Who’s the best Democratic candidate to hold on to it?
By Will Collette
For Charlestown Democrats, we have a hot race
for the Senate District 38 seat being vacated by Sen. Dennis Algiere.
Statewide, there is hot competition in the Democratic primary races for
Governor, Lieutenant Governor and General Treasurer.
But from a local, statewide and national
perspective, the most vital primary of all is for the Democrat who will run for
retiring Representative Jim Langevin’s seat in Congress. The winner of the
September 13 primary will face Trumplican Alan Fung, former mayor of Cranston
in the General Election on November 8.
In the battle for control of Congress,
Democrats MUST hold on to this seat in the epic battle to stop fascism from
advancing in America. I’m not exaggerating – that’s what is at stake.
Six Democrats have qualified for the September
13 primary ballot, although South Kingstown’s former state rep Spencer
Dickinson has suspended
his campaign and political comeback
attempt reportedly due to poor health.
The five active candidates are (in the order
they appear on the ballot): term-limited General Treasurer Seth Magaziner,
David Segal, Omar Bah, gazillionaire carpetbagger Sarah Morgenthau and former
Langevin aide Joy Fox.
All five have very similar positions on all
the big issues so I think the way to decide who deserves your vote depends on
(a) their record and experience, (2) the likelihood they can do the job well
and (3) their ability to beat Alan Fung in November to keep Congressional
District 2 blue.
My choice is Seth Magaziner. While you can
read his campaign
bio just about everywhere or read GoLocal’s trash
talk against him, I urge you join me in voting for Seth for a lot of good
reasons.
For the past eight years, Seth has done a
terrific job as General Treasurer. He’s balanced the books, changed our
investment strategy away from Gina Raimondo’s hedge funds to more solid,
dependable ones, including local banking institutions, and boosted the office’s
projects like returning lost money to their rightful owners and compensating
crime victims. His innovations include the major school construction and rehab
initiative and the Green Bank to finance environmental initiatives.
Seth is smart and creative, a genuinely nice
guy and he can win. He’s won handily in District 2 twice now running as
Treasurer, while Alan Fung has lost in District 2 twice in his two failed
attempts to become Governor.
If we had “ranked
voting” in Rhode Island (we don’t), I would pick Joy
Fox as my second choice, just edging out my third
choice David Segal. Joy is a Rhode Island native and certainly knows the job,
having worked as aide to Rep. Langevin. She too is smart and personable and I
hope to see her in Rhode Island politics in the years to come. The same holds
for progressive David
Segal.
Then there’s Omar
Bah, described in the Providence Journal as “an
African refugee with a compelling personal story.”
While he certainly does have a “compelling
personal story,” unfortunately that seems to be the only actual concrete
information we have about him. I went through his campaign website
to try to understand his campaign points. What I found were very general
progressive talking points (pro-choice, pro-Green New Deal, etc.) but nothing
specific.
I respect his history and commend his courage
but really don’t understand why he decided to run for Congress as his first
time ever attempt at electoral politics.
To me, the most controversial candidate is
Sarah Morgenthau. She’s deliberately running as a Washington insider perhaps
because she’s not much of a Rhode Islander having only just moved here. She was
called out for collecting a homestead tax credit on her DC residence. Hint to Charlestown: Isn’t it time WE had a homestead tax credit too?
She’s a blue-blood
establishment aristocrat. Her grandfather served as Franklin
Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary. Her great-granddad was Woodrow Wilson’s
Ambassador to Turkey. She had several political appointments under President
Obama, did work for Gina Raimondo and fund-raising for Joe Biden.
She says that because of all her DC
connections, she will be instantly ready to call on all her friends to help her
deliver for Rhode Island. Plus, she’s a woman.
But looking through her resume, you won’t find
much experience with Congress – which is the job she’s actually seeking. I can
tell you from 25 years of working in Washington myself that Congress is a very
different animal than the Executive Branch.
She may be able to get the Prime Minister of
Great Britain to answer her phone call but that doesn’t mean she can provide
quality constituent services to the people of the Second District. We’ve been
spoiled by Jim Langevin who excelled at constituent service. And her grandfather’s
and great-grandfather’s blue blood friends won’t be much help in getting
legislation passed in a sharply divided Congress.
I don’t understand why she’s running except
maybe to tick another box on her list of lifetime achievements. Maybe she’s
just anxious to move back to DC.