Tagged: scott mackay

Could this really be happening or is it a trope straight out of the Groundhog Day movie? Talk that Vincent A. `Buddy’ Cianci may run again for mayor in  2014 is coursing through City Hall and sending shivers through some in Providence’s political hierarchy.

It would be preposterous to think that Cianci, convicted a decade ago of running the city as a criminal enterprise, could win a two-way race. And there is no way he could defeat Democratic Mayor Angel Taveras.

Rhode Island voters have twice turned down the chance to bring Las Vegas style casinos in the Ocean State. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay says things will probably be different this year.

Rhode Island once had a vigorous anti-casino movement whose members lobbied at the State House and campaigned across the state. Our state once had an anti-casino governor, Republican Lincoln Almond, who considered state promotion of gambling little more than a cheap tax on the poor. The state’s media, led by the Providence Journal, once editorialized against the expansion of gambling.

The ProJo, which is cutting employees once again, is really penny-pinching with this one. The state’s largest newspaper is ending the `Papers for Patients’  program, according to a letter from Lori Gardnier, director of consumer sales for the ProJo, to hospital officials.

As the weeks dwindle down toward the general election showdown, Mitt Romney seems to be running on empty. Romney’s dilemma is that he can’t seem to boast about his business or political career without chewing on his toes. The latest in a long string of incautious statements is that the middle class in the U.S. comprises those earning between $200,000 and $250,000 annually. This comes in the wake of the Olympics insult to the British and the swing and miss comments about the latest Middle East diplomatic mess.