Same-sex marriage supporters are predicting a heavy turnout Wednesday night at a fundraiser on Providence’s wealthy East Side that will benefit the advocacy group Rhode Islanders United for Marriage.

More than 90 people have RSVP’d to say they’re planning to attend the event at the Firglade Avenue home of Maryellen Butke, the prominent education activist and 2012 state Senate candidate, and her partner, Jo O’Connell. Suggested contributions start at $50.

The host committee for the event includes Democratic Congressman David Cicilline, Treasurer Gina Raimondo, House Speaker Gordon Fox and Pawtucket Sen. Donna Nesselbush, a lead sponsor of the marriage bill. Also on the list are real-estate developer Buff Chace and Xay Khamsyvoravong, who was former Treasurer Frank Caprio’s campaign manager.

(more…)

Capitol TV aficionados, get ready to feast.

Rhode Island’s General Assembly has added a new website that offers live Web streaming of its sessions and hearings, as well as an archive with videos of past proceedings – becoming the last state in the nation to do so.

In addition to Capitol TV live Web channels that can stream up to four committee hearings simultaneously, the website features a Capitol TV Video on Demand site that offers an archive of floor proceedings, committee hearings and other footage.

“Currently, Capitol TV airs a live House session and tapes the Senate session to broadcast after,” the Assembly’s leaders explained in a statement. “Without web-streaming, the channel could only broadcast one live committee meeting at a time.”

The launch comes just in time to provide a Web broadcast of Thursday afternoon’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where the panel will consider legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill has already passed the House, but top Senate Democrats are opposed to it.

WPRI.com reported last month that House Speaker Gordon Fox’s staff was in the final stages of adding streaming capability. The legislative video site is at rilin.state.ri.us/CapTV/default.aspx.

• Related: RI to stream legislative sessions online, joining other 49 states (Feb. 27)

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Senate leaders led by Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed unveiled a wide-ranging package of 25 legislative proposals on Tuesday that the Newport Democrat and her colleagues argue will improve Rhode Island’s anemic economy.

Read the rest of this story »

• Related: Paiva Weed offers her take on turning around the RI economy (Jan. 15)

In 49 of the 50 states, citizens interested in their state lawmakers’ work can go to the legislature’s official website and watch what’s happening live online.

The one state where that’s not possible? Rhode Island.

The General Assembly is the country’s only state legislature that doesn’t offer live audio or video webcasts of its floor proceedings, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many of them offer even more than that, including live webcasts of committee hearings and archived videos of older business.

But that’s about to change, according to House Speaker Gordon Fox’s spokesman Larry Berman.

(more…)

​By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Democrats who lead Rhode Island’s Senate say they’re in no rush to take up a bill legalizing same-sex marriage despite Thursday’s overwhelming vote in favor by the House of Representatives.

Read the rest of this story »

• Related: Poll: Only Republicans have majority against gay marriage in RI​ (Jan. 24)

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Dan DaPonte caused a stir last week when he told me he was “quite honestly confused at the liberal opinion that the 2010 personal income tax reform was a big giveaway to high-income earners.” Samuel Bell, Rhode Island coordinator for the Progressive Democrats of America, e-mailed this response to the chairman’s comments:

There is a very simple reason Senator Dan DaPonte says he is “confused at the liberal opinion that the 2010 personal income tax reform was a big giveaway to high-income earners.” That is not the liberal opinion. DaPonte is confusing the 2010 reform with the 2006 tax cuts for the wealthy – the flat tax – which were indeed a big giveaway to the rich.

As a package of technocratic changes, the 2010 reform had a fairly minor effect on the overall income tax code. The details are dull and unimportant: instead of allowing the top rate to fall from 6% in 2010 to 5.5% in 2011, as it would have under the law at the time, the 2010 reform froze the top rate at 6%. (Technically, the rate fell by 0.01 points to 5.99%.) So relative to the proposed 5.5% flat tax rate for 2011, the 2010 reform actually raised income tax rates on the wealthy extremely mildly. On the other hand, relative to 2010 policy, the changes represented a minuscule decrease in effective nominal tax rates for the wealthy (due to the complexities of the marginal rate structure). In short, it was a bureaucratic reform of little significance. If progressives opposed the 2010 changes, it was because they did not address the deeply unfair 2006 tax cuts for the wealthy.

Few red states have slashed taxes for the rich as deeply as Rhode Island did in 2006. When state lawmakers dropped the top rate from 9.9% to 5.99%, the General Assembly claimed they were creating jobs. What followed was a clear demonstration of the failure of Republican economics. There is only one difference between what happened in Rhode Island and what the national Republican party would like to do to America: in Rhode Island, many of the Republicans have Ds after their names.

The economic devastation we are facing does not call for the laughably tiny tweaks Chafee and the General Assembly are proposing. What we need is a jobs bill, one we can easily fund by rolling back the 2006 giveaways to the rich. So let’s not waste our time discussing the bureaucratic baby steps Smith Hill loves. Let’s actually fix the economy.

• Related: DaPonte: RI progressives are wrong about income tax changes (Jan. 18)

This week: RIPEC’s John Simmons talks about the Senate “Moving the Needle” report and Dexter Credit Union CEO Stephen Angell talks about doing business in Central Falls amid the city’s bankruptcy.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Dan DaPonte has had it with liberal critics of the income tax law he helped shepherd through the General Assembly in 2010.

DaPonte, D-East Providence, and his colleagues are under renewed pressure this legislative session from Rhode Islanders for Tax Equity, a coalition of progressive activists and unions leaders who want taxes hiked on upper-income residents. This year’s top rate is 5.99% on income above $133,250.

DaPonte, the Senate’s top budget-writer and a key lieutenant to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, told me on Wednesday he doesn’t want to revisit the issue:

I think the 2010 changes that are in place are appropriate. I think when you look at the increased revenues that we’ve gotten – I’m anxiously awaiting the revenue report that’s published in March, to show which income brackets paid what taxes.

I’m still quite honestly confused at the liberal opinion that the 2010 personal income tax reform was a big giveaway to high-income earners. From everyone that I’ve heard from, particularly tax professionals who do this stuff for a living – they have a completely opposing opinion, that that is not, in fact, what we did do.

That was testified to during the process. There are going to be winners and losers, but we needed a simpler, fairer tax formula, and that’s what we have now.

• Related: Paiva Weed stays vague on whether she’d OK income tax hike (Jan. 16)

Here’s what Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed told The Providence Journal on Dec. 31 when asked about raising income tax rates in Rhode Island: “I would keep an open mind to a tax increase on the highest-wage earners.”

Yet here’s what the Senate president’s newly released report about economic policy suggests on the issue: “The General Assembly could continue to resist increases in broad-based taxes and maintain 2010 personal income tax reforms.”

So does Paiva Weed agree that the income tax rates enacted in 2010 should stay in place? Or is she still open to the idea of raising them? I put the question to her at Tuesday’s press conference, and here’s her entire response:

One of the hardest decisions we make here – I am committed to what the report says. I do not think – and I’ve always been committed – that we should have any change in our tax structure. The Senate was a leader.

But what I have always said is when you look at the budget document, obviously it’s always a choice between vital services and revenue. And I’m always hesitant to say you have a closed mind on anything, because if you don’t look at the budget document in its entirety then you’re making blind choices – on any issue. If you say I support a cut here, I support an increase here – the budget document is perhaps our most significant policy document.

So whenever anybody, quite honestly, asks me any specific question about the revenue side or cut side – I think the finance chairs are always being asked about the cut side, and their famous answer is, ‘Everything is on the table’ – and I think that when asked about the revenue said, we always all say we have to keep an open mind on everything.

Because at the end of the day, as legislators, we recognize that it is a broad picture – it’s a painting – it’s not just one specific event.

There’s two ways to read that statement. On the one hand, she starts off by saying, “I do not think … we should have any change in our tax structure.” Later, though, she says legislators “always all say we have to keep an open mind on everything.” It’s unclear if that means she just ​says​ she has an open mind about tax increases, or if that means she has an open mind despite being resistant to tax increases.

• Related: Paiva Weed offers her take on turning around the RI economy (Jan. 15)

​(photo: Ted Nesi/WPRI)

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed on Tuesday pledged to spend the next few months pushing policies to improve Rhode Island’s economy as state leaders continue to grapple with its disappointing failure to recover from the recession.

“It’s not easy to come before you today and say we have not done as good a job as we should have in some of these areas,” Paiva Weed, D-Newport, told reporters during a State House news conference.

Read the rest of this story »

• Related: Read the Senate president’s ‘Moving the Needle’ report (PDF)

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed’s carefully orchestrated announcement Monday that the Senate Judiciary Committee will call a vote on gay marriage if a bill passes the House shakes up the political dynamic on the issue. But while proponents cheered the Senate president – who remains personally opposed to same-sex nuptials – there’s still no guarantee they’ll win their fight in 2013.

First, a marriage bill has to pass the House – which probably won’t be a problem, considering supporters have long been confident they have enough votes in the lower chamber and House Speaker Gordon Fox has already said he’ll call a vote by the end of next month.

Then the debate would move to the Senate, specifically the Senate Judiciary Committee. The first big question is, who’ll be appointed to that committee when the new Senate convenes in January? The panel’s membership could decide whether the marriage bill has enough votes to move to the floor.

(more…)

Mr. Smith doing his thing

A growing number of U.S. Senate Democrats including Sheldon Whitehouse are pushing hard for their caucus to approve changes to the filibuster early next year that would make it harder for Republicans to block legislation. But Whitehouse’s senior colleague, Jack Reed, still doesn’t sound convinced in this story by The Hill’s Alexander Bolton:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could be short on votes he needs to force changes to the Senate’s filibuster rules, as nine Democratic senators sit on the fence about the proposed reforms. …

Two other senior Democrats, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.) and Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), have yet to be persuaded. …

“I’m going to work my way through it,” said Reed. “It’s all part of the idea of how you effect change.

“I’m looking at everything,” he said.

Local observers probably won’t be surprised by this. While Reed sounded frustrated about Republicans’ heavy filibustering on “Newsmakers” in late 2010, he didn’t side with Whitehouse’s allies on the actual vote to change the rules two months later. This was my take at the time:

Some of the split can be chalked up to temperament; Reed is a cautious elder statesman type, and though a loyal Democrat, he’s not the most vocal partisan. Whitehouse, on the other hand, is a proud, loud liberal who’s glad to call out the other side.

However, their disagreement may also have something to do with when the two men joined the Senate.

Reed was elected in 1996 after serving in the House, and thus spent almost his entire first decade as a senator in the minority. (Democrats briefly controlled the chamber from mid-2001 through 2002.) He has a clear memory of what it was like to be out of power for an extended period of time, and what it meant to Senate Democrats to have the filibuster available to block Republican initiatives.

Whitehouse was elected in 2006 on a tidal wave of hostility toward the Bush administration, and unlike Reed, he has never served in the minority. So Whitehouse has only known the the frustration of watching Republicans block Democratic initiatives that had the support of a majority of senators, particularly over the last two years. He’s also served in an era when fewer senators cared about the chamber as an institution.

• Related: Reed, Whitehouse split on limiting the filibuster (Jan. 28, 2011)

(photo: Wikipedia)

The taxpayer-funded vehicle Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed has admitted to using for a ride home from a Democratic fundraiser is just a small part of the legislative branch’s eight-figure annual budget.

The legislature’s annual spending on its own behalf grew from $28.7 million in 2002-03 to $35.3 million in 2011-12, and its budget is set to rise again to $38.8 million this fiscal year, according to documents obtained from the R.I. Office of Management and Budget.

Where does all that money go? There are at least two ways to look at it.

One way is by type of spending. The vast majority of the legislature’s budget is spent on people – salaries, wages and benefits for personnel, which has grown from $22.4 million a decade ago to more than $30 million:

Another way is by line item. This shows about half the budget goes to the speaker-controlled Joint Committee on Legislative Services, with lawmakers themselves (the General Assembly) getting about $6 million:

• Related: Target 12: ‘Taxpayer taxi’ took Paiva Weed home from Dem gala (Nov. 13)

By Tim White and Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island taxpayers are footing the bill for a government car with a state-employed driver that transported Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed home from the Democratic Party’s biggest bash of the year, a Target 12 investigation reveals.

Target 12 requested details on how often Senate leaders take the state vehicle to or from campaign events, but officials said they have no official policy on how the car can be used and they don’t keep a log of its trips.

Read the rest of this story »

the Rhode Island Senate Chamber

Gay-marriage supporters tried and failed to make a breakthrough in the Rhode Island Senate during Tuesday’s primaries, winning just two of seven targeted races and coming up short in their marquee effort to knock off Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey.

Both McCaffrey, whose committee has never taken a vote on gay marriage, and another endangered incumbent – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Dan DaPonte – survived spirited challenges. Their victories will bolster the leadership team of Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, who succeeded Joe Montalbano in 2008.

That puts Paiva Weed on a collision course with her fellow Democrat House Speaker Gordon Fox, who told WPRI 12 earlier this year he will call a vote on gay marriage in early 2013. Fox spokesman Larry Berman said that hasn’t changed.

(more…)

Good luck finding a narrative in the results of this year’s 40 primaries for General Assembly.

There was no rhyme or reason to who won and who lost on Tuesday evening. Look at the scorecards for various groups that endorsed: Marriage Equality Rhode Island had nine wins and 10 losses. The unions’ Working Families Coalition won 10 and lost nine. The K-12 reform group RI-CAN won two and lost two. The Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee was an exception, claiming a great night with eight wins in 10 races.

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed and House Speaker Gordon Fox both had good nights. Only one incumbent senator in Paiva Weed’s Democratic caucus lost – and it was Michael Pinga, whom insiders never liked. She won’t face much pressure to push gay marriage next year. Fox’s caucus also had a decent run.

Here’s a scorecard. Incumbents are in bold. Winners in italics face no opposition in November.

House

In the House, 18 incumbents faced primary challengers – all Democrats except Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt.

• District 2 (D): Chris Blazejewski (Hennessey loses)
• District 6 (D): Raymond Hull (Wasylyk loses)
• District 8 (D): John Lombardi (Tarro, Kimzey lose)
• District 11 (D): Grace Diaz (Perez loses)
• District 12 (D): Joseph Almeida (Medina loses)
• District 16 (D): Peter Palumbo (Bergin loses)
• District 18 (D): Art Handy (McKenna loses)
• District 30 (R): Antonio Giarrusso (Bolton, Fachon lose; Watson retires)
• District 32 (R): Laurence Ehrhardt (Gamba loses)
• District 34 (R): Christopher Wilkens (Tetzner loses; Tanzi is incumbent)
• District 35 (D): Spencer Dickinson (Fogarty loses)
• District 39 (R): Clay Johnson (Picillo loses; Valencia is incumbent)
• District 40 (D): Lauri Archambault (Restivo loses; Chippendale is incumbent)
• District 44 (D): Gregory Costantino (Petrarca loses)
• District 45 (D): Mia Ackerman (Menard loses)
• District 46 (D): Jeremiah O’Grady (Barr II loses)
• District 49 (D): Lisa Baldelli-Hunt (Gitlow, Morin lose)
• District 50 (D): Stephen Casey (Brien loses)
• District 52 (D): Karen MacBeth (Uht loses)
• District 54 (D): William O’Brien (Mantia, Pellegrino; Schadone retires)
• District 56 (D): Agostinho Silva (Faria loses)
• District 58 (D): William San Bento Jr. (Tobon loses)
• District 59 (D): J. Patrick O’Neill (Arcaro loses)
• District 63 (D): Katherine Kazarian (Britto, Lovett, Tsonos loses; DaSilva retires)
• District 65 (D): Gregg Amore (Chapman, Miller lose; Savage retires)
• District 68 (D): Kenneth Marshall (Hanley loses; Morrison retires)
• District 73 (D): Marvin Abney (Carlin loses; Jackson retires)

Senate

In the Senate, eight incumbent Democrats and one Republican face primary challengers.

• District 3 (D): Gayle Goldin (Butke loses; Perry retires)
• District 5 (D): Paul Jabour (Kelly loses)
• District 9 (D): Adam Satchell (Pinga loses)
• District 14 (D): Daniel DaPonte (DaSilva loses)
• District 16 (D): Elizabeth Crowley (Moran loses)
• District 17 (D): John Cullen (Azar loses; O’Neill is incumbent)
• District 19 (D): Ryan Pearson (Spooner loses; Moura is incumbent)
• District 24 (D): Marc Cote (Pryeor loses)
• District 25 (D): Frank Lombardo (Acciardo loses)
• District 26 (D): Frank Lombardi (Dyszlewski loses; Lanzi retires)
• District 29 (D): Michael McCaffrey (Pisaturo loses)
• District 33 (D): Leo Raptakis (Gorman loses; Shibley is incumbent)
• District 34 (R): Frank Maher (McFadden loses)

• Related: The lucky 30 who’ve already won their General Assembly races (July 23)

There are 113 seats in Rhode Island’s General Assembly, and more than half of those House and Senate seats are being contested this year – just not necessarily in November.

That’s because there are 18 state legislative districts with a primary contest but no general-election race. These are all places where more than one Democrat filed to run in the primary, but no Republican or third-party candidate filed to run against the winning Dem in November.

Put another way, voters in these 18 districts have a choice on Sept. 11 but not on Nov. 6; barring a highly improbable victorious write-in campaign, the winner of tomorrow’s primary will be these districts’ next lawmaker.

Between the 18 primary-only districts and the 30 districts with no competition at all, nearly half of the General Assembly’s membership for the 2013-14 term will be known on Wednesday morning – 48 of 113 seats.

After the jump, a look at which districts have contested primary elections but uncontested general elections. Incumbents are in bold. If the current lawmaker isn’t in the primary, I put the name in brackets.

(more…)

State Sen. Rhoda Perry isn’t pleased that her colleague Michael McCaffrey is suggesting she’s the reason his Senate Judiciary Committee hasn’t taken a vote on legalizing same-sex marriage.

During a debate Friday on WPRI 12′s Newsmakers, McCaffrey was asked why his committee has never voted on the issue. He replied: “The same-sex marriage bill has been heard by the Senate Judiciary numerous times, and Senator Perry – I assume – has done a headcount of the committee, has done a headcount of the Senate, and said: ‘I may not have the votes for this.’”

Moderator Tim White then asked McCaffrey, who’s chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee since 2003: “Why not bring it up for an up-or-down vote and find out?” He replied: “That, I have no problem – my position is I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Within two hours, Perry issued a statement through the pro-legalization group Marriage Equality Rhode Island criticizing McCaffrey, a Warwick Democrat (and potential successor to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed) who differs on the issue from his primary challenger Laura Pisaturo.

(more…)

State Sen. Michael McCaffrey is putting up a lot of signs around Warwick as he makes an energetic bid for reelection. But will he debate his primary opponent?

McCaffrey, the powerful chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a potential successor to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, hasn’t accepted multiple invitations from WPRI 12 to debate his fellow Democrat Laura Pisaturo during a taping of Newsmakers next Friday morning.

Pisaturo has agreed to the debate and will be a guest on the program regardless of whether her opponent shows up. McCaffrey, a Warwick Democrat, was first elected in 1994 and is seeking his 10th consecutive term in the Senate.

He did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Two others incumbents who are part of the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership agreed to debate their opponents on Newsmakers in response to invitations this month: Rep. Peter Petrarca, the House’s senior deputy majority leader, and McCaffrey’s colleague Sen. Dan DaPonte, the Senate Finance Committee chairman.

McCaffrey and Pisaturo are competing in the Sept. 11 primary for the Democratic nomination in Senate District 29. There is no Republican candidate for the seat, which means either McCaffrey or Pisaturo will be the district’s next senator.

Tim White contributed to this report.

There are 113 seats in the General Assembly’s two chambers, and 30 of those elections are over before a single vote is cast because one candidate is running unopposed. But not everyone on Smith Hill was so lucky – some politicians must fight off challengers in the Sept. 11 primary to keep their seats.

Here’s a district-by-district look at which districts have primary elections. Incumbents are in bold. If the current lawmaker isn’t in the primary, I put the name in brackets.

House

In the House, 18 incumbents face primary challengers – all Democrats except Republican Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt, who’s opponent says she was told he’d be retiring and then surprised her by deciding to run again.

• District 2 (D): Chris Blazejewski vs. Dirk Hennessey
• District 6 (D): Raymond Hull vs. Peter Wasylyk
• District 8 (D): Michael Tarro vs. Libby Kimzey vs. John Lombardi
• District 11 (D): Grace Diaz vs. Laura Perez
• District 12 (D): Leo Medina vs. Joseph Almeida
• District 16 (D): Peter Palumbo vs. Michelle Bergin
• District 18 (D): Art Handy vs. William McKenna
• District 30 (R): Robert Bolton vs. Emil Fachon vs. Antonio Giarrusso [Watson]
• District 32 (R): Laurence Ehrhardt vs. Sharon Gamba
• District 34 (R): Stephen Tetzner vs. Christopher Wilkens [Tanzi]
• District 35 (D): Spencer Dickinson vs. Kathleen Fogarty
• District 39 (R): Clay Johnson vs. Michael Picillo [Valencia]
• District 40 (D): Lauri Archambault vs. Jon Restivo [Chippendale]
• District 44 (D): Peter Petrarca vs. Gregory Costantino
• District 45 (D): Rene Menard vs. Mia Ackerman
• District 46 (D): Jeremiah O’Grady vs. John Douglas Barr II
• District 49 (D): Lisa Baldelli-Hunt vs. Stuart Gitlow vs. Michael Morin
• District 50 (D): Jon Brien vs. Stephen Casey
• District 52 (D): Karen MacBeth vs. Augustus Uht
• District 54 (D): Lance Mantia vs. David Pellegrino vs. William O’Brien [Schadone]
• District 56 (D): Agostinho Silva vs. Joseph Faria
• District 58 (D): William San Bento Jr. vs. Carlos Tobon
• District 59 (D): J. Patrick O’Neill vs. John Arcaro
• District 63 (D): Robert Britto vs. Katherine Kazarian vs. Sam Lovett vs. Charles Tsonos [DaSilva]
• District 65 (D): Gregg Amore vs. Timothy Chapman vs. James Miller [Savage]
• District 68 (D): Kenneth Marshall vs. John Hanley [Morrison]
• District 73 (D): Marvin Abney vs. David Carlin [Jackson]

Senate

In the Senate, eight incumbent Democrats and one Republican face primary challengers.

• District 3 (D): Maryellen Butke vs. Gayle Goldin [Perry]
• District 5 (D): Paul Jabour vs. Maura Kelly
• District 9 (D): Michael Pinga vs. Adam Satchell
• District 14 (D): Daniel DaPonte vs. Roberto DaSilva
• District 16 (D): Elizabeth Crowley vs. Joseph Moran
• District 17 (D): Louis Azar vs. John Cullen [O'Neill]
• District 19 (D): Ryan Pearson vs. James Spooner [Moura]
• District 24 (D): Marc Cote vs. Lewis Pryeor
• District 25 (D): Frank Lombardo vs. Nicole Amelia Acciardo
• District 26 (D): Frank Lombardi vs. Gene Dyszlewski [Lanzi]
• District 29 (D): Michael McCaffrey vs. Laura Pisaturo
• District 33 (D): David Gorman vs. Leo Raptakis [Shibley]
• District 34 (R): Frank Maher vs. Paul McFadden

Update: WPRI 12 political analyst Joe Fleming calls to say it’s actually surprising to him that there are four Republican House primaries. ”It’s a rarity that there are so many,” he said. “Usually there’s only one or two.”

• Related: The lucky 30 who’ve already won their General Assembly races (July 23)

An earlier version of this list incorrectly classified the Senate District 34 race as a Democratic primary and missed the Democratic primary in House District 56.

More than two dozen General Assembly races are already over before a single ballot is cast because only one candidate filed for the seat. Here’s who is currently listed as running unopposed and therefore won’t have to campaign this fall, according to the secretary of state:

1. Sen. Maryellen Goodwin (D), District 1
2. Sen. Walter Felag (D), District 10
3. Sen. Chris Ottiano (R), District 11
4. Sen. Lou DiPalma (D), District 12
5. William Conley (D), Senate District 18
6. Sen. Roger Picard (D), District 20
7. Sen. Erin Lynch (D), District 31
8. Sen. David Bates (R), District 32
9. Sen. Dennis Algiere (R), District 38

1. Rep. Maria Cimini (D), District 7
2. Rep. Anastasia Williams (D), District 9
3. Rep. John Carnevale (D), District 13
4. Rep. Charlene Lima (D), District 14
5. Rep. Joseph McNamara (D), District 19
6. Rep. David Bennett (D), District 20
7. Rep. Eileen Naughton (D), District 21
8. Rep. Frank Ferri (D), District 22
9. Rep. Joe Trillo (R), District 24
10. Rep. Jared Nunes (D), District 25
11. Rep. Samuel Azzinaro (D), District 37
12. Rep. Stephen Ucci (D), District 42
13. Rep. Arthur Corvese (D), District 55
14. Rep. James McLaughlin (D), District 57
15. Rep. Elaine Coderre (D), District 60
16. Rep. Raymond Johnston (D), District 61
17. Rep. Mary Duffy Messier (D), District 62
18. Rep. Helio Melo (D), District 64
19. Rep. Raymond Gallison (D), District 69
20. Dennis Canario (D), House District 71
21. Rep. Peter Martin (D), District 75

Among the most surprising names on this list is Rep. Carnevale, who survived calls for his resignation last fall when he was charged with sexual assault; the case against him was dismissed after the alleged victim died. Also lucky are Democrats William Conley (Senate District 18) and Dennis Canario (House District 71), who aren’t even incumbents but don’t face opposition. Canario is actually a pickup for Democrats, since that seat was previously Dan Gordon’s and John Loughlin’s; Republicans couldn’t get someone on the ballot this time.

John Stanton reports for BuzzFeed:

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the lead sponsor on the Disclose Act – which would force outside political organizations to disclose donations of more than $10,000 – briefly left a “midnight vigil” on the Senate floor to attend a fundraiser for a health care reform group. …

Whitehouse didn’t go far – the event was held at Johnny’s Half Shell, a tony bar located less than a quarter mile from the Senate chamber that is a popular venue for fundraisers by politicians, lobbyists, political groups, and non-profits like the Alliance, an educational group that does not take positions on legislation, including ObamaCare, and which backs “affordable, quality health care and long-term care for all Americans.”

The Alliance for Health Reform describes itself as a 21-year-old bipartisan nonprofit with a mission of providing information about the nation’s health care system. Whitehouse’s office defended his attendance at the event as brief and fitting with his longtime advocacy for health care reform.

Meanwhile, the senator went out of his way to make sure his colleagues were well-nourished for the DISCLOSE Act vigil – he brought them some Rhode Island cookies from Scialo Bros. Bakery in Providence:

It’s unclear if the Alliance for Health Reform has a position on late-night cookie binges.

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – House Speaker Gordon Fox will call a vote next year on legalizing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, he announced Friday during a taping of WPRI 12′s Newsmakers.

Read the rest of this story »

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed says her chamber may not take up Governor Chafee’s nominees to the troubled R.I. Economic Development Corporation board before lawmakers leave Smith Hill this week.

“I think we may have to come back,” Paiva Weed told WPRI.com. “That’s the way it’s looking.” She said the governor has been sending a significant number of appointments to the Senate in the waning days of the session.

Lawmakers are hoping to adjourn as soon as Tuesday, but confirmation hearings haven’t been scheduled for any of the six EDC nominees Chafee has put forward in the wake of the 38 Studios debacle: Marcia Blount, Pablo Rodriguez, Roland Fiore, Stephen Hardy, William Holmes and Peter Crowley.

The EDC board has 12 members in addition to the governor, who serves as chairman but only votes to break ties. The board has a number of major issues to take up in the coming months, including the runway expansion at T.F. Green Airport and dredging the port at Quonset Point.

Failure to confirm Chafee’s nominees would not necessarily cripple the EDC board, however. State law says “a majority of directors holding office shall constitute a quorum,” and that a vacancy “shall not impair the right of a quorum to exercise all of the rights and perform all of the duties of the corporation.”

As The Providence Journal first reported, Paiva Weed opted to move the EDC nominations through the Senate Judiciary Committee instead of the Senate Corporations Committee, which considered and approved his previous slate of candidates last year.

The second half of Ed Fitzpatrick’s Sunday Projo column was full of insights into a last-minute effort by State House insiders to kill or water down two high-profile transparency bills: Rep. Christopher Blazejewski’s campaign finance disclosure bill and Rep. Michael Marcello’s badly needed public records reform.

In both cases, the roadblock is Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed’s chamber. First, on Blazejewski’s disclosure bill (which she co-spsonored):

The legislation is backed by groups such as Common Cause Rhode Island and the League of Women Voters, and it has produced an unlikely combination of opponents. John M. Marion, Common Cause’s executive director, said the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union joined Rhode Island Right to Life in fighting the bill, and legislators had told him the Catholic Church and organized labor lobbied against it.

But it’s worth remembering that the legislation was announced at a State House news conference involving the state’s three most powerful officials: Governor Chafee, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed. “The Senate president has been a strong supporter of this bill from the beginning, and I’m hopeful the Senate will act to pass it in the next couple of days,” Blazejewski said.

More troublingly, Governor Chafee – who came to office pledging to focus on Rhode Island’s “ABCs” (“assets, budget and corruption”) – is now joining those who want to keep Rhode Islanders in the dark about the actions taken in their names. Chafee is opposing not only Marcello’s public records bill, but even two weak Senate alternatives:

The House’s Marcello said he and the Senate’s Sheehan met Friday afternoon to try to craft a compromise that would be presented to the House and Senate in the next few days. The compromise would, for example, explicitly state that employment contracts for government employees must be disclosed, but it would not require disclosure of e-mails and other correspondence to and from elected officials in their official capacity.

In another 11th-hour development, Governor Chafee’s office contends that the legislation is too vague in establishing a balancing test to determine whether disclosing a record would be a “clearly unwarranted” invasion of privacy, Marcello said. But he said the bill’s balancing test mirrors the federal Freedom of Information Act, which has been precisely defined by years of federal case law.

Chafee’s commitment to open government is looking increasingly rhetorical – sighing that he wishes he could make the EDC’s 38 Studios meetings open but was told not to by its lawyer. Public records reform is becoming another example of such passivity. Furthermore, it’s been clear for many months that the public records bills were going to get serious attention this session – if none of these three meet the governor’s standards, where is his alternative bill? Or is he tacitly saying he’s actually fine with Rhode Island’s lousy public records law at present? Moreover, when has Chafee put real political capital behind policies to address the third leg of his “ABCs”?

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Marcello’s public records bill this afternoon, with a floor vote to follow Tuesday. But the Senate hasn’t scheduled any committee or floor votes on public records as of this writing. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up Blazejewski’s bill and Sheehan’s weaker public records bill on Monday. (Even Marcello’s bill, by the way, is losing some of its teeth – emails are no longer included, for example.)

In fairness, the Senate Judiciary Committee already has other important business on its plate for Monday – such as awarding court magistrate gigs to former state Sen. Chuck Levesque (who less than three months ago came to the rescue of Paiva Weed’s deputy Dominick Ruggerio when he was arrested for DUI) and John Flynn (legal counsel to Speaker Fox and former steward of West Warwick’s pension fund).

• Related: RI Senate fast-tracks public records bill you’ve never heard of (June 10)

(photo: Brown University)

McCaffrey

The Rhode Island Senate can pass a public records bill with lightning speed when its leaders want to.

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed’s upper chamber is a major roadblock to passage of Rep. Michael Marcello’s widely supported public records changes. The Senate Judiciary Committee has finally scheduled a vote for Monday on a weaker alternative by Sen. James Sheehan, more than three months after he introduced it and just days before lawmakers adjourn.

There was no such delay when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey, D-Warwick, decided he wanted to make his own public records changes – he pushed a bill on the topic through the Senate Labor Committee last Thursday, just two days after he introduced it. The vote was 5-0, with five members absent; the full Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday.

“In my four sessions at the General Assembly I’ve never seen a public records bill in the Labor Committee,” John Marion, who heads Common Cause Rhode Island, told WPRI.com on Sunday. Despite Common Cause’s longstanding advocacy on public records, Marion didn’t hear about the bill until a few days ago.

(more…)

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Governor Chafee on Monday nominated three more people to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s board and tasked a special advisor with overseeing the quasi-public agency as it deals with the fallout from its botched $75 million loan guarantee to 38 Studios.

Read the rest of this story »

It’s been clear for a long time that a majority of Rhode Island House Democrats (and likely a Republican or two) support legalizing same-sex marriage, and Governor Chafee has always said he’d sign such a bill into law.

That’s kept all eyes on the Rhode Island Senate – particularly Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, a devout Catholic who opposes gay marriage, and the conservative Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Sen. Michael McCaffrey, D-Warwick, a Catholic who belongs to his city’s Knights of Columbus.

There are signs the Senate’s opposition may be softening. In February, Paiva Weed and McCaffrey met with lobbyists from Marriage Equality Rhode Island at the lawmakers’ request; last year they never got a meeting at all. And at least two Senate Republicans, Dawson Hodgson of North Kingstown and Christopher Ottiano of Portsmouth, say they’d make a vote to approve gay marriage bipartisan.

Ray Sullivan, the former lawmaker who heads MERI, said there’s “no doubt” gay marriage would pass the House, which is led by openly gay Speaker Gordon Fox. “We have more support now in the General Assembly than we’ve ever had before,” Sullivan told WPRI.com. “That’s not spin. That’s the reality. People are recognizing that it’s time to take action on this issue.”

(more…)

The American Legislative Exchange Council – ALEC – has been in the headlines lately after coming under attack from liberal groups. Businessweek ran a long exposé about the group in December. The left-wing Nation magazine has done its own series. The New York Times editorialized against it; The Wall Street Journal came to its defense.

Apparently, though, Democratic state lawmakers missed every word. Rhode Island’s Future editor Bob Plain has spent the week reporting on ALEC and he found that not only is state Rep. Jon Brien now on the group’s national board, but one in five members of the General Assembly is affiliated with the group.

That’s not all. In 2008, the Assembly passed a joint resolution urging Congress not to move insurance regulation from the state level to the federal level. The original version [pdf] included a lengthy preamble extolling ALEC and said explicitly that the legislature “joins the American Legislative Exchange Council” in taking such a position; the final version [pdf] removed all references to ALEC.

The 2008 resolution was sponsored by state Sens. William Walaska, a Democrat, along with Leo Blais and Kevin Breene, two Republicans. (Blais was ALEC’s Rhode Island head before Brien.) It passed the Senate unanimously and the House 63-1, with Rep. Joe Trillo the only “nay.” It took effect on July 8 without Gov. Don Carcieri’s signature.

That wasn’t the only time the Democratic-dominated Senate has formally stood with ALEC.

(more…)

By Ted Nesi and Tim White

BARRINGTON, R.I. (WPRI) – Former state Sen. Charles Levesque joined Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio and state Sen. Frank Ciccone at the Barrington police station the night Ruggerio was arrested.

It’s unclear why Levesque was at the station that night. Reached by phone at his Middletown law office on Thursday afternoon, Levesque cut off a reporter’s initial question by saying: “It’s over.”

Pressed on whether he gave Ruggerio or Ciccone a ride home that night, Levesque told WPRI.com: “You know what? It’s over. Have a good day.” Then he hung up.

Ruggerio told officers he had just one drink prior to his arrest – described as “1 Hard Liquor – 6 ounces with ice” – and he said the only food he’d eaten that day was a banana for breakfast at 10:30 a.m.

The justice of the peace who arraigned Ruggerio was yet another one-time lawmaker: former state Rep. Fausto Anguilla, D-Bristol, who retired in 2006. But Anguilla said on Thursday night his service in the General Assembly had nothing to do with Barrington Police calling him to the station last week.

Read the rest of this story »

(photo: General Assembly)