Ian Donnis

Two of the expected Democratic candidates in the 2014 governor’s race share more than their allegiance to the Donkey Party: they each use a pollster affiliated with President Obama.

Is there a Rhode Island lawmaker willing to embrace the get-it-all-out-there ethos of Twitter once the General Assembly launches a new session in January?

One of the legislature’s leading tweeters, Jon Brien, won’t be back after losing a write-in campaign to Woonsocket firefighter Stephen Casey. And Brien recently deactivated his Twitter handle (@RepJonDBrien50), as the ever-alert Chas Walker noticed.

Shake off the post-election week blues and get ready for the weekend. Your tips and email are welcome at idonnis (at) ripr (dot) org

Former RI political staffer Terry Donilon makes the case via op-ed in today’s Providence Journal that a constitutional convention would help move the state forward:

It would provide the avenue we need to create open and constructive dialogue about whether we actually need 39 cities and towns or if we could go with smaller, more effective government in the form of regional or county administration.

John Loughlin, one of the Rhode Island GOP’s strongest voices, says he doesn’t intend to seek the chairmanship of the state Republican Party.

The current chairman, Mark Zaccaria, plans to give up the post early next year, according to Anchor Rising’s Monique Chartier.

The emergence of super-lawyer David Boies in Rhode Island’s high-stakes pension fight — first reported yesterday by RIPR — was triggered by his interest in the even broader significance of the case.

Alison Frankel reports for Thomson Reuters:

Has there ever been a defeated presidential candidate any less gracious than Mitt Romney? Or has he been sucking on a lemon since his loss to President Obama last week?

In a conference call with large campaign donors Wednesday, the defeated Republican candidate blamed his loss on “big gifts’’ that the president has been giving out to “the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people’’ as well as to women during his first term.

Former House Majority Leader George Caruolo, who has re-emerged as a bigger force since Governor Lincoln Chafee took office, has been appointed by Chafee as head of the new state Board of Education.

The governor says this via news release:

Former state representative John Loughlin, who ran a spirited GOP campaign against David Cicilline in 2010 (see photo at left), says the RI GOP has to be more moderate to succeed in Rhode Island.

No, it’s not bill number 420.

State Representative Edith Ajello, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, plans to re-introduce a bill in the new legislative session to legalize recreational marijuana. (The legislation wound up being held for further study this year; House Minority Leader Brian Newberry was among the cosponsors.)

Reason.com has more on a related event: