positive press? His sense of detatched irony, of course, writes Neal Gabler in yesterday's NYT:
The candidates who are dead serious about politics, even wonkish, get abused by the press for it. Mr. McCain the ironist gets heaps of affection. In this race, though, it has forced some press contortions. While John McCain 2000 was praised for being the same straight talker off the bus as he was on it, John McCain 2008 is praised precisely because he isn’t the same man. Off the bus he plays to the rubes (us) by reciting the conservative catechism; on the bus he plays to the press by giving the impression that his talk is all just a ploy to capture the Republican nomination.
Yet the reporters, so quick in general to jump on hypocrisy, seem to find his insincerity a virtue. When an old sobersides like Mitt Romney flip-flops, he is called a panderer. When Mr. McCain suddenly supports the tax cuts he once excoriated, or embraces the religious right, or emphasizes border security over a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, we are told by his press acolytes that he doesn’t really mean it, that his liberal cosmology will ultimately best his conservative rhetoric. “Discount his repositioning a bit,” Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate, wrote two years ago, “and McCain looks like the same unconventional character who emerged during the Clinton years.” The article was subtitled “Psst ... He’s Not Really a Conservative.”
This suggests that love is blind. It also suggests that seducing the press with ironic detachment, the press’s soft spot, may be the best political strategy of all — one that Mr. McCain may walk on water right into the White House.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson of East Greenwich is having a $100-per-person time ($150 for couples, $25 for young Republicans) tonight at Olives, 108 North Main St., Providence, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The presumptive GOP nominee should be riding high, but . . .
1) One of his campaign aides has been suspended for promoting a "racially charged video," as Halperin calls it, to call Obama unpatriotic.
2) The Arizona senator is supposed to have a strong suit in national security, but he needs Joe Lieberman whispering in his ear to keep straight the differences between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and Iran.
3) Closer to home, he's well off the mark in claiming that the US has the best health-care system in the world.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
As we know, the RI GOP needs all the help it can get, so maybe the Young Republicans can lend a hand. The group has a gathering planned for tomorrow night at the Wild Colonial, from 5:30-8, to kick off the 2008 campaign.
Among those expected to attend are party chairman Gio Cicione, former Congressional candidate Jon Scott, and Mark Zaccaria, Jim Langevin's recently announced opponent. (There is a $5 cover cover charge to benefit the Young Republicans.)
In related news, Ryan Bilodeau sends word that the College Republican National Board has named the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island the most improved federation in the country.
Monday, March 17, 2008
The state budget crisis offers a great opportunity for the Rhode Island Republican Party to increase its presence in the General Assembly. However, if you read | |