Megan versus MAGA

The choice is clear

By Will Collette

Rhode Island House District 39 once included much of northern Charlestown but redistricting expanded House District 36, once held by Donna Walsh, then Flip Filippi and now Tina Spears, to cover all of Charlestown.

But we still have lots of shared interests with District 39, such as Chariho, with that district that warrants a keen interest in its politics.

In 2022, Democrat Megan Cotter unseated MAGA Trumpnut Justin Price by 32 votes. This year is a re-match.

In her first term, Megan was one of the hardest working members of the General Assembly and delivered a boatload of successful legislation on such issues of vital local concern as forest management and fire prevention.

She was so busy that Progressive Charlestown ran almost 40 articles about her and her work which you can read if you wish by CLICKING HERE.

She promised voters she would work hard for them and kept her promise.

The Providence Journal’s top political reporter, Katherine Gregg, did an extensive interview with Megan (her MAGA opponent Justin Price did not respond to ProJo requests) that is well worth reading (CLICK HERE).

There is another in-depth interview with Megan by Nancy Lavin of the Rhode Island Current you should check out that contrasts Megan versus her opponent.

Megan told Gregg:

"But the question now is, have I worked hard enough for my community to sway enough folks to vote for someone that they may not always agree with, but know that I'm going to do everything in their best interests?"

Gregg notes Price’s disinterest in talking and recounted some reasons why Justin Price may not be willing to talk about his qualifications to hold office.

In addition to running to regain the House seat to Megan Cotter, Price claims he earns his living as a carpenter. According the Rhode Island Contractors Licensing Board, Price is as qualified to be a carpenter as he is to be a state Representative, as you can see:

In his eight years representing District 39, Price did virtually nothing but spout far-right rhetoric and crazy conspiracy theories while delivering no legislation to benefit the people in his district.

Gregg notes Price’s only prominent legislative “victory” was to get the House to let him set up a study commission on “chem-trails.” For the non-MAGA majority, chem-trails are the contrails we see in the sky from passing jets. According to a bonkers far-right conspiracy theory, some unnamed evildoers (maybe lizard people, aliens, the government or Taylor Swift) have added chemicals to contrails that cause some terrible transformation in people below, like maybe turning them into zombies, drag queens, boy bands, or Democrats.

House leaders gave Price this commission to send him off on some fool’s errand. Gregg reports that there is no record that Price even assembled the Commission, never mind held any hearings or took testimony or issued a report.

Maybe he forgot. Or maybe he was too busy helping to overturn the government as the only Rhode Island legislator to take part in the Trump-inspired January 6 storming of the Capitol. Price has not been indicted – yet – but there’s still time.

Price admits he was there along with a “million other patriots.” He claims it was Antifa, not Trumpnuts, Oathkeepers, Proud Boys or other rightwing crazies (many already confessed or convicted) who actually stormed the Capitol.

Price has never answered the several questions arising from his January 6 participation and post-insurrection remarks.

First, if he was close enough to see “Antifa” as he claims, that means he breeched the Capitol Police no-go cordons, which is itself a federal crime. He could not have seen anyone entering the Capitol otherwise.

Second, if Price really saw people he considered enemies of this country attacking the Capitol, why didn’t he follow his oath as a Marine Corps veteran and as a state legislator at the time to defend the country and the Constitution “from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Why did he stand by while these invaders kicked the shit out of the police?

The obvious answer is that Price is either lying or is simply an idiot. I think he knew damned well those were his fellow Trumpnuts attempting to overthrow the government.

Which leads me to wonder why he is even on the ballot, given the ban on insurrectionists running for office under the Fourteenth Amendment. Traitors have no place running for office. And if we are to believe even half of what Price claimed about January 6, neither do cowards.

Before he stopped talking to the press, Price told reporters that he was running because he didn’t like the people Megan Cotter was hanging out with. Now there’s a compelling platform for a campaign.

Both Katherine Gregg and Nancy Lavin note in their interviews that Megan Cotter is running as a Democrat in one of Rhode Island’s most conservative districts. In any other district, a guy like Price would never even make it onto the ballot. But District 39 is supposed to be a “safe” Republican seat.

Megan Cotter deserves reelection by a double digit majority. 

After all, Megan had a great first term and delivered for her constituents while also serving everyone’s interests. 

By contrast, Justin Price wasted his eight years in the House on nonsense and seems to have nothing else to offer. He should be happy Republicans elected him to be a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention and just sit home and wait for the US Marshals to deliver his arrest warrant.