UPDATED: 2016 Edition of
“Who owns the CCA?”
By
Will Collette
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| On the campaign trail with the CCA |
UPDATED WITH A FIXED BROKEN LINK. The original link posted sent you to the wrong article. Corrected link is below. Sorry for the error. - WC
I haven’t written much about town elections here in Charlestown. What’s the point? The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) is guaranteed to emerge from the November election as the continued master of Charlestown municipal government, winning their 5th election in a row.
I haven’t written much about town elections here in Charlestown. What’s the point? The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) is guaranteed to emerge from the November election as the continued master of Charlestown municipal government, winning their 5th election in a row.
Currently,
the CCA Party controls every elected seat in Charlestown. Eleven of those seats
will be on the ballot on November 8: five Town Council seats, four for Planning
Commission, one for Chariho School Committee and the Town Moderator.
Every
candidate but one (corrected link: CLICK HERE) is running on the CCA Party ticket. Unless some miraculous and
improbable write-in campaign occurs, the only question is whether the CCA Party
will control all five Town Council seats or “just” a 4 to 1 majority.
That
means a guarantee that decisions on town policy will continue to be made in
secret, in the private monthly meetings of the CCA Party Steering Committee
which includes key members of the Town Council, Planning Commission, Budget
Commission and Zoning Board of Review. Here is an internet tool to help
you find out where those meetings are held. (Ok, that was just for fun; the
monthly meetings actually rotate among the homes of the respective steering
committee members.)
The
town election was basically OVER when candidates filed their declarations last
June.
Nonetheless,
the CCA Party is raising an amazing amount of money for a small town election as
if it faced a serious challenge.
They
have always been good at that. They generally don’t raise money until the last
six months before a general election and then mostly in October. That’s when
they count on big checks from the non-resident property owners who have pretty
much set the CCA Party’s agenda since 2008.
More
than half of the CCA Party’s funding comes from non-residents. That has been
the case in the past (click HERE
for 2012 and HERE
for 2014) and it continues to be the case this year.
Carrying
a balance of almost $5000 into this election year, the CCA Party started
raising money at mid-year, bringing in $7,169. Of that, $3,450 was in the form
of checks of $100 or more written to the CCA Party by people who DO NOT call
Charlestown home.
Check
for yourself by going to the Rhode Island Board of Elections website where you
can read the CCA Party’s campaign finance reports written by none other than
Deputy Dan Slattery (right) who is now CCA Party Treasurer. CLICK
HERE for July and CLICK
HERE for the October 7 report.
Some
additional portion of the money that came in unattributed amounts less than
$100 had to have also come from non-residents.
The
CCA Party’s fund-raising report for October, the month where they usually bring
in the greatest amount of money, is not due to be filed until November 1.
Expect the non-resident totals to climb.
And
for what? The CCA Party is pretty much guaranteed continued control of town
government.
But there is a reason.
It’s the way non-residents vote
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| How Charlestown laws are made |
Under
Rhode Island law, you are supposed to live where you vote. While that doesn’t
seem to be an ironclad rule – take our state Rep. Blake
“Flip” Filippi’s flexible attitude toward residence – it is the general
rule.
The
CCA Party once publicly supported the long-time position of its now-deceased
parent organization, the RI Statewide (nee Shoreline) Coalition which held that
voting
rights should be conferred on those who own property in a jurisdiction.
But
that’s illegal under Rhode Island law, so our non-resident property owners have figured out an even
better way. They vote with their
checkbooks.
If you look at the causes and campaigns the CCA Party has
promoted, they generally are those that benefit their sponsors and supporters,
not the general population of Charlestown.
Those campaign finance reports
are actually a record of votes cast by folks from New York, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Minnesota for
the political party that will best represent their interests.
In a nutshell, the CCA’s battle cry, its
raison d’etre, is unabashedly preserving Charlestown as a taxpayer-subsidized
retirement haven for aging Caucasian baby boomers while curtailing any
development initiatives, either housing or business, that would attract
families with school age children. And it plays well with the madding crowd.
From
the CCA Party campaign finance reports filed with the state Board of Elections (CLICK HERE for July and CLICK HERE for the October 7 report), here are the non-resident major donors:
$500
Joseph
McLaughlin, Connecticut and New York City
Thomas
Farrell, New York who listed his address for this donation as Charlestown
$250
Joann
D’Alcomo, Massachusetts
Kate
Waterman, Connecticut
Brian
Mahoney, Connecticut
$100
to $200
$200
from James Arnold, Pennsylvania
$150
from Anita Baxter, Connecticut
$150
from Sarah Whittemor, Connecticut
$100
from Daniel Eramo, Florida
$100
from Sarah Reynolds, New York
$100
from Karl Broutifan, Connecticut
$100
from Patricia Thavenius, Connecticut
$100
from Nancy Owen, Minnesota
$100
from Joyce Zoldak, Virginia
$100
from Susan Jacobson, New Jersey
$100
from Joanne Gallagher, Connecticut
$100
from Mary Herling, Florida.
$100
from Deborah Brink, Virginia
$100
from Thomas Harahan, Florida
How did the Dems do?
The
Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC) carried a balance of just over
$2000 into this election year.
In
July, they reported no money raised.
Their
October
10 report shows income of $513, all from Charlestown residents. Actually,
all from CDTC members which, in the interest of full disclosure, includes my
wife Cathy who kicked in $120.
The Dems went into this final month of the election with a balance of $2016.60 compared
to the CCA Party’s balance of $7,433.08 although it appears the CCA has already made many of its major expenditures (campaign signs and paraphernalia). In the final days, expect to get swamped with mailers.
The
Charlestown Dems may not have much money but it’s 100% Charlestown money.