A rich race for a Congressional seat
Jennifer Lawless, assistant professor of political science, announced July 12 she had raised over $110,000 in the second quarter of 2006 for her run for Rhode Island's District 2 seat in the House of Representatives. Her total receipts now stand at $264,322. Incumbent Jim Langevin, against whom Lawless will run in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, still has almost twice as much money for his campaign, with $501,929 to date. Their platforms vary in a number of ways, including their stances on abortion rights, which Lawless vocally supports. Planned Parenthood has endorsed her, and Sarah Weddington, the lawyer responsible for winning the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case in favor of abortion rights, was the keynote speaker for a Lawless fundraiser in March.
Kennedy untouchable?
The state Democratic Party endorsed Patrick Kennedy for re-election to his District 1 U.S. House of Representatives seat in May. The Congressman was at the Mayo Clinic, undergoing treatment for addiction to prescription drugs after a late-night car accident in Washington, D.C. earlier that month. Kennedy's re-election seems likely despite his involvement in the accident and subsequent admission of addiction to pain medication.
U.S. Senate primaries up for grabs
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75 will face off against Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey in the Republican primary on September 12. Laffey has gained attention sounding off on alleged government overspending, sending periodical "Taxpayer Rip Off of the Week" releases to his online mailing list. Despite the exposure, in a Brown University poll conducted by Professor of Political Science Darrell West and the Taubman Center for Public Policy on June 26-28, 55 percent of Rhode Islanders said they would vote for Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse if he faced off against Laffey in the November election. 25 percent said they would vote for the Cranston mayor. 38 percent of Rhode Islanders said they would vote for Whitehouse if he ran against Chafee, whom 37 percent of those polled said they would support. The race is considered one of the most viable chances for Democrats to gain a Senate seat in 2006. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., endorsed Whitehouse last week. A poll released July 14 by the independent pollster Rasmussen Reports finds Whitehouse has a 5-point lead over Chafee, 46 percent to 41. Whitehouse recently surpassed the Republican incumbent in fundraising.
A scramble for Segal's City Council spot
Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal announced in May he will run for the office of state representative for District 2, leaving the battle for his position on the council unpredictable. Ward 1 encompasses most of Brown's campus and Thayer Street below Angell Street. Ethan Ris '05, now a schoolteacher in Providence, won an endorsement from the Ward 1 Democratic committee. Segal announced in May his endorsement of Ris' Democratic challenger Seth Yurdin, a 38-year-old lawyer and activist who moved to the East Side from Boston in 1999.
Candidates violate potentially unconstitutional campaign sign law
City Council candidates around Providence criticized each other in the Providence Journal last week for violating a municipal law that forbids campaign yard signs from being displayed more than 60 days before an election. The law, according to candidates, has never been enforced. Ward 2 City Councilwoman Rita Williams was among those complaining that her opponent Cliff Wood had jumped the gun on front-lawn campaigning. The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union sent the city solicitor a letter July 13 alleging the law is a violation of free speech and threatening legal action.
Lawless walks, Sheeler takes the bus
In January, Lawless walked across the state of Rhode Island gathering signatures for her campaign. Now U.S. Senate candidate Carl Sheeler is attempting to use public transportation to gain some ground on his Democratic opponent Sheldon Whitehouse. Sheeler will take public transportation all over Providence to "talk to passengers about their lives and concerns," he wrote in a press release.
