Tag: Gina Raimondo

Image Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. • The Food and Drug Administration put electronic cigarette makers on notice to prove they can keep their devices away from minors. [Read the story] • A year after Puerto Rico, the Trump administration is preparing for a test of its ability to do better during Hurricane Florence. [Read the story] • Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island defeated a liberal challenger in a Democratic primary election, but she remains vulnerable in November. [Read the story] • Lawmakers dismissed a new White House effort to punish foreign election meddling as inadequate. [Read the story] • Scott Pruitt is in discussions to work as a consultant to the Kentucky coal mining tycoon Joseph W. Craft III. [Read the story] • Members of Congress pressed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to impose limits on the sale of certain technologies to Chinese companies amid human rights abuses. [Read the story] • The income of the median American household has finally rebounded from the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis.

Written by Olivia Paschal (@oliviacpaschal), Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey), and Madeleine Carlisle (@maddiecarlisle2) Today in 5 Lines Forecasters expect Hurricane Florence to make landfall around the North and South Carolina border and then stall in the region, which could produce catastrophic flooding and widespread power outages. Pope Francis has summoned bishops from around the world to a meeting in February to address the sexual abuse of minors. Just days after CEO Les Moonves left CBS amid allegations of sexual assault, Jeff Fager, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, is also leaving the network due to violations of company policy, CBS said. The Race We’re Watching Voters are headed to the polls in Rhode Island, where incumbent Gina Raimondo is running against former Rhode Island Secretary of State Matt Brown for the Democratic nomination. Brown has positioned himself as to the left of Raimondo, who is one of only two female Democratic governors in the country. Polls close at 8 p.m. E.T. Today on The Atlantic Economy Up, Trump Down: A strong August jobs report didn’t help President Trump’s approval rating, which dropped below 40 percent in three polls this week. (Olivia Paschal) When The Polls Are Wrong: From Andrew Gillum to Ayanna Pressley, pollsters have failed to predict a slew of upsets in Democratic primaries. (Elaine Godfrey) A Moral Catastrophe: A lawsuit filed against Michigan State University alleges that the university knew more about former sports doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of athletes than they let on. (Caroline Kitchener and Alia Wong) James Madison’s Nightmare: The factionalized, mob-driven political society we live in would have been abhorrent to the Founding Father, writes Jeffrey Rosen.

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.