Sure looks that way
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| Tina Jackson- the CCA's choice? |
By Will Collette
The Charlestown Citizens Alliance has never really liked State
Representative Donna Walsh (District 36).
In the CCA’s first electoral campaign
in 2008, the CCA
endorsed former Democratic state representative Matt McHugh, the guy Donna
beat to win her current House seat. Donna beat him largely because McHugh was a
classic DINO[1].
In 2008, McHugh ran as a CCA-endorsed independent who vowed
to continue his long crusade to win voting rights for nonresident property
owners in local elections and supported the rest of the CCA’s
regressive platform. Donna cleaned McHugh’s clock, even beating him in his home
precinct.
In 2010, the CCA didn’t endorse either Donna or her Moderate
Party opponent Tom Browning, even though CCA President Dan Slattery was serving
as state treasurer for the Moderate Party. Donna cleaned Browning’s clock, too,
winning every precinct in the 36th District including Browning’s
own.
In 2012, the CCA seems to be giving a wink-and-nod
endorsement to Donna’s Republican opponent, Tina B. Jackson. The CCA has
posted a laudatory piece that ran in the Block
Island Times about Jackson but pointedly ignored the companion piece
the Times ran on Donna. So much for
being “nonpartisan.”
So will the CCA make it official? Do they have the guts?
Tina Jackson is, on many levels, their kind of politician.
She mounts nasty personal and often untrue attacks, like her slander against
Donna over 38 Studios,
claiming Donna was somehow to blame even though the Providence
Journal and even Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri admit that
rank-and-file state legislators were kept in the dark. Click here to read some of
Jackson’s rambles.
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| The weird thing about Jackson's support for cesspools is the harm they do to salt ponds where the fish her constituents rely on breed |
Jackson attacks Donna for her legislation to eliminate
cesspools that pollute our salt ponds, saying that Donna had done nothing to
help homeowners make the conversion – in direct contradiction of the fact that Donna
pulled concessions from DEM with a set of pliers that now offer homeowners
a broader array of less expensive options.
Jackson attacks wind power, and in particular the Deepwater
wind farm in the waters off Block Island, using as her sole source a discredited
expert who holds no
degrees or science background, and who has claimed to be a faculty member
of Portland State University, which does not list him on their faculty roster.
Jackson also wants to protect the wealthy from additional
taxes – a favorite issue for the CCA. She stormed into a hearing on Rep.
Larry Valencia’s bill to raise income taxes on the very richest Rhode
Islanders, taking the position that this bill would hurt her fishermen
constituents. She made her statement and zoomed out as Larry tried to ask her
the obvious question – how many of her fishermen members have taxable personal
income of over $250,000? But no, Tina made her stand for the rich and then
breezed away.
Jackson also rails against unfair business taxes and
specifically zeros in on the boiler inspection fee, apparently not knowing that
Governor Lincoln Chafee had ordered an end to that fee two years ago when he
took office. Chafee made a point of mentioning that when
he spoke at the economic forum held here in Charlestown on October 11th.
Yes, so far, Tina Jackson seems like the perfect CCA
candidate. She wants to protect the rich. She makes up facts. She
cites phony authorities. She ignores the truth. She takes contradictory, hypocritical positions. And she is relentlessly vicious
about it.
Ironically, the CCA seems willing to overlook the
contradiction between Jackson’s
position on cesspools (she apparently likes them) while the CCA is
attempting to impose septic system standards on most Charlestown households
that are far stricter than the state’s.
The CCA also seems willing to overlook the centerpiece of
Tina Jackson’s campaign. Jackson, a lobbyist for some of the state’s commercial
fishermen, wants
Rhode Island to allow totally unregulated fishing within the three-mile limit
offshore. Click on the link to hear Jackson talk about her idea during her
debate with Donna Walsh.
Let’s hear it, CCA. Don’t just dance around the pole supporting Tina
Jackson by posting puff pieces in your recommended reading list. Sing it loud
and sing it proud. In so many ways, she’s just what you’ve been looking for.
[1] DINO
– “Democrat in Name Only.” In addition to being the RI Statewide Coalition’s
champion for voting rights for nonresidents, McHugh’s other great crusades
included allowing restaurant patrons to leave with any wine left in a bottle
they ordered with their meal and another to punish AAA if they were late in
responding to a call for road service. McHugh hated unions in particular and
most constituencies that normally support Democrats. He was right at home
hanging with the CCA.