Tag: Allan Fung

Lincoln Chafee, left, debates Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006. On Wednesday, a series of events unfolded that rewrote the outlook for November and shook up one of the state’s largest cities. On the face of it, it was all very good news for Democratic Gov. You could even call it a hat trick: 1. Former Secretary of State Matt Brown announced he will not run as an independent for governor, but as a Democrat. Lincoln Chafee, no fan of Ms. Raimondo, stunned everybody by expressing an interest in running in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, not for governor. That’s one less headache for the governor, and one more for incumbent Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who already potentially faces a reasonably strong Republican challenger in former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders. Virtually all of the party’s establishment, including Governor Raimondo and Senator Whitehouse, lined up behind Mrs. Clinton. (She ended up getting more Rhode Island delegates than Senator Sanders because of the party’s rules.) Mr. Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat, noted that Sanders supporters are upset with Senator Whitehouse for backing Ms. Clinton in 2016.

Two surprises have punctuated Rhode Island's 2018 gubernatorial race so far -- Joe Trillo's decision to run as an independent rather than a Republican, and now, Matt Brown's plan to run as an independent after a long absence from the state's Democratic politics. Brown's emergence is a bookend to Trillo's move, since each candidate threatens to siphon votes from a different side of the political spectrum, potentially having an outsized influence on the final vote in November. Raimondo's 37 percent approval rating reflect how she hasn't connected with Rhode Islanders after more than three years in office. Meanwhile, Fleming used bold print to highlight this message: "It should be noted that one out of five independent voters are not sure on who they would support"; 3) 69 percent of respondents were not familiar enough with Morgan, and 67 percent with Joe Trillo, to say if they would support them; 4) Raimondo is viewed favorably by 50 percent of respondents, 13 points better than her job approval rating. Brown has been back in Rhode Island for five years, and he's kept a low profile on local politics during that time, so there's an opportunistic element to his emergence this week. But the WPRI poll indicates just a 29.6 percent approval rating for Trump in Rhode Island, while an overwhelming 81 percent of women give him a negative job rating. And prince Regunberg is no Democrat. But even though Maine voters approved runoff voting in 2016, incumbents have been fighting the effort. Were Maine to move to a ranked-choice voting system, independents and third-party candidates could run without being spoilers, giving voters more choices and making for a more vibrant political debate." There are six months until Rhode Island's September 12 primary, so watch for things to heat up in the primary between Lt. Gov.