Tagged: scott mackay

Thoughts as the days dwindle to hours leading to Tuesday’s election:

Presidential race. The earliest indication from a swing state will likely be New Hampshire, which is in the eastern time zone and is the only battleground state in New England. Crucial to an Obama victory is a big run up along the Connecticut River, from Keene to Hanover, then winning Concord and the Sea Coast communities. Romney must do well among conservative Democrats in Salem and Manchester and score substantially  in traditional GOP areas, such as the Lakes Region and along the I-93 corridor.

Rhode Island political cognoscenti know John Rollins as the man who in 1986 won one of the biggest political upsets in Providence history. That was the year that he knocked over urban boss Lloyd Griffin for city council in a ward that covered the heart of  South Providence. Rollins, a football standout at La Salle Academy and the University of Rhode Island, was, along with his wife Julia Rollins,  a longtime civil rights activist in Rhode Island’s African-American community. But Rollins has traded his political hat and football helmet for a chef’s toque.

Tomorrow (Nov. 6th) is election day, America’s grand tribute to democracy. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay wonders why Rhode Island is so far behind most of the country in promoting voter turnout.

The 1960 presidential election remains etched in American political annals. It signaled the ascension of two young World War II veterans to the pinnacle of national leadership.  One of those candidates, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy, would make history by ending the exclusion of Roman Catholics from the Oval Office.

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.

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.

Republican 1st District Congressional candidate Brendan Doherty is fond of railing against big government Democrats in Washington, D.C., but he sure has done well by the policies of the Rhode Island Democrats who have dominated our State House for eons.

Mark Binder has run a vigorous and aggressive campaign for state representative against House Speaker Gordon Fox  D-Providence, on the city’s East Side. Binder deserves credit for his focus on Fox’s record and for turning up the spotlight on the things about the State House that makes voters’ blood boil – the wee hours votes on the controversial legislation, the 38 Studios fiasco, the lack of  transparency  that too often is the rule, rather than the exception, on Smith Hill.