Political Roundtable

Almost 66 percent of Rhode Island voters approved a November ballot question asking if they wanted to borrow $120 million to create more housing. But there are also signs around the state of a housing backlash, with some residents and local officials opposing the development needed to expand the housing stock. And the median price of a home in Rhode Island is now $480,000, about 12% higher than on...

Rhode Island’s two-member U.S. House delegation has turned over in the last few years. In the Second District, Congressman Jim Langevin dropped a surprise announcement in 2022 that he would not seek re-election after 22 years in office. Then First District Congressman David Cicilline, initially elected in 2010, made his unexpected departure last year. That latter move opened the door for Gabe Amo,...

The intense downpours causing more street flooding in the region in recent years reflect the impact of climate change. At the other end of the weather spectrum, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee this week issued a statewide drought advisory. But there’s some good news when it comes to the health of Narragansett Bay. Water quality has improved so much that Crescent Park Beach in East Providence will...

Nirva LaFortune emerged on Rhode Island’s political scene in 2017. That’s when she won a special election to represent Ward 3 on the East Side on the Providence City Council. LaFortune brought a new perspective and she was the first Haitian-American to win political office in Rhode Island. Five years later, in 2022, LaFortune placed third while running for mayor of Providence. She now serves as ex...

Rhode Island voters recently approved $73 million in borrowing to enhance the Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies at Rhode Island College. The 60% vote in favor of Question 2 underscores public confidence in the idea that education can help improve the local economy. Voters also approved $87 million for a life sciences center at URI. At Rhode Island College, the man leading the c...

Megan Cotter is a progressive Democratic state representative who first won election by just 32 votes in 2022. Republicans had high hopes this week of winning back Cotter’s seat, since voters in her district in Exeter, Richmond and Hopkinton lean conservative. But Cotter scored an eight-point victory over former Republican Representative Justin Price, winning the race by about 700 votes. She was v...

Americans will finish voting Tuesday, although it remains unclear when a winner will be declared in the presidential race. It’s a more low-key election in Rhode Island, where the race for mayor of Cranston is among the top races. But a close vote is expected on ballot Question 1, which could set the stage for Rhode Island to hold its first constitutional convention since 1986. And next week’s elec...

Americans’ confidence in elections has been shaken in recent years -- at least for *some*. Donald Trump’s false narrative about a stolen election in 2020 has led many of his supporters to doubt the integrity of the process. That’s despite evidence given by elections officials and even some members of Trump’s administration that the vote was free and fair. With a looming climax to the tight preside...

Donald Trump has vowed to go after his political enemies if he wins the presidential election. The U.S. Justice Department is part of the executive branch, so if Trump wins, he would have significant influence over what happens. Closer to home, the timeline for rebuilding the westbound Washington Bridge remains uncertain, although it’s likely to take longer than originally expected. And the health...

Morgan, a Republican, says she would fight for her constituents and she’s trying to capitalize on issues like inflation and immigration. But Whitehouse has vanquished a series of rivals since first winning his Senate seat by beating Lincoln Chafee, a Republican at the time, in 2006. When former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders ran […] The post State Rep. Patricia Morgan on her GOP...

When Hamas attacked Israel last October 7th, it raised concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East. This week, Iran fired more than 180 missiles into Israel, in response to Israel’s assassination of the head of Hezbollah. The question now is how Israel will respond … and whether the Middle East can step back from the brink of an intensifying war. Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin i...

Rhode Island faces a growing shortage of primary care doctors. Medical specialists make more money than primary care doctors, and the economic conditions for physicians are better in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is why a legislative panel is studying whether it would help to create a state medical school at the University of Rhode Island. There are a host of other healthcare-related challen...

Rhode Island’s housing crisis is a tough nut to crack. Even though hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to promote new housing, progress has been slow and the cost of housing keeps going up. This is a key issue for the future of the state, since Rhode Island needs more housing if the state’s economy is going to grow. There are other worrisome signs on the economic front. The iconic...

Tuesday’s Rhode Island primary featured a rare spotlight on Republican candidates. Cranston was the scene of a hard-fought mayoral campaign — one of the few places in the state with such high-profile GOP competition. The losing candidate, Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, has been a bright spot for the Rhode Island GOP, but she’s been taken off […] The post RI GOP Chairman Joe Powers on Tuesday...

The former Providence Journal reporter Elliot Jaspin once called Rhode Island a theme park for journalists. The same could be said for advocates of good government. Although there have been fewer cases of public corruption in recent years, issues of government accountability and transparency remain front and center. One person closely monitoring these issues is John Marion, who has served as execu...

U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner faces a very different election landscape than when he won his congressional seat in 2022. Although Republicans had high hopes, Magaziner beat GOP candidate Alan Fung two years ago by just under four percentage points. This time around, Magaziner faces token opposition, but it's unclear if Democrats will be able to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The S...

Violent crime in most American cities has generally trended down for decades, except for an uptick during the pandemic. There were 14 homicides in Providence last year, far less than the comparable number in the 1990s and 2000s. The waning of the crack epidemic is part of the explanation for why there’s less violent crime in America than in the past. Providence and some other cities have also seen...

Keep your eye on Dawn Euer, the Democratic state senator from Newport. She’s a potential candidate for attorney general in 2026, along with state Representatives Jason Knight and Robert Craven. Euer is also someone who may be able to move up in Senate leadership next year. The Newport progressive first won office in 2017, when she got more than 60 percent of the vote in a four-way special election...

The amount of U.S. spending on healthcare reached four and a half trillion dollars in 2022, or about $14,000 per person. Despite such massive spending, many aspects of American healthcare are marred by problems. There’s the shortage of primary care doctors. An emphasis on treating disease rather than promoting long-term health. Locally, doctors can make more in neighboring Massachusetts and Connec...

State Representative Justine Caldwell personifies some of the significant changes that have swept over the General Assembly in the last decade. In 2018, Caldwell, a Democrat, ousted the Republican incumbent in an East Greenwich-based district, Anthony Giarrusso. That change reflects how the legislature has moved a bit to the left and how the former GOP stronghold of East Greenwich now generally el...

Until recently, Steve Frias of Cranston held one of the top posts in the Rhode Island Republican Party -- national committeeman. Frias decided to not seek re-election for that role because he does not support Donald Trump, now the GOP nominee for president. Frias is among a small number of Rhode Island Republicans who have publicly repudiated Trump, and he’s been more outspoken than most in callin...

Presidential threats to democracy are nothing new. Our second president, John Adams, outlawed dissent and tried to prosecute his critics. Andrew Johnson’s presidency featured threats against his perceived opponents, and Richard Nixon engaged in a criminal conspiracy. But there are some key differences in our current moment. In a recent decision, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded preside...

Rhode Islanders are among those celebrating the Fourth of July this week with cookouts, fireworks and family get-togethers. But politics rarely takes a day off, and July Fourth marks a line between the end of the General Assembly session last month and the start of campaigns for the legislature and other offices. In short, it’s a good time for a few political reporters to consider the top Rhode Is...

Valarie Lawson has enjoyed a rapid rise in the Rhode Island Senate. Lawson was first elected in 2018 and she is now the third-ranking member in the chamber. The East Providence Democrat may climb even higher. Senate president Dominick Ruggerio is 75. If he wins re-election this year, Ruggerio is expected to pass the Senate […] The post RI Senate Democratic Whip Val Lawson on Washington Bridg...

Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi holds what is often called the most powerful job in state government. That’s because the speaker controls the legislation in the House of Representatives and has broad influence over the state budget. The $13.9 billion spending plan approved by lawmakers earlier this month won praise for including more money for healthcare and education. And Shekarchi, a Wa...