The end of an era is dawning, with plans by the PawSox to move to Worcester — a story that will continue to reverberate in Rhode Island. So thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As usual your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. (Program note: I’m taking next week off, so TGIF will return August 31.)
1. The PawSox are about as Rhode Island as clam cakes and coffee milk. So even if it’s not a complete surprise, the news that the team plans to leave for Worcester in 2021 is sparking disappointment — and finger-pointing. To some, Rhode Island’s seeming inability to retain a favored franchise is emblematic of a dyfunctional political culture, not to mention the hangover from 38 Studios. To be sure, the PawSox’ quest to build a new stadium turned into a multi-year, saga, with the unexpected death of Jim Skeffington, legislative skirmishes, and the reluctance of some pols to own their support for a deal. To hear PawSox Chairman Larry Lucchino tell it, a key difference was how the PawSox got treated; During a news conference at Worcester City Hall, he said his late mother would have asked him, “Why don’t you take your team where it’s wanted, where they really very much support you and want to have this ballpark done. Go where you’re wanted, not where there’s controversy and disagreement and opposition and all of that. It is as simple as that.” Still, the Massachusetts deal is more generous than its most recent Rhode Island counterpart by many millions of dollars. So in some ways, the story is about the more prosperous Bay State pouncing on an opportunity. Then again, questions will linger: like whether the PawSox would have stayed if the House had approved the plan backed by the Senate last January.
2. Did Speaker Nicholas Mattiello make the right political calculus with his cautious approach to the Pawtucket stadium plan? Mattiello said he was responding to public opinion and views expressed to him that the state should not backstop a deal for the PawSox. Yet the team conspicuously declined to publicly comment from the time when that proposal emerged, sending a flashing warning signal that the PawSox could be on the move. Mattiello denied that his approach was motivated by the specter of another challenge from Steven Frias, who came close to defeating the speaker for his state rep seat in 2016 (and is running again), although many observers believe otherwise. In a statement, Mattiello put the responsibility on the PawSox ownership. “The state’s proposal contained strong protections for the taxpayers and shifted the risk to the investors,” he said in a statement. “It was responsive to the concerns of the taxpayers who made it clear that they did not want to accept the risk contained within the original proposal. It is disheartening the PawSox did not show the same loyalty to the City of Pawtucket and the State of Rhode Island as the taxpayers and fans have shown to them for many decades.”
3: Steven Frias‘ comment: “The current PawSox owners made the mistake of paying too much to buy the team back in 2015. Ever since they have been demanding a new taxpayer-funded stadium. However, numerous studies have repeatedly shown that taxpayer subsidies for sports teams do not make economic sense (see Politifact ProJo 3/7/15). I am proud to have been a voice for most Rhode Islanders who did not want taxpayer money used to build a new stadium for the PawSox owners. Instead of giving the voters the final say through a bond referendum as to whether they want to pay for a new PawSox stadium, Speaker Mattiello tried to fool people on both sides of the PawSox debate with his last-minute, junk bond stadium plan. Because Mattiello’s deal would have cost the taxpayers and the owners even more money, it ended up pleasing no one.”
4. Gov. Raimondo, joined by Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor, faced reporters at the Commerce Corporation office Friday evening to share her message. She said she believes the PawSox would agreed to the deal negotiated with her administration and passed by the state Senate in January. Raimondo steered clear of singling out Speaker Mattiello, but she faulted legislative foot-dragging for causing the PawSox to leave: “The legislature had this before them for over a year. That’s a long time – that gave the PawSox a lot of time to go find another deal and they found another deal. And the deal they found comes with a much bigger taxpayer subsidy than our deal.” Raimondo generally avoided publicly cheerleading for the earlier deal in 2017, but she rejected the view that she should have done more. “I was very forceful,” she said. “We negotiated the deal. We spent hundreds of hours with the team.” She said the more costly proposal that came from the House in May “created a number of different challenges.”
5. Comment from RI Senate President Dominick Ruggerio: “It is extremely disappointing to learn of today’s decision by the PawSox. The Senate did everything it could to pass responsible legislation to keep the PawSox in Rhode Island. I am very grateful for the commitment and hard work of Chairman Conley and the Senate Finance Committee. The committee was extremely diligent, holding over 30 hours of public hearings during an exceptionally open and transparent process. In recognition of the opportunity before us to revitalize downtown Pawtucket while preserving a Rhode Island institution, the Senate voted in the opening weeks of session this January to pass a responsible ballpark plan. The Senate legislation was fair to the team and beneficial to state and city taxpayers. I am certain that the team would have stayed in Pawtucket had the Senate bill passed into law. I am proud of my colleagues in the Senate for their work on the ballpark proposal.”
6. What’s the political fallout from the PawSox’ plan to move to Worcester? That’s hard to say. The Rhode Island Construction Building Trades, which perceived the Pawtucket stadium as a source of jobs, have to be among those most upset about the news. But the electoral impact is tougher to see for Speaker Mattiello and Gov. Raimondo. Despite their clashing stances, both cited a desire to protect taxpayers. The governor is better known as a statewide figure, but she has signaled a willingness to push back on the far more generous terms of the Worcester deal — something, she said, that Rhode Island shouldn’t try to overcome. So it could take time to assess the impact, beyond the general disappointment and sadness about another fond bit of Rhode Island’s present slipping into the past. As former ProJo political columnist M. Charles Bakst wrote on Facebook: “I am heartsick over the Pawsox decision to move to Worcester. RI state officials muffed this. Families here will miss out on quality entertainment they could afford and Pawtucket loses a chance at economic development. I can only imagine what the great Ben Mondor would think of this.”
7. Comment from Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien, who fought hard for his city and persistently stayed on the case: “The city I am proud and honored to represent is made great by our resilient community and, no matter what challenge we face, Pawtucket will continue to move forward toward an even brighter future. I know many of my neighbors in Pawtucket and throughout Rhode Island are struggling today with the sudden news of this treasured piece of the fabric of our community being ripped out of its rightful home. While unclear if the Massachusetts subsidies are truly a done deal, no matter what Pawtucket will pursue other innovative ways to invest in our quality of life, as a community and with our fellow Rhode Islanders. Our community has a strong history of persevering. And, together, we will forge ahead to a brighter tomorrow. Up until Thursday night, and for the last three years, the City of Pawtucket and the State of Rhode Island had been working with the PawSox to keep this treasured institution, and the jobs associated with it, here in Pawtucket where they belong. Sadly, we had to learn through media reports, like everyone else, that the ownership group had decided to take our team and move it to Worcester in light of substantial subsidies provided by Worcester and the State of Massachusetts. We, just like everyone else, including the taxpayers of Worcester and Massachusetts, wait anxiously to see something publicly related to this proposal. The Worcester process is unlike the highly vetted and transparent Rhode Island process that protected taxpayer. Though many details remain behind closed doors, where they were negotiated, we will take the weekend to digest the limited information that was released this afternoon and I will hold a press conference early next week to provide further comments and thoughts.”
8. What’s next for McCoy Stadium if the PawSox leave? Gov. Raimondo said it’s premature to get into specifics for now. She added: “We’ll get together with the mayor. We’ll explore all options – sports options, non-sports options. The important thing is, we’re committed to making sure it’s not an empty stadium. That we will do. And I think there’s many other opportunities, and we’ll have to get together and figure out what the best opportunities are.”
9, The lyrical Dan Barry, ex of the ProJo, wrote the ultimate book on the PawSox. Here’s an excerpt from his 2015 story on the team’s possible exit from Rhode Island: “Construction of the stadium began in the late 1930s at the behest of Pawtucket’s all-powerful mayor, Thomas P. McCoy, who had a fondness for shamrock-patterned ties and a red rose in his lapel. In choosing Hammond’s Pond as the building site, he ensured years of employment for hundreds of laborers hired to stabilize the seemingly bottomless muck. Tales of vehicles and equipment swallowed overnight continue to this day. By its completion in 1942, the 6,000-seat stadium had cost more than the construction of Notre Dame’s much larger football stadium; more, even, than the assessed value of Fenway Park. But the mayor had little time to enjoy his expensive little ballpark; he died, suddenly, in 1945. At a dedication ceremony the next spring, the Boys and Girls Club serenaded his memory with ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s.’ “
11. Commentary from Scott MacKay: “This failure of Rhode Island’s political leadership will be grist for much debate. Some will contrast this time around with the 1990s, when then-Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld offered to build the PawSox a Worcester stadium. At that time, Pawtucket and the Blackstone Valley had enough clout to approve a $12 million state subsidy to give McCoy a much-needed facelift. Attendance surged after the renovations. In those days, the governor, Republican Lincoln Almond, was from Lincoln and House Speaker John Harwood and Finance Chairman Tony Pires both hailed from Pawtucket. The political spin cycle is swirling. But the team’s retreat only heightens Rhode Island’s reputation as a parochial state where it’s difficult to do business on anything that involves government.”
12. With time running down ahead of the September 12 primary, can challengers bend the conventional rules of politics toward an upset victory? That’s the question facing Democrat Matt Brown and Republican Patricia Morgan as they take on the respective perceived front runners, Gov. Raimondo and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, with a paucity of campaign money. Morgan took the fight this week to Cranston City Hall, rolling out a guy in a chicken suit to dramatize Fung’s general reluctance to take part in debates. Brown rolled out a new campaign video from the same team that produced an effort for New York upstart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Fung, meanwhile, sounded a message on crime and immigration and he criticized Raimondo’s use of savvy campaign operative Jeff Britt (who has worked for a string of Dems and Republicans, from Don Carcieri to Speaker Mattiello). Raimondo campaigned in high-rises with members of the state’s congressional delegation and her flotilla of campaign commercials (a new effort contrasts her witth President Trump) remains in heavy rotation on TV.
13. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell joined RIPR’s Political Roundtable, discussing, among other things, why he’s opposed to an expansion of charter schools. In short, he argues that some Bay State communities are disproportionately hurt by the loss of funding when students leave traditional schools for charters.
14. Who knew? Joe Trillo has a MacGyver-like ability to fix stuff and a Prince-like talent for playing a range of musical instruments. The Republican-turned-independent showed off his Renaissance Man stuff in a new video this week. The video offered a contrast to Trillo’s sometimes-bombastic public persona, raising the ongoing question: where is his ceiling in the race for governor, and can he surprise people by exceeding that?
15. A GateHouse-owned newspaper in Kansas that endorsed President Trump was among those denoucing the president’s attacks on news organizations: “It’s an acknowledgment that we’re part of this community,” Capital-Journal publisher Stephen Wade told CNN. “The people who work for me here, my teammates, they live here, they play here. We’re just normal people, too. To make us out to be enemies is just not right.”
16. With less than a month to go until Rhode Island’s September 12 primary, the Democratic matchup between Lt. Gov. Dan McKee and state Rep. Aaron Regunberg remains a marquee race. Regunberg unveiled the commercial on which he’s making a heavy spend, depicting the Statehouse in a shady light. Regunberg picked up endorsements from the National Education Association RI PAC and SEIU32BJ. McKee’s campaign criticized Regunberg’s use of a WPRI-TV story, calling it “an attempt to disinform and deceive voters.” Regunberg’s campaign fired back that McKee was trying to distract voters from his record.
17. Sam Howard makes the case that Rhode Island’s 2018 election should be about housing. Excerpt: “Even with the recent increase to $10.10, and even if calls for a $15 minimum wage were to be successful, housing will remain a severe cost of our poorest neighbors. This is having an effect in Rhode Island. Cranston overtaking Warwick to become the second largest city in Rhode Island (according to US Census estimates) was heralded by many as evidence of its success. But looking more closely at the data shows that Cranston largely earned that place thanks to the declining population in Warwick. The reaction to such a change should not have been self-satisfied smiles from Cranston, it should’ve been horror from Warwick and other municipalities that lost population. HousingWorks found that the loss of households with children from 2000-2013 reduced Rhode Island’s GDP by $646 million and cost the equivalent of over 7,000 full-time jobs. Meanwhile, for the first time since 2010, homelessness has increased. The same study puts to lie the typical complaint from the outlying towns in Rhode Island: that families with children will cost them too much in school costs. Except for Lincoln and Barrington, all municipalities in Rhode Island saw large decreases in children enrolled in schools from 2003-2011. Over the same period, spending per student increased. According to the study, schools in Rhode Island are economically inefficient with their spending, and could be much more efficient by enrolling more students.”
18. Quartz has a rundown on which books are required reading at Brown University and a number of other top universities.
19. The Grange in Providence snagged a spot on PETA’s Top-10 list of vegan seafood dishes, “for its weird and wonderful, tasty dish of soy-glazed mock-eel and tofu that comes with sticky rice, kimchi, pickled vegetables, and a fresh seaweed salad. ‘The Grange’s super-tasty ‘not real’ eel meal definitely proves that no sensitive sea animal needs to die for dinner,’ says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. ‘All the restaurants on PETA’s list are dishing up mouthwatering animal-free seafood that’s sure to have diners catching—and riding—the vegan wave.’ “
20. Give it up for the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Here’s Rhode Islander Lou Papineau‘s timeline of her hits.
