My take on the news

Healey’s entry just what Gina could use

Lonnie Barham
Posted 9/17/14

WELCOME BACK “COOL MOOSE”! Robert Healey, former candidate for governor and lieutenant governor on the Cool Moose Party ticket, is now running for governor as the candidate of the Moderate Party …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
My take on the news

Healey’s entry just what Gina could use

Posted

WELCOME BACK “COOL MOOSE”! Robert Healey, former candidate for governor and lieutenant governor on the Cool Moose Party ticket, is now running for governor as the candidate of the Moderate Party after its previous candidate dropped out due to illness. Does he have a shot to win?  Probably not.  Will he draw attention to his political philosophy and pull votes away from the two major party candidates.  You betcha!

But which major candidate is this a gift for? You got it; it’s Raimondo. Just like Clay Pell was a gift for Raimondo in the Democratic primary, Healey is a gift for her in the general election. Clearly, with his small government philosophy, Healey will draw votes from Republican Fung since Democrats seldom want to reduce government’s footprint while Republicans do. Indeed, the GOP has filed a complaint with the Board of Elections in an attempt to disqualify Healey from the election.

Healey’s political philosophy can be summed up succinctly.  He is a small government advocate who wants to rid state government of its widespread waste and get rid of our state’s over regulation of business. 

Healey said of his two opponents:  “You can’t just continue as Gina and Allan want to do.  You can’t just say you want to grow your way out.  It’s putting new tires on a vehicle that needs a new engine.”

Rhode Islanders who are in favor of smaller government, ridding government of waste and abuse, and forcing government to cut back on its red-tape restraint on businesses, are all saying,

“Welcome back, Cool Moose!”

WARWICK MAYORAL RACE: Mayor Scott Avedisian handily defeated his Republican opponent, Stacia Petri, in the Republican primary for mayor. However, Petri’s message gained traction with a lot of Warwick voters. The race surely told Avedisian that he must concentrate more on holding down tax increases and must try harder to cut expenses.

With Democratic mayoral candidate John Kirby getting 1,300 more votes in his primary than Avedisian got in his, in November Avedisian will need every one of the 1,600 plus Republican and independent votes that went to Petri in the primary.

Avedisian has been a solid, responsible mayor in most respects and he is smart enough to learn from his experiences and become an even better mayor.  However, the question is: Did the rhetoric on display during the Republican primary - some entirely accurate, some politically slanted - register so much with Democratic voters that it will cost Avedisian his job in November?  Avedisian has a lot of work to do between now and then to convince Democrats and unaffiliated voters that he deserves another term.

UNIONS HATE FUNG, PUT HOLD ON RAIMONDO ENDORSEMENT: The AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization that represents 250 public and private unions in Rhode Island, voted last week to oppose Allan Fung for governor and to take a “wait and see” attitude toward endorsing Gina Raimondo. 

To most Rhode Islanders who voted for Fung or Raimondo, the unions’ opposition to their candidate is a good thing.  Unions’ strangle-hold on state politicians is the reason most folks voted for Fung or Raimondo.  That’s why they didn’t vote for the union sycophant Clay Pell.  

So, Allan Fung should be proud that unions hate him and have voted to oppose him.  It’s a badge of honor that will get him even more votes in November.  Gina is benefiting also by the unions holding off on endorsing her.  While they don’t hate her, they distrust her. 

Of course, the unions will eventually endorse Raimondo because she is a Democrat.  Although she is a fiscally moderate Democrat, she is a Democrat nevertheless and unions have always been married to big-spending, big-taxing Democrats.  In this case, they will just have to accept a candidate who may hold the line on increasing spending and taxes. 

RAIMONDO STILL A UNION BACKER: Although she was opposed by public employee and teacher unions because of her pension reform actions, Rhode Islanders shouldn’t be fooled into thinking Gina Raimondo is not a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who is willing to kiss unions’ behinds when necessary to promote her political career. Now that she has proved unions no longer rule Rhode Island, she is ready to do whatever is necessary to gain their support in the general election.

At the AFL-CIO convention last week where she was trying to gain the organization’s endorsement against the opposition of its members, Raimondo emphatically stated (or should I say schmoozed), “Let me tell you what’s not going to work.  It’s not going to work to make Rhode Island a right-to-work state.” 

She couldn’t be more mistaken!  Southern states have already proven her wrong.  When it costs manufacturers 30 percent more to produce a product in union states than it does in right-to-work states, where do manufacturers take their jobs?  They pull them out of union states and take them to right-to-work states, of course. Get smart, Gina! Rhode Islanders will support you more when you aren’t kissing the unions’ derrieres.

FUNG WILL HAVE HARD ROW TO HOE: About 123,000 voters cast votes in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, while only about 31,000 voted in the Republican primary.  Though many voters were unaffiliated, the numbers dramatically show how imbalanced voter registration and voter sentiment are in Rhode Island.  We are a Democratic state in both voter registration and, seemingly, in the political philosophy of unaffiliated voters.  The numbers don’t bode well for Fung.

Can Fung win in November?  Certainly, he can.  Republican governors Lincoln Almond and Donald Carcieri proved that a Republican can win the governor’s race in a heavily Democratic Rhode Island. 

The problem for Fung is that his Democratic opponent, Gina Raimondo, has already proven that she is not an average “tax and spend” Democrat - the kind that Rhode Island’s unaffiliated voters have voted against in past elections.  She has demonstrated that she is willing to buck the Democratic trend and take conservative fiscal stands - evidenced by her pension reform. 

While Fung will have a hard time painting her as a big spending liberal, her statement about our dismal economy that “we can’t cut our way out of this or tax our way out of this” seems to show that she wants to maintain the status quo without cutting spending or increasing taxes.  Additionally, she opposes making Rhode Island a “right to work” state.

Much like his Republican counterpart in Warwick, Mayor Fung has been a solid, competent mayor.  His conservative fiscal philosophy has served him well in Cranston and would serve him well as governor.  His challenge is to convince statewide voters that his philosophy is superior to Raimondo’s.  It’s doable but, in a Democratic state, it’s going to be a hard row to hoe for Fung.

VOTER ID OPPONENTS STRETCHING LOGIC: The ACLU and other opponents of Rhode Island’s voter ID law are claiming it doesn’t work, that it disenfranchises voters who don’t have IDs. They use as evidence the fact that in the primary election one voter was denied and two were delayed in getting provisional ballots - ballots cast by voters without IDs that will be counted if their signatures match their voter registration records.

Three errors by poll volunteers affected three votes out of more than 150,000 votes cast.  That’s an error rate of .00002 percent.  Pharmacists who mix potentially deadly medicines have error rates ten times higher.  Yet voter ID opponents are using three poll volunteers’ errors as justification to repeal a law that works?  It’s an asinine argument that is totally illogical.

OBAMA FINALLY DECIDES TO ACT: Many Americans think it is too little, too late, but President Obama has finally found a bit of gutsy DNA within his system and decided to arm moderate Syrian rebels and use stronger military force against the terrorist Islamic State that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria and threatens to launch terror attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

For almost three years the moderate rebels in Syria have sought U.S. arms and training.  Obama has refused.  For almost three years the moderate rebels have asked the U.S. to strike dictator Assad’s forces in Syria.  Obama has refused.  For almost three years, the Islamic State terrorists in Syria have fought the moderate rebels, almost obliterating the moderate’s capabilities.  Obama consistently refused to help the moderates. 

Now, after almost three years of doing nothing to help the situation in Syria and Iraq, Obama has seen the Islamic State take over much of Syria and Iraq, has watched it wantonly kill innocents wherever it goes, and hears it  threatening to send terrorists to Europe and the U.S. to attack us. 

Finally, after three long years of doing nothing, Obama is growing a backbone!  Many believe it is simply to help Democrats win reelection in November.  Regardless, if Obama’s past timid actions are a portent, this move may falter soon and, once again, prove too little, too late. 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Moderate Party candidate for governor, Robert Healey, formerly of the Cool Moose Party, says he will not accept campaign contributions because anyone who gives a candidate a lot of cash expects something in return: “To tell me otherwise is like spitting in my face and telling me it’s raining.” Expect many more outstanding quotes from this iconoclastic idealist.

Comments

4 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • Unionthug

    Why is this guy even writing. One side full of hot air view...

    Thursday, September 18, 2014 Report this

  • TheDeal

    High utility costs in the Northeast are the biggest factor in manufacturers decisions to locate elsewhere. Look no further tha Volkswagen's being indifferent to whether or not the labor force in it's new Souther plant were unionized or not. It was only thanks to lies told by union hating Republican lawmakers that made it seem otherwise. Republicans hate unions because they make it harder for big business to fleece it's middle class workers.

    Thursday, September 18, 2014 Report this

  • kathye

    There is also an independent candidate running in Warwick's Mayoral race. That was not mentioned here....

    Tuesday, September 23, 2014 Report this

  • ..

    I'll be doing a WRITE-IN vote for STACIA PETRI

    Tuesday, October 7, 2014 Report this