Flipper comes to town

Graphic proof that Filippi does not live in the 36^th District

By Will Collette

What's that smell?

On Wednesday, state Representative Blake “Flip” Filippi (District 36) will hold a “community meeting” at the Quonochontaug Grange. The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) is all excited and sent out a special e-bleat to promote the meeting.

It figures the CCA Party would love the Flipper. Like most of the CCA Party’s supporters, Flip doesn’t actually live here – he has an apartment in Providence and lists his mother’s home and cattle farm in Lincoln as his home address on many legal records while claiming to live in Block Island, though he is rarely seen there.

Flip, like the CCA, claims to be “independent.” Yet, he registered as a Republican and has been a major donor to Republican candidates for many years. In the State House, Flip caucuses with the Republicans. He also claims to be a Libertarian, although if you look at the wide array of bills he has introduced, they hardly seem like anything a “small government” kind of guy would introduce.

The CCA is so excited!

Like the CCA, Flip has made the distress of the neighbors of the Copar Quarry his big cause and has made many promises about how he will save them. But in fact, Flip has done nothing. Zero. Nada. 

He was late in introducing his faulty legislation on quarry regulation which never made it out of committee. The only quarry bill that did pass was the one co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy and Republican Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere.

But that didn’t stop the CCA Party from giving Flipper all the credit for the Kennedy-Algiere legislation, and from Flipper claiming credit.

And the CCA Party and Filippi share the common trait of promising everything, but delivering nothing.

We’ll talk some more about Flip’s bizarre first year as an elected official but I want to share with you some graphic proof to back up my repeated charge – backed up by evidence - that Filippi has lied about where he lives. The great thing about this proof is that the source happens to be Filippi himself.

First, let’s look at Filippi’s core campaign claim on the subject, from his own mailer to District 36 voters:

Now, aside from the fact that Flip accomplished NONE of the promises he made, note his bold claim about being “a life-long resident of our district.”

Is this residency claim true? Let’s take a look at Filippi’s official state legislature biography from his State House website:

Zeroing in on the key details, we learn this:

Ask yourself: how can Flip be a “life-long resident of the 36^th Representative District in South County and be a 1999 graduate of Lincoln High School?

Did he pay tuition to the town of Lincoln? Or did he do what so many public records show and live in his mother’s house in Lincoln? If Filippi’s claim that he is a “life-long” South County resident is true, than he owes the taxpayers of Lincoln the money it cost to put him through school.

Moving on, note that he received a B.A. in 2003 from the University of Arizona. We presented records of 2001, 2002 and 2003 traffic violations in Arizona where he gave his home address as Lincoln, RI. 

Note the 2007 law degree from Rutgers. If Flip was living on Block Island, as he claims, how could he be in Arizona for four years to get his B.A. plus however long it took him to get his law degree in New Jersey? Don't forget his high school career in Lincoln.

Unless Flip has found a way to control the space-time continuum and be in two places at once, his statements contradict themselves. 

He seems to use that same space-time continuum these days to be a full time cattle ranch manager in Lincoln, a full-time manager of the Ballard Inn on Block Island, a full-time Constitutional lawyer in Providence (more on that in another installment) and a part-time Legislator.

After seeing so many records contradicting Filippi’s claim to being a South County homeboy, I have to conclude that the only answer lies in an updated version of an hackneyed lawyer joke:

Question: How can you tell when Blake Filippi is lying?

Answer: His lips are moving.