Question of the Week: If a JCLS meeting was held in the woods, would anyone get invited? Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column, and Happy Valentine’s. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1) The unsettled quality of the Democratic race for president could be good news for political enthusiasts in Rhode Island. That’s because our April 28 presidential primary may have heightened relevance due to the ongoing close competition. We punched above our weight (4 electoral votes!) back in 2008, when the battle played out between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The same was true when Clinton and Bernie Sanders scrapped for the nomination in 2016. Meanwhile, the divided loyalties of the local political class were on display during the Greater Provdience Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative luncheon on Wednesday. The spicy element was how House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello switched his support from Joe Biden to Amy Klobuchar (although the Biden campaigned suggested there might be more to the story). Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said he’s for Klobuchar, Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey is still ridin’ with Biden, and House Majority Leader Joe Shekarchi backs Pete Buttigieg. On the GOP side, Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere said he supports President Trump, while House Minority Leader Blake Filippi likes Democrat Tulsi Gabbard and Trump – a view that may have not endeared him to some Trump supporters.
2) Via Politico – “Sex, Lies and Prenups: Donald Trump’s Timeless Wisdom on Love …. Donald Trump’s many books are ostensibly about business and the business of being him. They are chock-full, too, though, with love advice. There’s a good reason for that: To Trump, who presents himself as an expert on everything, love is just another deal—because love and business are basically the same thing. ‘Treat each decision,’ he has counseled, ‘like a lover.’ ”
3) House Minority Leader Blake Filippi continued pressing the case this week over the Joint Committee on Legislative Services, the obscure but powerful panel that controls General Assembly hiring and spending. As Filippi said while initially commenting on his lawsuit against House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, the speaker’s control of JCLS – and the lack of any JCLS meetings in recent memory – raise a host of legal questions about the legislature. For his part, Mattiello ascribes a political motive to Filippi’s focus on this issue.
4) With the General Assembly setting off for one-week February break, a few significant bills are already on track to reach Gov. Gina Raimondo’s desk. That’s a change in Statehouse culture, since most legislation of consequence is held up until late in the session. Some observers attribute the faster pace to the cloud represented by the grand jury probe into the short-lived Convention Center audit ordered by Speaker Mattiello. Then again, the bill to ensure abortion rights in Rhode Island moved through the legislature last year after getting discussed fairly early in the session. At any rate, the legislation on track to become law includes a $1 increase in the minimum wage (effective October 1), a ban on 3D guns, and most likely, the measure to have police check applications for gun permits based on the home community of the applicant.
5) The cross-currents in the Democratic Party over the minimum wage were on display when the House debated the $1 wage hike, to $11.50, in the final session before break. The debate revealed tensions between Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell (D-Providence), who supports the progressive priority of a $15 an hour wage, and Rep. Anastasia Williams (D-Providence), an outspoken member of Mattiello’s House leadership. While it’s unclear from footage on Capitol TV precisely what sparked the episode, Williams said an unspecified person had called her a “house slave.” “I had a DNA test and yes, I am a 100 percent multicultural dish, but what I am not is a house slave,” Williams said. “… so make no mistake about who I am, at all, today or any day that I am alive.”
6) U.S. Attorney General William Barr pushed back against President Trump on the Roger Stone controversy, saying that the president’s tweets are making it difficult for him to do his job. During an appearance on Political Roundtable, RI GOP National Committeewoman Lee Ann Sennick said she disagrees with the critics who believe Trump is damaging the Justice Department’s credibility. She said the prosecution of Stone has been marked by excessive zeal, from the way he was to arrested, to how many people have not been prosecuted for lying to Congress.
7) You don’t get much more of a Full Rhode Island than the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce legislative lunch attracting an audience of more than 700 pols and business people to the RI Convention Center, while a grand jury probes the short-lived request for an audit of …. the RI Convention Center. While the inquiry has parked a cloud of uncertainty over the House of Representatives, the issue was not mentioned during the chamber’s Q&A with top lawmakers.
8) One takeaway from the chamber lunch was how, in an informal poll, the audience was closely divided on whether recreational marijuana should be legalized over the next two years. Speaker Mattiello said the marketplace should take precedence if and when the state moves ahead: “And leave it up to the cities and towns. The state does not does do a great job regulating. Let the cities and towns deal with it, under the auspices of the [state] Department of Health. I think a lot of us see the positive and the negative and that’s reflected in this room.”
9) Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza used his State of the City address this week to offer an upbeat message on the future of Rhode Island’s capital city, while tossing in an obligatory nod to a litany of tough challenges. The most significant of those is Providence’s badly underfunded pension bond. As Elorza said recent during a recent interview at The Public’s Radio, he plans to sketch out some short-term approaches on that issue in the months ahead.
10) New finding: “Women currently serving in state legislatures have raised only 24 percent of all money amassed by current lawmakers, despite making up 29 percent of these bodies.”
11) Another Rhode Islander has signed on with Mike Bloomberg’s Democratic presidential campaign. Jacqueline Paolino, daughter of RI’s Democratic National Committeeman Joseph R. Paolino Jr., started work this week with Bloomberg’s campaign in North Carolina. The former Providence mayor attended Bloomberg’s recent Providence event; he tells me he’s yet to make a choice between Bloomberg, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.
12) From ProJo alum/Brown University grad Arthur Gregg Sulzberger’s recent speech on how to save journalism (via The Boston Globe): “At a moment when support for the press is fracturing along ideological lines, we must remind people why enshrining it in the First Amendment was one of the few areas of true consensus among the nation’s founders and why it remained so through our history. If you’re a conservative, I’d remind you that the free press protects against government corruption and overreach, provides businesses and entrepreneurs with the reliable information that fuels economic growth, and helps spread democracy around the world. If you’re a liberal, I’d remind you that the free press provides the scrutiny that keeps corporate power in check, interrogates the true impact of American interventions abroad, and makes sure that everyone, especially the little guy, has a voice.”
13) One of the more enthusiastic responses from the audience at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce legislative lunch came when House GOP Leader Blake Filippi responded to a question from Chamber President Laurie White: Is a GOP proposal to allow students to leave a failing school for another school akin to the nuclear option? “I don’t think it’s a nuclear option when you look at a parent whose child is in a failing school the state has now taken over, and they estimate there’s a five to ten year turnaround time. You look at the state taking over the Central Falls School Department over 25 years ago – it’s still one of the lowest-performing school districts in the state. So I would never say to a parent, who we’re saying, ‘we’re going to empower you, to give you the choice on how to direct you child’s educational future,’ that that’s a nuclear option. I can’t expect any parent to wait for a five to ten year turnaround. We’ve come up with a smart proposal that allows people in failing school districts to send their child outside, to a non-failing school district. It’s not anywhere in the state. We’re going to set up zones, maybe on the county level or smaller. There’s approximately 19,000 vacant seats in non-urban core school districts in the state …. I do not see why a child from Providence can not fill one of those chairs and brighten their future. Because right now, we’re letting a generation down. It is the civil rights issue of our time. And as Frederik Douglass said, it’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
14) According to Faithful America, “the largest online community of Christians putting faith into action for social justice,” more than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Rev. Richard Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick to stop his call for denying sacraments to lawmakers who support abortion rights.
15) From Dante Bellini: “After 40 years in the advertising and PR business, Dante Bellini Jr. is going back to his first love – making movies. Bellini has formed Hooligan Film Productions to produce films and short-story-telling content about some of the inspiring people he has crossed paths with as well as issues he cares deeply about. Bellini just finished his first project – a 60-minute documentary on the film icon, Ken Burns (click here for the trailer). It’s titled, Ken Burns, Here & There. Recently retired as an owner and partner in the regional communications firm RDW Group, but still active in the community, Bellini has long been involved in film and video projects for his clients. …. The Burns film was a project Bellini had long wanted to do. ‘I feel blessed to have been given the chance to document the personal side of Ken, in particular exploring how his unlikely rural home, in Walpole, New Hampshire is central to him as a person and artist.’ It’s a film that examines what makes Ken Burns tick, what he struggles with, and how he seeks renewal and balance for his intense schedule and workload through his ‘sense of place’ in the hills of New Hampshire. The first screening of the film will be in Walpole, with Ken Burns in the audience. ‘Definitely daunting and a little bit frightening,’ Bellini offered.”
16) Once again, Rep. Brian Newberry (R-North Smithfield) has introduced a bill that would require Rhode Island schools to teach civic literacy. Via release: The curriculum would focus on the nation’s founding and related documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. ‘The adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the signing of the United States Constitution were significant events in the history of the United States and should be mandatory learning for students, so they may better understand the principles upon which our great nation was founded,’ said Newberry. ‘The Federalist Papers embody the most eloquent and forceful argument made in support of the adoption of our Republic form of government. These documents stand as the inspiration for our national identity and the vehicle for orderly growth and change.’ Under Newberry’s legislation, the teaching of the nation’s founding and related documents, would be required statewide, during a student’s high school years.”
17) Congrats to Rob Rock, Rhode Island’s director of elections in Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea’s office, on his election as chairman of the Electronic Registration Information Center. Via Gorbea’s office: “ERIC is a bipartisan, non-profit organization made up of 29 states and the District of Columbia that uses secure data matching to improve the accuracy and efficiency of state voter rolls. ERIC states securely share information like social security death records and data from departments of motor vehicles to identify voters who have passed away or moved to another state. Rock, who served the previous year as Vice-Chair of ERIC, was elected by board members during an annual meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. He will serve as chair for one year.”
18) Fun read from Tim Arango, who went to grad school at Brown and briefly freelanced at the Providence Phoenix before eventually becoming a star at The New York Times: “Meet The Unlikely Hero Saving California’s Oldest Weekly Paper”
