The people want bread and circuses. They will definitely get a circus

It's hard to accentuate the positive, but I will try

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) got whipped again by Charlestown Residents United (CRU). All five CCA Council candidates were rejected. All five CRU candidates were elected.

The CRU picked up another Planning Commission seat.

The CCA's consolation prize, for what it's worth, was getting voters to reject most of the Charter revision questions the CCA opposed.

I am unspeakably shaken by Trump's win and the apparent loss of Congress to the MAGA mob, but there's nothing I can do about that except urge you all to get vaccinated and make whatever energy-saving improvements you need in your house before Bobbie Kennedy Jr. abolished the national vaccine program and the MAGA's wipe out green energy programs.

Over the coming weeks, we'll have time to ponder what else we must do, but for now, let's review the state and local results where for the most part, the good guys won.

Charlestown Town Council

Rippy Serra (CRU) edged out Deb Carney to win the right to the Town Council President's chair. Unless he declines, Deb would move to the VP slot. Voters re-elected 3rd-place finisher Steve Stokes, elected new Councilor Craig Marr of Breachway fame and gave Peter Slom his first full term.

The best CCA finisher, is Sarah Fletcher who ran as a Democrat and had the good fortune to appear first on the ballot. She finishes in 6th place and out of the money.

Planning Commission

CCA leader Ruth Platner and her dog's body Bonnita Van Slyke were soundly rejected by Charlestown voters, with Platner finishing 9th and Van Slyke in last place. Platner seems likely to stay on in her role as Planning Commissar where she can continue to terrorize small businesses and homebuilders. Maybe she'll let Van Slyke take notes for her.

Platner tried to make dark skies the town's marquee issue, but it clearly bombed with the voters.

 

For Planning Commission, the top vote getter was CRU candidate Glenn Babcock. Here are the Planning Commission results:

Charlestown Charter Revision Proposals

Charlestown voters voted on 11 proposed amendments to the Town Charter. Charlestown ballot questions. The CCA opposed five of those questions and had reservations about Question 8 which would prevent Council majorities from blocking the Council minority from putting items on Council meeting agendas. 

The CCA got their wish on four of the five questions they opposed. 

Voters rejected Question 7 and Question 15. Together, those questions would have equalized the terms of office for the Town Council and Planning Commission at four years, staggered. Voters also rejected Question 10 which would have made the use of a Search Committee to fill Town Administrator vacancies optional. 

In a victory for the Westerly Sun, voters turned down Question 9 which would have made it optional for the town to post notices in a print newspaper. Yeah ok, the Sun needs the revenue.

Voters ignored CCA opposition to Question 14 by approving it by almost 20 points. This vote means that emergency rescue services will now be included in the Town Charter as a basic municipal service. Why the CCA opposed this question is beyond me.

Instead the CCA devoted so much of its energy to trying to make Charlestown's dark sky this year's imaginary political crisis. They tried to convince voters that only they, the CCA, can protect our wonderful dark skies by blocking all development and buying more open space, even though more than 60% of Charlestown's land area is already protected open space. 

They also put a lot of energy into pushing their point of view on the Charter revision questions, perhaps at the expense of actually getting their people elected. Maybe this will work out for them in the long-run, but short-term, the voters inflicted a crushing blow to CCA power.

State Results 

As expected, Rhode Island voters have re-elected Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo by comfortable margins which is very good news. Their work in the new MAGA Congress will be a key part of any strategy to defend democracy, our basic rights and the environment against the attacks to come.

Controversial state Question 1 to convene a state Constitutional Convention lost big, as hoped. The other four state ballot questions, all for good job-creating programs, were approved by comfortable margins.

In local General Assembly races, all of South Kingstown's Democratic women won either by default or by wide margins. 

In the rematch for Senate District 38 between incumbent Sen. Victoria Gu and MAGA dude Westin Price, Victoria won by a handy 15 points. This district includes the southern half of Charlestown.

Charlestown's state Rep. Tina Spears was unopposed and thus automatically re-elected.

In Senate District 34 which includes the northern half of Charlestown, MAGA state Senator Elaine Morgan (R) beat Democrat Steve Moffitt. Last night, her margin seemed insurmountable at over 20 points, but by morning, that lead was trimmed to 8 points. Still, that doesn't count so she wins and will continue to grace the State House with her toxic personality for another term.

In neighboring House District 39, there was another rematch. Hardworking state Rep. Megan Cotter (D) faced MAGA insurrectionist Justin Price. Pundits predicted this race would be very close since Megan only won by 22 votes in 2022 and the district is one of the most conservative in the state.

They were wrong. This time, Price was sent home to watch The Price Is Right by a margin of 8 points and 654 votes.

What's next?

On the national level, I really don't know except to know that it's going to be bad.

I just turned 75. After a lifetime as an activist, it's hard to face this kind of loss though I am happy at what's happened here at home. Almost 15 years ago, Tom Ferrio and I started Progressive Charlestown as a counterweight to the Charlestown Citizens Alliance.

We did a lot of other stuff - lots of national politics, environmental news, weather reports and public service announcements, cartoons, science and astronomy. Basically whatever interested us and might interest you. A total of almost 30,000 separate posts.

Over 15 million people clicked on our posts, 2 million in the past year alone and almost 42,000 just yesterday. We never considered "monetizing" the site and just did it as a combination public service and source of entertainment for us as well as for you.

We accomplished the main thing we wanted to do when we started this thing: to bust the CCA. Now that this has been done, I am trying to decide if I want to continue and, if so, how much I am willing to put into it. I'm talking to family and friends but would also like to hear from you. 

I would really like to see others step up to keep the site going. 

Please e-mail us at Progressive Charlestown with your thoughts about its future direction. On