Projo Politics Blog

Photo courtesy of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's office
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse standing on the edge of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, part of Greenland’s Ilulissat ice fjord.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse joined nine other senators on a two-day trip to Greenland to examine the effects of increasing global temperatures and to learn more about how the changing climate impacts the ice sheets and glaciers of the world’s largest island.

U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., ranking member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, co-led the weekend trip to Kangerlussuaq and Ilulissat on Greenland’s west coast.

In a statement issued today, Whitehouse said: “Greenland is our planet’s distant early warning system for the effects of climate change. To see firsthand the changes at the ice cap and to hear firsthand of hunters who can no longer take dog sleds out on the ice because it isn’t there, is a powerful reminder that this system is sending us a warning.

Participants visited the Kangia Ice Fjord near Illulissat on Saturday and toured iceberg-filled Disko Bay by boat on Sunday. The Kangia glacier, already one of the world’s fastest moving two decades ago, has doubled its speed since then, an acceleration scientists say is driven by rising global temperatures, according to the senator’s office.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed has no 2008 opponent in sight, but as is his custom, the Democrat is taking no chances when it comes to raising campaign money.

On Sunday, Robert E. Rubin, President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary, and Terry Murray, former chairman and CEO of Bank of America, are hosting a $1,000-per-person campaign fund-raiser at the home of Murray and his wife, Suzanne, on Whale Rock Road in Narragansett.

The list of sponsors is long and includes such Democratic Party stalwarts as former Providence Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., party activists Jack and Sara McConnell, lobbyists Gerry Harrington and Rick McAuliffe and a heavy sprinkling of business types: beer magnate Paul Moran, developer Jim Procaccianti, construction executive Paul Choquette, former state economic development director Mike McMahon, Tom Ryan, CEO of CVS, utility executive Mike Ryan, banker Merrill Sherman, Ann Szostak, a retired Bank of America executive, and lawyers Bernie Buonanno and Sally Dowling.

Reed is a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

No specific dollar goal has been set for the event, said Chip Unruh, a Reed spokesman. Unruh said only that Reed is looking for a “successful event.’’

-- Journal staff writer Scott MacKay

PROVIDENCE – The General Assembly has approved legislation to close a loophole in the state’s “Peeping Tom” law and to require all school districts in the state to provide dating violence education for middle and high school students.

The changes to the “Peeping Tom” law -- sponsored by Rep. Amy G. Rice, D-Portsmouth, Middletown, Newport – arose after a Middletown fitness club owner was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly watching a woman shower at his gym. The charges were dropped because Rhode Island’s old law applied only when the accused “enters upon the property of another.”

The legislation was altered after concerns raised in February at a House Judiciary Committee hearing that the bill not inadvertently apply to married couples or domestic partners.

The Lindsay Ann Burke Act -- sponsored by Sen. Beatrice A. Lanzi and Rep. Eileen S. Naughton – is named after a 23-year-old North Kingstown woman who was murdered in September 2005.

Burke’s former boyfriend, Gerardo E. Martinez, was sentenced in April to life without the possibility of parole after he was convicted for Burke’s murder -- the maximum penalty available in Rhode Island.

The new legislation requires school districts to develop model dating violence policies and to address incidents of dating violence involving students.

Approved by the General Assembly, both the Peeping Tom and Lindsay Ann Burke Act legislation now heads to the governor for his consideration.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

The state's candidates for governor were on similar paths today, as they campaigned around northern Rhode Island on the day before the election.

Governor Carcieri has been touring northern Rhode Island – “shaking hands with voters and making his presence felt throughout the state,” according to campaign spokesman Jeff Neal.

In Johnston, the incumbent Republican governor visited FM Global and planned to meet with parents at St. Rocco’s School, 931 Atwood Ave., this afternoon. He’s looking for “opportunities to meet with people who are going to decide the election tomorrow,” Neal said.

Carcieri’s Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, started today at a string of Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 44, from his home town of Glocester down to Providence, spokesman Adam Bozzi said. (Although Dunkin’ Donuts is the coffee choice of many Rhode Islanders, Fogarty’s not much of a coffee drinker, Bozzi said. He had a lot of tea and juice today.)

Fogarty visited a number of senior centers today, including in Burrillville, Pawtucket, West Warwick and Providence. He also went to the Providence Place mall with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Bozzi said.

Tomorrow morning, Carcieri will be voting at 9 at the Swift Gymnasium, 111 Peirce St. in his hometown of East Greenwich. Then, Neal expects him to spend most of the day touring voting places throughout the state.

Fogarty plans to vote tomorrow at 7 a.m. at the Glocester meal site, at 15 Terry Lane, Bozzi said. He’ll kick off the day in Glocester and the Blackstone Valley, but his campaign is still working out tomorrow’s schedule.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Teamsters Local 251 today announced its endorsement of Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse’s campaign for U.S. Senate.

Joseph J. Bairos, secretary-treasurer of Local 251, said in a news release that Whitehouse would be instrumental in the Senate in standing up to what he called the “Bush-Republican anti-worker” agenda.

“I’m proud to announce that Sheldon has our full support,” Bairos said. “Every day we are seeing the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Senate push for misguided priorities that ignore the needs of working families all across the country,” Bairos said.

Teamsters Local 251 has about 5,000 members in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

-- Journal staff writer Scott MacKay

PROVIDENCE – U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee plans to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. today outside JKL Engineering, the company owned by Antonio R. Freitas, the Providence businessman who worked undercover for the FBI in the City Hall corruption case that toppled former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci.

Chafee’s campaign says they’re planning to discuss “breaking developments that further demonstrate Sheldon Whitehouse’s record of incompetence as U.S. Attorney and Attorney General.”

Freitas said this morning that the Chafee campaign called yesterday and asked if they could hold the press conference on the sidewalk outside JKL Engineering, at 945 Westminster St.

“My answer was, ‘It’s public property,’ … ” he said. “ `Go right ahead and do it. It’s on the sidewalk.’ I don’t care.”

However, he asked them to hold the news conference on the sidewalk in front of the neighboring building, which he also owns, at 935 Westminster St. because he has tenants in 945 who need to come and go. In the announcement issued by Chafee’s campaign, they say the event is in front of 945 Westminster St.

Freitas said he had been debating whether he should hold his own news conference – and decided during a phone call with projo.com that he will do so – right after Chafee’s. He said he will talk about Whitehouse, Chafee’s Democratic challenger.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

PROVIDENCE – Democratic Mayor David N. Cicilline leads his Republican opponent, Daniel Harrop, by 66 percent to 13 percent, with 21 percent undecided, according to a new citywide survey conducted by researchers at Brown University.

That’s based on polling data from 317 voters who said they were likely to vote in this November’s election, just two weeks away. The survey was conducted at Brown on Oct. 14-17 by Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and the John Hazen White Sr. Public Opinion Laboratory, and Marion Orr, the Frederick Lippitt Chair of Public Policy, Political Science, and Urban Studies.

The survey is based on a citywide random sample of 403 Providence residents. Overall, the poll had a margin of error of about plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Sixty-four percent of those polled believe the city is headed in the right direction, while 23 percent think it is off on the wrong track. Sixty-two percent believe that Cicilline is doing a good job handling his position, while 21 percent rate him only fair, and 6 percent say he is doing a poor job.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson