Like it or not, the 2014 election campaign has already begun
By Will Collette
Although so many Americans decry our state of
perpetual political warfare, it’s a reality that the next campaign season began
the night the election results from the last election were announced.
Even in our sleepy little burg, the town’s two main parties,
the controlling Charlestown Citizens Alliance Party (CCA) and its nemesis, the
Charlestown Democrats began preparing for the next election as soon as the 2010
votes were counted.
Now, we face the calendar reality that we are one year away, almost to the day, from going to the polls again.
This is the first of a two-part series on where Campaign 2014 stands one year away from Election Day.
Now, we face the calendar reality that we are one year away, almost to the day, from going to the polls again.
This is the first of a two-part series on where Campaign 2014 stands one year away from Election Day.
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| For more cartoons by P.S. Mueller, click here |
The Charlestown Republican Town Committee appears to be
trying to stay alive. Many of its activist members have long since jumped over
to the CCA Party. Its moderate core recently had to fend off a radical take-over attempt by Tina Jackson, who ran a disastrous 2012 campaign against
Rep. Donna Walsh (D).
According to their most recent campaign finance disclosure, they have raised no money and had to pay Washington Trust $6 because their bank account has been dormant. They have $475.17 cash on hand.
According to their most recent campaign finance disclosure, they have raised no money and had to pay Washington Trust $6 because their bank account has been dormant. They have $475.17 cash on hand.
Currently, town Democrats hold the lead in fund-raising reporting
an added $1,773.86 in the last quarter, bringing their cash on hand to
$5,511.78. The CDTC has also stepped up its activities though public education,
“auditioning”
the Democrats vying for endorsements for state and federal office in 2014
and by boosting the content on its website.
The CCA Party has an established pattern since its founding
in 2006 of laying low and disclosing little until the very last minute.
Typically, they raise little money until that last few weeks before an election
when their big donors from out of town start writing big checks up to the
maximum allowed under state law ($1,000). The CCA Party then tries to disguise where these donors live by listing their vacation homes as their residences.
So far, that has also been their pattern in the 2014
campaign cycle. For the second quarter in a row, the CCA Party reports no
revenue coming in and shows a cash-on-hand balance of $2,992.36.
In the last quarter, they
spent a third of their treasury to buy insurance for their officers and
Steering Committee.
CCA leadership: change or same old, same old?
Usually the CCA Party makes its annual “rearranging of the deck chairs” announcement in the late spring or early summer about its leadership line-up.
That announcement generally shows the tight grip held by the CCA Party’s original founders and insiders and also the attrition they suffer in their leadership ranks as their top people age and move on to assisted living or Florida (or both, as the case may be).
This year, the CCA has become more closed off than ever.
They have skipped the annual announcement of the officer and Steering Committee
roster. Their campaign finance reports only show Leo Mainelli as the CCA’s
Treasurer without any hint of any other officer shifts. Virginia Wooten is
still listed as CCA Party President even though she is all but invisible.
The new faces of the CCA Party – the Areglados, the Chambers
and the rest of the Partridge Family – don’t seem to have been given a place at
the table. Or if they have, the CCA Party isn't talking about it.
Campaign 2014
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| CCA Party Platform |
By contrast, the CCA Party raised more than that - $31,732 –
just since 2008. They have demonstrated by the policies, ordinances,
appointments and legislation their Town Council majorities have promoted that
they believe in giving their donors what they paid for.
We've documented the
cases – Y-Gate, their on-going battles against human activity at Ninigret Park,
against toilets at town beaches, giving patronage appointments to cronies like Ron Areglado, Mike and
Donna Chambers, Peter Herstein, fighting against tax relief for middle class families, pushing policies to force small businesses to leave town, paying private legal fees, trying to block aquaculture, pandering to CCA leaders, etc. – of how the
CCA Party rewards its political base.
General Assembly
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| Tina Jackson - fined for failure to disclose campaign finances |
Her opponent in the previous election, Tina Jackson (R),
seems to be focused solely on raising the money she owes the RI Board of
Elections for failing to file campaign finance reports. She has just been
declared delinquent for failing to file the report due on October 31 and her
total unpaid fines for five delinquent reports top $1,700 and are growing by $25 a day. The
last time she bothered to file
a report. which was on October 9, 2012, she said her
campaign account was minus $492.16.
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| Democratic incumbents Sen. Cathie Cool Rumsey (l) and Rep. Donna Walsh (r) |
The guy she defeated, ex-senator Frank Maher, seems to be
devoting his efforts to the disgusting recall
campaign against the Democratic majority on the Exeter Town Council. Maher
is one of the only actual Exeter residents on the “We
the People of Exeter” PAC that was organized to push the recall effort.
The recall in Exeter was organized by the Cranston-based RI
Firearms Owners League, which opposes the Town Council’s effort to get the RI
State Police to do the background checks for Exeter residents who want a
concealed carry handgun permit.
The Council made an unsuccessful attempt to get state
legislation to that effect last year because Exeter does not have a police
force (the only town in RI without one) and the State Police do the town’s
policing, making it logical that they would also do the background checks.
Finally, Charlestown's southern end has been represented by Westerly's Senator Dennis Algiere (R), one of an almost extinct species of liberal Republican. Dennis hasn't had a real opponent in many years and there's no reason to believe 2014 will be any different. He is currently sitting on a campaign treasury of $6,094.
Instead of people like Algiere, the new Republican Party is populated with characters like this one:
Finally, Charlestown's southern end has been represented by Westerly's Senator Dennis Algiere (R), one of an almost extinct species of liberal Republican. Dennis hasn't had a real opponent in many years and there's no reason to believe 2014 will be any different. He is currently sitting on a campaign treasury of $6,094.
Instead of people like Algiere, the new Republican Party is populated with characters like this one: