By Will Collette
As I predicted, the New Shoreham Board of Canvassers dismissed my challenge to Rep. Blake "Flip" Filippi's candidacy.WPRI's Ted Nesi did a recent story that caused me to drastically lower my expectations, writing a "veteran town solicitor says residency challenges to voter registration, such as the one against state Rep. John Carnevale that Providence officials will take up Tuesday, are rare but usually decided quickly."
Nonetheless, I raised the issue with the town after noting that the address Filippi gave in his candidate's filing this year appears to be a warehouse or a barn (Google Earth screen shot, above, left).
Plus, Filippi bought a house in Charlestown which was shown on the Charlestown Tax Assessor's website as owner-occupied (see screenshot below).
Since Filippi went through his first term giving one address - his
mother's house and cattle farm in Lincoln - to a variety of government agencies and listed a different Block Island address as his residence (and told another reporter that he lived in an apartment in Providence), it seemed reasonable to ask the Board of Canvassers to see if the same kind of problem has come up again.
Not that I actually expected them to rule in my favor.
After all, look at all the trouble the Providence Board of Canvassers is having with Rep. John Carnavale's convoluted residency issues - even when he flat out contradicts himself, they still have not been able to rule on that challenge. It now looks like it will be up to the State Police to sort this out.
So Flip wriggling out of this one comes as no surprise. I'm sure that his family's substantial wealth and extensive property ownership on Block Island had no bearing on the outcome.
I have not yet received the official findings from the town but the gist of the matter so far is Flip will get to cruise into a second term as our woeful state Representative since he faces no further opposition.