Yes, David Segal officially kicked off his campaign a few weeks ago on a cold, drizzly sidewalk in front of the Bank of America, but last Wednesday’s Drinking Liberally at the Wild Colonial might have been Dave’s actual coming out party. For one thing, there was beer and the weather was awesome, and reporters had a better opportunity to meet Mr. Segal and have him flesh out his record and goals for the future. (Reporters keep asking Dave about his ’story’ I guess so they can shoehorn it into a familiar narrative. They seem disappointed to find that he is neither the son of a Kenyan goatherd nor is he a dilettante, son of privilege playing at noblesse oblige. He is somewhere in between — he just happens to care because he’s a good person and this is confounding to some people.)

Segal spoke to reporters outside the WC on that summery evening. Ian Donnis writing for WRNI noted his unconventional style. Today, Edward Fitzpatrick writing for The Providence Sunday Journal asks, “ How will Segal play in Woonsocket? Or Barrington, for that matter”. I can speak to part of that. I have been to a few events in his prior campaigns in neighborhoods where constituents are not the young, liberal, educated idealists who seem to be viewed as his political ‘burden’. He has represented neighborhoods with a large blue-collar constituency, struggling these last years just to keep their heads above water. And they love him. He has answered their calls and solved problems and gotten things done.

I can’t get a handle on the tone I should take here at all, but here goes. Apparently I missed one of the most important categories in my recent post about The Providence Phoenix 2010 ‘Best of’ poll — that being ‘Best Politician’. Because frankly . . . who would even think to look for such a thing? But now I find that our very own Dave Segal is listed and I certainly can’t ignore such a thing. So on the one hand, I don’t want to be too too jokey here because Dave really is the best. On the other hand, he is modest to a fault and prefers to have the spotlight on his various causes and initiatives, not himself. On the third hand he doesn’t take himself too seriously because he is not a pompous ass and likes to have fun. (For more info on Rhode Island’s District 2 Representative David Segal go here.)

In conclusion — he may not care about these things, but I do. Vote for Dave! He’s the best!

(Your other choices will be Kennedy, Langevin, Whitehouse, Reed, and ‘write-in’. Voting ends Thursday, do it now.)

We don’t even pretend to ‘report’ on this stuff really so we kind of haven’t. The Rhode Island political scene in the last two days has been such a musical chairs melee I wouldn’t know where to start. And you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some guy named Lynch running to file his papers. The place to keep up with this is, as always, Rhode Island’s Future. Our own Dave is conspicuous by his absence and I assume is hiding under a blanket watching Battlestar Gallactica waiting for the dust to settle. Unless. . . unless!!!!

There’s nothing like the new year to get you thinking of clean slates and fresh starts. And then comes the morning ProJo with news of the Providence mayoral race and who do we have taking a run at the mayor’s job? Lombardi? Paolino? We have in Providence a vital and robust political scene with talented, young activists and players and this is who we get? I’m not all that unhappy with the current mayor, so I’m not too upset. Still, I would love to see some of the newcomers jump in and shake things up. I know you’re out there.

No surprise to Rhode Islanders, but notable that the 2010 Rhode Island Governor’s race is already getting some national punditry, from both sides of the political aisle:

…there is one independent candidate both parties point to as not just a spoiler, but as a potential winner: Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican senator seeking the governor’s office in Rhode Island. “In the world of who is real and serious and credible, it’s Chafee,” Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, said Wednesday at an event previewing 2010 races sponsored by The Hotline. “In general, [independent candidates] are low-impact. In Rhode Island, that’s a very high impact.”

Added Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, Chafee is “who we see as the general election competition.”

Still too early to call, but 2010 promises to be a particularly interesting election cycle.

Join the debate over elitism at Brown, Obama’s earmark-laden spending bill, and John Edwards’ snoozefest of a speech…

Visit www.browncontemporary.org to stream and download the latest Brown Contemporary PODCASTS! Our Political Roundtable podcasts feature the Contemporary staff and guests commenting on the latest campus, local, and national news.

The Brown Contemporary, Brown University’s only progressive political magazine, publishes twice a semester. Look out for our March/April issue!

Providence is a haven for weirdness and weirdos.

This is what makes the town so great.

Where else can your day start with a phone call from a Cheyenne “hobo,” checked in to the RI Hospital for a suicide attempt, and end with synth rock played in a downtown “gay” bar full of rockers, trannies, bears, and at least one WASPY dude.

J.W. was beat to hell from a mugging — no joke, he has the scars to prove it — and called from the psych ward, which he said, under his breath, as he assessed the likelihood that I would actually follow through on my promise of sending him back to Billings, where his tribe could take care of him, was partly to get him out of the cold, apparently related to the failure of the sober house to keep him so.

J.W. is big.

And real.

He gave me a dream catcher when I loaded him with provisions, with a medicine stone, that he said he made for me, as soon as he got my email telling me I’d buy his ticket home.

Having grown up with a master prevaricator alcoholic brother, I have a strange yin/yang revulsion/predilection for the grand deception. I’m not sure what to do with the gift made by a man whose own medicine is made of stuff concocted by white men to keep us all under control in a world.

Not in control.

Did it work for him?

more »

From Brian Hull:

We will soon have a new president and several new faces in the RI General Assembly, but where do we go from here?

Come join the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America (RIPDA) for an important organizational membership meeting on Tuesday, November 18^th at 7pm. We will meet at the Mt. Pleasant branch library, 315 Academy Avenue in Providence. We’ll be meeting in the community room in the basement of the library. The phone number for the library is 401-455-8105. There is always plenty of on-street parking available at this location. If anyone needs a ride or wants to carpool let me know

We will be discussing future activities and strategy to build a stronger progressive movement in the state and address the profound problems which we are facing. The opportunities that we currently have to reshape the country and the state will soon diminish and in order to implement our strategy and influence our elected officials to fix the problems we face, we need to develop our plan for the coming two years. If anyone has any topics for discussion, please let me know before the meeting.

Magic Lantern Cinema presents
THE AFTERMATH SHOW
Post-Election Politics, Economics, and Violence
Curated by Paige Sarlin

Wednesday November 19, 2008
9:30 p.m.
Cable Car Cinema
204 S. Main St.
Providence, RI
Admission $5

There’s going to be quite a reckoning over the next months and even years as the fall-out from Neoliberalism, the War on Terror, and de-regulation becomes increasingly unavoidable. In anticipation of that accounting, this collection of films asks a series of questions about some of the basic underpinnings of our American system– the ones that don’t change no matter who is in office. Circling around the very notion of “AFTER,” these films and video consider what happens in the wake of an historic event.

more »

I’ll just link to Pat’s post.  But our previously-expressed concerns that the Senate would lurch rightward have been allayed with the ascension of Paiva-Weed and Connors to the leadership posts.

Matt has a state-by-state map of poll closing times. (Um… can we note how gross it is that Indiana’s polls close at 6pm local time?) What the hell, we’ll just borrow the borrowed image:

He also posts on elections of note in Rhode Island. If you want to help out, you should call the Progressive Leadership Fund at 463-5368.

As Jess mentioned, we encourage you to vote YES on Question 2. We also encourage you to vote YES on Question 1, because we’d otherwise lose about $440 million in federal transportation funds. But man do we wish the state would wean itself off of bonds and borrowing. (Though this isn’t the worst time to bet that the feds will be less austere in coming years.)

Matt Jerzyk’s posted his list of the 10 most important RI legislative races. There are a lot of open seats this year, giving progressives a chance to pick up several key seats.

There will be phonebanks in support of many of these candidates next week. Please come! No experience required!

• Monday, October 20 from 5:00-8:30pm at Obama/RI Dem Party HQ at 321 South Main Street in Providence
• Tuesday, October 21 from 5:00-8:30pm at Obama/RI Dem Party HQ at 321 South Main Street in Providence
• Wednesday, October 22 from 5:00-8:30pm at 99 Bald Hill Road in Cranston
• For those of you in or near Aquidnick Island, Rep. Amy Rice has phonebanks scheduled for Tuesday Oct. 21st and Thursday October 23rd from 5:30 to 7:30pm at 2952 East Main Rd in Portsmouth.

Please contact Dan at danbass33 at gmail.com to schedule a time to volunteer or just show up at any of the volunteer opportunities listed and you will be set up.

A slice of presidential politics will play out in Rhode Island this afternoon and you are invited. Five presidential hopefuls will find out where they will appear on November’s ballot.

Secretary of State Mollis has scheduled a ballot placement lottery for 5 p.m. in the State Room. We will borrow a machine from the R.I. Lottery to determine the order in which the third-party presidential candidates will appear on the ballot in the state’s November 4 election.

Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Ralph Nader of the Independent Party, Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party and Roger Calero of the Socialist Workers Party amassed enough signatures to appear on the November ballot along with Barack Obama and John McCain

By state law, third-parties appear on the ballot after Rhode Island’s two recognized political parties. As a result of a ballot placement lottery held July 18, Democrat Barack Obama will appear first on the ballot and Republican John McCain will appear second.

In a scene familiar to Rhode Islanders who watch the state’s daily lottery numbers selected on television, each candidate will be assigned a numbered, white plastic ball. Candidates will appear on the ballot in the order that the balls float to the top of the machine.

Rock out and rock the vote this Sunday at the WBRU Dunkin Donuts Summer Concert Series.

Volunteers from the Secretary of State’s office will spend the afternoon on the Providence waterfront registering fans of Paramore, Jack’s Mannequin, Phantom Planet and Paper Route.

The voter registration drive is part of our push to get younger voters to the polls in 2008. The goal is to improve turnout among 18-to-24-year-olds leading up to the 2008 elections.

In order to register to vote, you must turn 18 by November 4, be a U.S. citizen and a resident of Rhode Island and have a valid social security number or Rhode Island driver’s license.

Catch us at the concert this Sunday or download a voter registration form. For more info, contact me at 222-4293 or cbarnett@sec.state.ri.us.

On my way to work this morning I noticed many campaign banners hanging on highway overpasses, but none was more striking than the one proudly displayed over 95S in the the North End of Providence. “Vote Black Power–It’s Time,” read the message on what, ironically, appeared to be a white sheet. At first I thought, well, there’s a strong statement. On momentary reflection, however, I began to think that in this primary season’s atmosphere of skewed racial politics, it was probably some shady Hillary operative, or at least some Hillary supporter gone way off the reservation, who put this up in order to scare white voters. I grew up in North Providence–not known as a bastion of racial enlightenment–and in my head I could hear many an NP voter seeing that and saying, “See, now why does he have to make it a black thing? That’s why I’m nervous about voting for him.” Brash display of black solidarity, or more passive-aggressive Clintonian chicanery? Sadly, we may never know for sure.

I’m feeling pretty pooped out on politics right now, but if you’re not, there’s some big stuff going on:

• Ted Kennedy, in support of Barack Obama, at URI at 12:30 today. (Remember to ask him why he’s trying to kill Cape Wind.)
• The Guild Follies, tonight at 7pm
• Barack Obama, on Saturday at noon, at RIC. (Yes, on the very same stage Hillary spoke from last week…)