Question of the week: Does Rhode Island face an outsized perception for corruption largely due to its small size? Read on, for more on that. Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As always, I welcome your tips and comments, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1) Joe Biden couldn’t have asked for a better Super Tuesday. His string of victories around the U.S. put him in an advantageous position, and sparked the withdrawal from the race of Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Bloomberg, and Elizabeth Warren. That’s good news for Biden backers in RI, including Lt. Gov. Dan McKee, Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey and Sen. Louis DiPalma (D-Middletown). It could set the stage for a November showdown between Biden, a Democrat showing his age, and the polarizing presidency of Donald Trump. But the exit by other Democrats could still have fallout in Rhode Island. Most notably, Bloomberg will remember how Gov. Gina Raimondo, just over a month ago, was the first governor to endorse him. It’s not hard to imagine Bloomberg returning the favor by channeling some of his charitable efforts into Rhode Island, and perhaps assisting Raimondo with employment prospects after her time as governor.
2) For now, 538.com rates Rhode Island as one of the best prospects for Bernie Sanders, ahead of our April 28 presidential primary. I asked one of Sanders’ local supporters, former Rep. Aaron Regunberg, to assess the outlook – and the question of whether Sanders’ backers will vote D in November if he’s not the nominee. Regunberg’s response: “It’s all hands on deck for Bernie’s movement in Rhode Island: we’re energized, committed, and our first canvass is this weekend. Biden and his team had an impressive week that shows how quickly momentum can shift. Bernie and Biden are now neck-and-neck in delegates, and we are looking forward to how Bernie’s vision, values and viability stack up in a one-on-one match. In Rhode Island, our focus is on continuing to build an inclusive movement. Senator Sanders has said again and again that we must do everything we can to defeat Donald Trump in November, no matter who is on the ticket. Every single Bernie volunteer I know agrees 110 percent. Our fight against Trump will continue no matter who wins the Democratic nomination. We also believe that we’ll be in a much stronger position to beat Trump with Sanders as the nominee. ‘Safe bet’ candidates have lost every presidential general election for the past 20 years. Every. Single. One. (Remember, Obama ran in 2008 as an underdog insurgent who inspired masses of youth and working people.) Now we have a two-person race, with bold solutions on one side and status quo politics on the other. This was never going to be easy. But it’s still the best chance in our lifetime to win a better world, and we’re going to work as hard as we can to elect Bernie Sanders.”
3) Back in 2002, some questioned whether voters in an old-school city like Providence would support an openly gay mayoral candidate like David Cicilline. Yes, they did; Cicilline scored a decisive victory in a four-way Democratic primary, easily outdistancing his closest rival, former mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr. To bring things into the present, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg fell far short of his target. But he also outpaced expectations and broke new ground as an openly gay presidential candidate. Cicilline, via tweet, offered this reaction: “I was honored to get to know Pete Buttigieg over the past year and to welcome him to Rhode Island last November. He should be very proud of the campaign he ran. He made history, and I know he will continue to be a leader in the Democratic Party for years to come.”
4) Elizabeth Warren’s decision to fold her tent is a bitter pill for her supporters who point in part to the depth of her policy prescriptions and her advocacy for low- and moderate-income Americans. Old friend David Bernstein has a smart post-mortem on what went wrong. As he notes, a lack of campaign funds was part of the program for the Massachusetts Democrat. But the higher thresholds facing women in American politics certainly played a role. During an appearance on The Public’s Radio in January, Gov. Raimondo pointed to the greater challenge women facing in running for an office like president. (“Elizabeth is a formidable, talented woman. But there is a double standard. It’s harder for a woman to be the boss, the top job, not going to senate but to be the chief executive. I worry that we still have a way to go.”) The governor’s evolution in speaking candidly about sexism in politics is noteworthy in itself. After Raimondo took office in 2015, she generally steered clear of talking about sexism in politics, perhaps since, as Warren said this week, it tends to be a “trap question” – dismissed, she said, by many men, and keenly evident to a universe of women.
5) My colleague Lynn Arditi has been keeping close tabs on the coronavirus situation in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts. Meanwhile, could the virus lead to a shorter General Assembly session or other changes on Smith Hill? Here’s a joint response from Senate spokesman Greg Pare and House spokesman Larry Berman: “There are no plans for altering the session due to COVID-19 at this point. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and take necessary precautions. We will rely upon the Department of Health for recommendations.”
6) How the sausage gets made: the willingness of some Rhode Island lawmakers to trample on the First Amendment sparked a sharp (and appropriate) backlash this week. Sen. Sandra Cano (D-Pawtucket) apologized and promised to be more diligent about legislation. Yet the situation also highlights two constants at the Statehouse: 1) the role played by out of state entities and individuals in sparking legislation; 2) and how many lawmakers sign on to bills without reading them, as a perceived courtesy.
7) Recent reports about relatives of RI Convention Center board members working at the Convention Center (via ProJo) and relatives of Warwick City Council members working for the city of Warwick (via WPRI) have raised the ire of critics. So is the Rhode Island Ethics Commission doing enough to police nepotism? Here’s the response from Brown University political science professor Ross Cheit, who recently stepped down after eight years as chairman of the commission. “There’s a real misconception about what nepotism is,” Cheit said during a guest appearance on Political Roundtable. “Nepotism is hiring your own relatives. Nepotism is not hiring someone else’s relatives, so the examples that have been held up do not actually fit the definition of nepotism. I’ve been sort of following the commentary and to listen to some people, it sounds like George Nee’s relatives should not be allowed to work anywhere in the public sector.” Pressed on whether these connections foster the perception that Rhode Island is a know-a-guy place, Cheit said in part, “I think what you’re describing is politics. And I don’t think any commission can or should regulate what we might call cronyism. I think the voters can regulate that. But I can’t imagine a sensible rule that would have a commission deciding which friends or which relatives of someone else are and are not appropriate to hire.”
8) Fun Fact: Professor Cheit co-wrote “Carved In Sand,” the post-mortem on the credit union crisis of the late 1980s. Asked during Bonus Q&A whether Rhode Island has learned the lessons of that conflict-driven scandal, he said in part, “One of the things we pointed out in that report was there was a lack of professionalization at the legislature. So that when a RISDIC issue came up, they asked [Rep] Bob Bianchini [a former director of the RI Credit Union League], ‘What should we do?” rather than asking someone who didn’t have an interest. I don’t know how much better they are now. I think they’re a little better, but I think this is an area that would make a big improvement in state government …. to have more ability like states, like California or New York, have offices of the legislative analyst who give non-partisan analysis of bills. if we had that for RISDIC, the legislature might not have made the mistakes that they did.” (Then again, Albany seems to have even more corruption problems than Rhode Island.) Sam Howard has more on how professionalization might improve the legislature.
9) One more on the Ethics Commission. The Globe’s Ed Fitzpatrick reported this week on how Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Francis Flaherty, who makes more than $200,000 a year, is having his legal bills paid by a taxpayer-funded insurance fund in a dispute with the commission. Flaherty contends his due process rights were violated by the commission, and that Cheit should recuse himself from the case. (The commissioned fined Flaherty $200 for not disclosing that he was the head of a Catholic legal group while deciding a priest sexual abuse case.) For his part, Cheit said the commission applied the law toward Flaherty the same way as it has toward others. “I think that he wanted to treated differently,” Cheit said on Roundtable. “And I don’t think that the law permits that, and I don’t think that that’s how people want the law enforced. That said, I want to be totally clear that I think what he did is the equivalent of a traffic ticket. I’m sorry that he’s making a federal case out of a traffic ticket. But it’s an important traffic ticket. If we can’t as a commission hold people responsible for putting in inaccurate information unless you can prove they did it intentionally, the whole system of financial disclosure will fall apart.”
10) The Census process is set to start later this month, with the arrival of postcards in mail boxes. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea spoke with me about the process and why it matters, saying in part: “The Census is really a picture of the community that defines our future because it really guides federal funding, and each person counted is a significant amount of dollars that Rhode Island would be receiving.” Of course, the Census will also determine whether Rhode Island can retain two congressional seats, possibly with fallout for the 2022 gubernatorial race.
11) Providence Equity Partners is among the private equity firms that have sold off their stake in Univision, the Spanish-language media company. As Forbes reports, “The company’s plunging value speaks to the tumultuous nature of the media landscape over the past decade, which has led to a rough few years for Univision in particular. The company first attempted to go public in 2015, but decided to hold off due to the uneasy state of media stocks. In 2017, the company rejected a $12 billion bid from Discovery Inc., choosing instead to try to go public again in 2018. But the IPO was soon scrapped, after failing to achieve the reported $20 billion valuation that would allow investors to exit with a profit. But by this past summer, dreams of a big payday seemed to go out the window as the investors started to look for a buyer.”
12) What happens when stuff gets real: Dan McGowan reports on how AFT President Randi Weingarten is keeping a close eye on the state education takeover in Providence …. Bonus: John Bender talks with RI Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green and Peter McWalters, who served in the same role from 1992 until 2009.
13) ProJo parent Gannett posted a fourth quarter loss of $95 million, in its first earnings report since a merger with GateHouse Media.
14) North Belfast MP John Finucane is set to visit Rhode Island next Wednesday, March 11, RI House Clerk Francis McCabe tells TGIF. Finucane plans to stop by the Statehouse that afternoon and deliver a 6 pm discussion on Brexit, at Patrick’s Pub on Smith Hill.
15) Exeter, the only city or town in Rhode Island without its own police department, is not paying for coverage by State Police, as my colleague Joe Tasca reports. And the town is divided on whether it should establish its own PD.
16) Educator John Goncalves won the three-way Democratic primary this week to represent Ward One in the Providence City Council. As is often the case in Rhode Island elections, the candidate who worked the most doors won. In a statement, Goncalves said, “This election was about more than about me and it’s more than about any one individual or one candidate. This election was about the people of Ward 1 and I am looking forward to representing the Ward. More importantly I understand that what is needed most right now is the ability and willingness to build coalitions with other community stakeholders and leaders. I consider both my opponents Anthony Santurri and Nick Cicchitelli as community leaders on so many fronts and I am looking forward to working with them as we work to move Ward 1 forward.”
17) Congrats, Lynn Arditi, for her prize-winning series on 911 services in Rhode Island.
18) As the significant other of someone who works in public health, I’ve long heard the admonition that you should wash your hands long enough to make it through two rounds of “Happy Birthday.” Now, the coronavirus has sparked a golden era of tunes encouraging good hygiene, like this one from Bill Harley (h/t Gayle Goldin).
