RI General Election | Nov. 7, 2006

[Cotuit]

Also in challenging Chafee, Laffey ended up looking delusional and egomaniacal. He could have run for treasurer, lieutenant governor, or even US rep against Langevin. But no, none of these positions were good enough for the Mayor of Cranston.

[Jerry2]

Well sure, if you wanted to bury your head in a hole in the grouind you could totally ignore the fact that the Republican party completely hates you and everything about you and does not mind stepping on you and your life if it furthers their own destructive goals.

[runawayjim]

the only republican i voted for on tuesday was whoever was running against mollis. there's something about him i just don't like... maybe the fact that he seems to play the political game a bit too well.

also... i have a job that i enjoy. it's not very high paying, but it's not gonna disappear because of an economic downturn. my fiancee should also find a job without a problem here. we'll be able to raise a family without a problem. fidelity must like RI enough to have moved 1500 of their boston people down here. i don't think it's as bad as people say it is...

[Gusterfell]

If the majority of gay people stopped having every fragment of their lives revolve around their sexuality, there would be more acceptance and tolerance. My life revolves around family, friends, and career.

[Jerry2]

You're playing off the same bigoted stereotypes Bush & Co. use to justify their hatred of gays. Every homosexual I have ever met is much more concerned with family, friends, and career than with sexuality. Do you think of yourself as straight first and everything else second? Of course not. To the vast majority of homosexuals, their orientation is no more a part of their self-identity than yours is.

[runawayjim]

Well, if that's the case, why did so many elect a straight ticket without paying any attention to the candidates principles? Answer: Because they equated Republicans with gay-hating bashers so they ended up putting people like Whitehouse and Mollis in office.....Thank God Carcieri won. My opinion may not be popular with you or the majority of this forum ( gay or straight ) but I equate some elected officials with business as usual and the status quo. It doesn't matter what party one is from for me to decide, but they have to represent the people from an ethical and progressive standpoint. With the vast amount of educated people in RI, I keep convincing myself that some politician will one day come out to expose the sheistiness of the RI political arena. ....and people will actually get it. I thought Laffey would have been perfect for this.

[Gusterfell]

Well, if that's the case, why did so many elect a straight ticket without paying any attention to the candidates principles? Answer: Because they equated Republicans with gay-hating bashers so they ended up putting people like Whitehouse and Mollis in office

[Cotuit]

Republicans don't hate gays. Conservative christians that have gained the spotlight because of their ridiculous media attention and the fact that GWB was our president hate gays. I don't see too many of them in Lil Rhody.

[gregw]

This is why I don't understand the 'real Republicans' anger against Chafee. Chafee had a pretty safe seat for the Republican party, Laffey might have had some more traction against Langevin for instance, and he'd be changing the color of a seat for his party if he had won. Instead he forced Chafee to burn through funds in the primary and took all the focus off Whitehouse until after the primary. Whitehouse just spent primary season attending parties and collecting checks.

Why didn't the 'real Republicans' in Rhode Island try to convince Laffey to go after a different office? They could have had two Republicans in Washington from Rhode Island instead of none.

[jencoleslaw]

Laffey could have been competitive in statewide executive races esp. treasurer. His managerial/fiscal background would have been more relevant and his positions on national issues and foreign policy less so.

[ruchele]

When and where will we be able to find out how write-in candidates did in last week's election?

[runawayjim]

When and where will we be able to find out how write-in candidates did in last week's election?

[ruchele]

do they actually go through and look at all the paper ballots if there wasn't any question about who won a race?

[runawayjim]

just heard on abc6 that mancini is the new city council president, beating out lombardi... and lombardi made another awful speech to the abc6 people. good to know that he's no longer head of city council.

[Dan]

Certainly, I, in Providence (not paying Cranston taxes) was rather impressed by his set of bib brass ones with some of the union contracts, raising taxes even though it was unpopular, in order to bail out the city, which now i think is in pretty good shape and recently got an upgraded bond rating...

[jencoleslaw]

jencoleslaw is right! Holy smoke!

[Jerry2]

jencoleslaw is right! Holy smoke!

Do voters in RI even understand the concept of bonds? That they must be paid back by the people through taxes?

[MikeR]

the "informed" voters of RI.

[runawayjim]

funny, i'm informed and i voted in favor of almost all the bonds. we could just keep the status quo and not fix anything so that we can pay off our current debt... and then the whole state will go down the toilet. or we can borrow money, fix up things that need to be fixed, and attract people here both to visit and live, increasing the tax base, which will help balance out the budget and possibly lower taxes.

[Jerry2]

funny, i'm informed and i voted in favor of almost all the bonds.

[Cotuit]

I apologize. I forgot that your opininion was always 100% fact.

[runawayjim]

I apologize. I forgot that your opininion was always 100% fact.

[Jerry2]

I'm sorry, but regarless of what you say, not 100% of the people in Rhode Island are inbred f*cktards.

[runawayjim]

I never implied that, but I would say 60% or so..... roughly the % of people that voted for all these bonds....lack simple mathematical and problem-solving skills.

[matt]

I do believe this is the old fashioned republican/democrat debate: Spend or Save?

However, some argue that deficit spending creates a solid return on investment. The best one can do is to look at previous cases, but there is no real rule predicting what works for every case.

For RI, I would like to see us spend a little more now with hopes that it will draw more to the local economy. Will it? I don't know, thats a gamble. If we save our money instead, and don't invest in improvements, will people still come here to spend? Again, I don't know. But as a resident, I'd rather see the place look and feel up to date.