Money and Charlestown politics

The calm before the storm

By Will Collette

In Charlestown, campaign season starts for real when candidates must declare their intentions in late June. But between each general election and that declaration, Charlestown political groups position themselves by trying to raise money, with varying degrees of success.

There are only five active campaign committees in Charlestown among the dozens listed on the Board of Elections website: the Committee to Elect Rep. Donna Walsh (D), Tina Jackson (R) for State Representative, the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) and the Charlestown Republican Town Committee.

Four of these five active campaign groups filed campaign finance disclosure reports with the Board of Elections for the first quarter of 2014. Only Republican Tina Jackson failed to file, earning her yet another BOE violation, her eighth such violation in a row. According to the Board of Election’s list of delinquencies for March, Jackson owed the BOE fines totaling $4,031. The fines accumulate daily and Jackson is moving up the list (she’s now on page 2 of 5 pages).

The RISC-PAC of the RI Statewide Coalition, long based in Charlestown but now in West Warwick under the name Rhode Island Taxpayers, owes $4,319 in fines as of March.

Cathie Cool Rumsey & Donna Walsh

The incumbent legislators representing Charlestown (Rep. Walsh, Sen. Cathie Cool Rumsey and Sen. Dennis Algiere) all report healthy cash balances going into election season. Cathie Rumsey's campaign in registered in Exeter where she lives. Similarly, Algiere's is registered in Westerly.

Donna Walsh leads with $16,014 in cash, having raised $900 and spent $141.75.

She is followed by Cathie Cool Rumsey who has $5,301.75 cash on hand after raising $950 and spending $1,094.22.

Dennis Algiere who has not had a serious opponent for many years raised no money in the first quarter but reported spending $1,531.06 all of it spent on a “holiday caucus party with staff.” Some would call that a Christmas party which he held for his small group of Senate Republicans and their staff members. Big bucks for such a small group. Algiere has been Senate Minority Leader for several terms.

Gentz and Slattery - do voters want these two back for a third term?

Most of the election drama in Charlestown is focused on town races for Council, Planning Commission, Town Moderator and School Committee. Lots of seats are likely to be contested – all five Town Council seats, five of the seven Planning Commission seats and three seats representing Charlestown on the Chariho School Committee.

The CCA Party currently holds three of the five Town Council seats. Of the five members up for re-election to the Planning Commission, all but one (Brandon Cleary) are CCA Party picks. Of the three School Committee seats up for election, two of them are held by patronage appointees of the CCA Party – Ron Areglado and Donna Chambers.

Ruth Platner already threw her own $500 into the CCA Party pot

At the end of the first quarter, the CCA Party showed $3,110.16 in cash on hand to defend those two seats. They raised $500 – all of it in the form of a donation from CCA Party leader and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. They spent $372.20.

This is typical. Since the CCA Party registered as a political action committee almost eight years ago, it has done most of its fund-raising in the six months prior to the election, and especially in the last month. 

Usually in October before a general election, the financial floodgates open for the CCA Party as their wealthy, non-resident property owners and cronies write big checks to ensure the CCA stays in power to do their bidding.

The CCA Party's governing philosophy

As I’ve proven time and again, the CCA Party believes in those old-fashioned principles of “to the victors belong the spoils” and pay to play. If past practice is any guide, they will probably rake in about $10,000 in out of state fat cat cash between September and November.

The Charlestown Democrats do what they do best, maintaining a steady effort to restore democracy to Charlestown. In the first quarter, they report raising $460 and spending nothing, ending the quarter with $5,977.54. However, they fully understand that their current lead will disappear once the CCA calls in its markers with its non-resident donors.

The Charlestown Republicans continue to drift. They report raising nothing and spending nothing in the first quarter, holding a cash balance of $475.14.