On Politics

Governor Lincoln Chafee is declining to talk specifics about whether his next budget will include revenue increases – a.k.a. tax hikes.

The governor offered this comment during an interview last week (excerpts of which will be broadcast on RIPR Thursday morning):

“The budget will come out in January … we’re still putting it together.”

January 1 is all about new beginnings, and that’s when the swearing-in has been scheduled for James Diossa, the mayor-elect of Central Falls.

Probate judge Bruce Sawyer will administer the oath of office during a 6 pm ceremony at Central Falls High School.

Diossa won decisive victories in a two-step mayoral election process. He succeeds Charles Moreau, who pleaded guilty to corruption and is due to be sentenced February 12.

The ProJo continues to bleed print subscribers. According to the latest numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, crunched by WPRI’s Ted Nesi, the daily Journal sold just 83,733 print copies on weekdays between April and Sept. 30, the period covered by the latest report. That is down by 6,352 from the figures reported 12 months ago.

On Sundays, the most lucrative advertising day of the week for newspapers, circulation dropped to 117,784, a decline of 11,240 since the September, 2011 report. Saturday circulation was also down.

On the same day that the National Republican Congressional Committee put out another attack ad targeting long-ago criminal-defense work by David Cicilline, Brendan Doherty’s campaign offers an upbeat spot with the candidate and his wife.

First, the NRCC commercial:

Now, the Doherty campaign spot:

The federal government is mired in gridlock and it now takes a super-majority to pass legislation in the U.S. Senate. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay considers Rhode Island’s U.S. Senate race as Washington, D.C. slouches toward the fiscal precipice.

That Washington, D.C. is “broken’’ has become the campaign cliché of 2012, shouted across the land by both Democrats and Republicans. The combatants in House and Senate seats from California to Cranston point fingers of blame at each other like school children tattling at recess.

The once firmly Republican editorial page of the Providence Journal is going in a different direction after backing a string of Democratic candidates, throwing its support to Brendan Doherty in the down-to-the-wire race with David Cicilline.

Doherty’s campaign, via a news release, offers this commentary:

Providence Journal managers have closed the door on cost-saving talks with the Providence Newspaper Guild and plan to move ahead with layoffs in the first week of November, according to Guild president John Hill.

Hill says a ”very bad” October revenue report made management unwilling to offer a guarantee of no layoffs in 2013. Management plans to eliminate enough positions to cut spending by $1.2 million.

Batten down the hatches for Sandy and get ready for another version of my Friday column. Thanks for reading, and feel free to send me tips, comments, and the like: idonnis (at) ripr (dot) org. Let’s get to it: