Reflections on Elections 2020

What happened the other night? This week?

A rejection of The Media. A rejection of The Pollsters.

The logistics of Voting have changed – forever.

Commitment that the United States is still basically a conservative country. Socialism is being rejected as best it can be within the system, with a rejection of Never Trumpers and AOC and The Squad’s agenda.

The Latino population is more conservative than it is progressive/liberal.

In Rhode Island…

We voted! Boy, did we vote….

According to the Board of Elections:

To date, results are posted and updated, here:

https://www.ri.gov/election/results/2020/general_election/

• Mail ballots tallied: 158,967
• Emergency in-person ballots tallied: 149,535

Today:
Remaining drop box ballots and any still uncounted mail ballots will be added to the Mail Ballots totals. Any precincts which failed to transmit their results on Election Night due to any technical issues will be added to the Election Day results.

November 7th – 9th
Provisional ballots results will be added to Polling Place Results.

November 10th
Deficient mail ballots cured by voters and due to the Board of Elections by November 10th will be added, prior to certification.

Featured Results:

Speaker of the House

Nicholas Mattiello has lost his position as a Cranston Representative, losing to Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung. Fung enters the State House as a freshman Republican, at a time when women Progressives are rising. About a month ago a list of Legislative Grants that benefitted Cranston groups and nonprofits was printed by the Providence Journal. Shocking, some said. But Cranston residents always tended to quietly say “thank you” to their powerful advocate for Rhode Island’s number two most powerful city. Granted the charges of corruption or good-boy deals had become a louder chorus of concern for many in the state lately And we knew there was trouble in the campaign when Mattiello’s wife did a YouTube campaign video and then Mattiello sat with his two adorable golden retrievers to tape a message, too. Some say Cranston took it on the chin to move the too-powerful Speaker out the door. No doubt Fenton-Fung will be on the hotseat to bring home the support for Cranston in the same way, if not a larger way, with her connections as the wife of the outgoing, popular mayor of Cranston, Allan Fung. In an afternoon press conference she said her agenda would be small business, the price of drugs, and the coronavirus.

Late morning on Wednesday, Speaker Mattiello released a statement:

Mattiello has a lucrative day job. He is an attorney with a very active private practice, and is a frequent presence in local courts. He joins other past Speakers of the House, including John Harwood, a busy attorney with his own firm of Harwood and Garland in Pawtucket; Joseph DeAngelis, senior counsel with Adler, Pollock and Sheehan in Providence. William Murphy is an attorney with the firm of Murphy & Fay, LLP. Gordon Fox, an attorney, resigned and was convicted of bribery, fraud, and filing a false tax return, and served 3 years in prison. He now works as a housing specialist for Crossroads Rhode Island.

New Political Power Couple?

Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung steps up and will take her role as a freshman Republican woman at the RI State House. With husband Fung not saying he would not be looking at the RI State House for a future gubernatorial run is this the new political power couple in RI?

New Speaker, step right up…

As members of the House of Representatives became aware that Speaker Mattiello would be voted out of office, the ProJo’s Kathy Gregg reports that a power group of legislators met at Gregg’s in Warwick. They proposed Rep. Shekarchi as speaker, and determined he had enough votes to take the Speakership.  A press release late on Wednesday listed 18 members of the House of Representatives who support his elevation, all women.

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Concurrently, there was an effort from the “Reform Coalition” who say they are both Democrats and Republicans. The goal of this coalition would be several things, but their main goal was to select the new Speaker.

Another Speaker candidate being proposed by the Women’s Democratic Caucus is Rep. Liana M. Cassar of Barrington, who is a strategy and operations consultant for the Global Health Media Project, and a press release went out saying it is time for women to lead, and “we must not accept old leadership’s suggestion for who is “next in line”. The issue should be settled after a meeting tonight.

On the Senate side, Sen. Gayle Goldin has said she may try to take over the Senate President position now held by Dominick J. Ruggerio.

Cranston Mayor – next up

Term limited Allan Fung leaves and City Councilman Ken Hopkins wins, keeping the city’s Republican leadership. With good relationships with those who had been interested in the mayoral position, perhaps we’ll see Maria Bucci, or Steve Stycos on a Hopkins administration.

A tearful acceptance speech by Hopkins noted the recent death of his wife and how he had wondered what his future path would look like – and has now found it.

Warwick Mayor

Independent Frank Picozzi is in the midst of one of the biggest upsets in Rhode Island in the Warwick Mayoral race, winning over Mayor Solomon. His campaign was bolstered by support of the local newspaper, reported to have been angered by Solomon for business decisions. A member of the Warwick School Committee, he bested incumbent Joe Solomon’s 40.3% vote with a 59.4% show.  

New Name for Rhode Island

We’re taking “… and Providence Plantations” out of the official name of the State of Rhode Island. It passed narrowly, not in every city/town, and in its second attempt. We wonder if there is an economic note on this to replace plaques, all kinds of printed goods, etc, as the full name lives in so many locations and formats.

Rhode Islanders never met a bond issue they didn’t like

Want money for infrastructure? Schools? Make up a bond issue and get it on the ballot. We think the chances of it getting passed must be well over 90%. For instance, in Cranston, all bond issues were passed, from schools to roads, to even a line item veto. Take a look at the link, at the bottom of this article, and see what you passed for your city.

We built [our] cities on…

A nationwide push to relax drug laws took a significant step forward Tuesday as five more states legalized marijuana for adults and voters made Oregon the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

The Oregon drug initiative will allow people arrested with small amounts of hard drugs to avoid going to trial, and possible jail time, by paying a $100 fine and attending an addiction recovery program. The treatment centers will be funded by revenues from legalized marijuana, which was approved in Oregon several years ago. Oregon also became the first state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms.

Presidential candidates each claim a path to victory – and the devil is always in the details.

Here are the results as of early this morning. The magic number of 270 should be reached today by Biden, with challenges set to go. The Senate if 50-50, has ties broken by the Vice-President. This would mean power would move to the Democrats, but Republicans are expected, when all is said and done, to continue to control the Senate.

As of this morning:

Lawsuits are flying and voting results are being challenged, as well as vote counting methods, and regulations around voting. A suit has been filed in Michigan claiming lack of legally required meaningful access. A recount in state of Wisconsin is expected, which is normal as the split is so small. After the President spoke of campaign fraud and how he had actually won the election, this morning he posted this on Twitter. If a path to victory cannot be found, then he will need to strategize a personal path to accepting defeat.

Candidate Joe Biden has now edited his website to say when everything is counted he will be victorious as President.

Twitter Censorship

It’s noteworthy to see Twitter so easily remove or add their own messages to Tweets making political commentary, especially after they were called on the carpet, along with Facebook and Google to answer for their actions. It’s as if the American people need help using their own good brains to figure things out, and not consider the source and decide for themselves.

The Latino Vote

We learned that on a national level there is no “Latino vote” and people of Latino heritage do not vote as a block. One can only look to the strong conservative base of the President in Florida. Locally, RI saw its first woman Latino Mayor, Mayor Maria Rivera of Central Falls.

Lessons learned?

Early voting is popular – but the structure doesn’t work (the way it is).

Calculating ballots doesn’t work (the way it is).

The Media failed us as they jumped over each other to “be first” rather than “be accurate”.

People deserve an election they can be confident in.

Polls were wrong from local to national prognostications.

People deserve an election that has timely – and accurate – results.

Malfunctioning flash drives overloaded with data, Rhode Island?  C’mon, that’s just sloppy and added unnecessary stress and delays in Cranston.

Over 12 legal cases are now underway in key states. Wisconsin recount requested, which would normally be done as the numbers are so close. The Republican party is also suing the state of Michigan for not providing count observation, which they are legally approved to do. Legal challenges in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Could be the beginning of a long week, weeks, or even months. The process must play out. Young voters won’t remember “hanging chads” in Florida, but older folks will and we seem to be about to go down a road like that – or longer – if efforts to question results continue as they appear they will.

Check Rhode Island results:

The first step in forming a relationship with your legislator is to know who they are.  Check here for full results of RI votes, bond issues, and questions.