Wishful thinking?

What are people really voting for when they vote for “change”?

Blake Filippi: the change you wanted?

By Linda Felaco

A version of this article ran in the Westerly Sun. This version is complete and updated to reflect recent events.

While the midterm elections handed control of Congress, as well as a number of state and local governments, from Democrats to Republicans, in Charlestown, the election merely solidified the control of the town’s homegrown political party, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), which now holds every single elected seat in town government.

Yes, for all intents and purposes, the CCA is a political party. Why they try to pretend otherwise is not entirely clear. Apparently, they are so high-minded that they somehow transcend mere partisan politics. 

But two facts are indisputable: (1) The CCA considers town Democrats to be their enemies and actively and vociferously campaigns against them. Indeed, the CCA owes its entire existence to town Democrats given that they originally formed in order to attempt to force the recall of a Democratic town council president. (2) The CCA has never endorsed or aided in the election of any Democratic candidate for either town or state office.

The CCA certainly never endorsed or campaigned for Democrat Cathie Cool Rumsey, freshman senator for the northern half of Charlestown, either when she ousted Republican Frank Maher in 2012 or in this fall’s midterms. Cool Rumsey’s opponent, Elaine Morgan, mainly ran as an anti-incumbent with a smattering of generic state GOP talking points on 38 Studios and Gordon Fox but no original ideas of her own as far as I could tell.

Nor did the CCA ever endorse or campaign for Representative Donna Walsh, who has been representing Charlestown at the State House since 2006. 

Walsh’s opponent, Blake Filippi, campaigned largely on eliminating state income taxes on Social Security benefits—a thoroughly unoriginal idea that has repeatedly run aground on the need to make up for the lost revenues, estimated currently to be in the vicinity of $20 million to $25 million. 

If Filippi had a suggestion for how to pay for his proposed tax cut, I never heard it. 

Unlike Morgan, who apparently targeted her mailings to non-Democrats (I never received a single one), Filippi ran a largely self-funded campaign and blizzarded the entire town with mailings blaming Donna for everything but the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. 

His vaguely antigovernment rhetoric clearly resonated among Charlestown’s libertarians.

Filippi and Morgan at Charlestown Town Council
swearing in. They administered the oaths of office even
though they did not have legal authority. Either they
broke the law or the ceremony was fake.

The CCA was, however, very quick to invite Filippi and Morgan to their swearing-in ceremony for town offices on Monday and not our currently serving legislators, despite the fact that Filippi and Morgan have yet to be sworn into office themselves.

The problem with running on an anti-incumbent platform is that in two short years, you have to run on your own record as the incumbent, possibly against a new crop of anti-incumbents. 

And two years is not much time to get anything done in a legislature that only operates for half the year, especially when you have to start from scratch in forging alliances with other legislators to even get your bills out of committee—and simultaneously raise funds for your reelection campaign. 

Although he ran as an “independent,” Filippi is a registered Republican and major Republican donor, and Michael Napolitano, head of the state Republican “Strike Force,” ran heavy interference for him on social media during the election campaign, so it’s a safe bet Filippi will not be caucusing with the Democrats. 

Though his signature campaign issue has already been taken up by Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello—and gotten pushback from Governor-elect Gina Raimondo, who feels that it’s premature to start talking about tax cuts before solving the revenue problem.

How well will Charlestown’s interests be served on Smith Hill by two freshman legislators, neither one from the majority party? Walsh had successfully brokered compromises in areas such as wastewater treatment where state laws were considered to be too burdensome for homeowners. 

Walsh and Cool Rumsey have both served on their respective chambers’ Environment committees and gotten major legislation passed relating to issues that are important to the town. 

How likely is it that the Democratic leadership in the General Assembly will give plum committee assignments to either a Republican or a Republican-allied independent? 

How much will newcomers actually be able to achieve—particularly one with antigovernment leanings?