I’ve always questioned Governor Chafee’s political acumen. He is the insider’s insider with connections to many powerful people. There’s no doubting that. What I see from time to time is an inability to see what lays ahead and possible pratfalls.

Enter his sales tax proposal (and budget).

GoLocal reported that Speaker Fox has essentially called it Dead On Arrival. Nice, just a few weeks after the Chafee team put out the proposal the Speaker, whom you’d think the Governor would have conversed with prior to his budget announcement, calls it dead.

Chafee sought to unite Rhode Island and so far he’s doing a great job at it. Democrats hate his budget, Republicans hate it too. Score one for Chafee!

I mentioned this last night on A Lively Experiment, that Chafee angry at people who complain as not offering solutions is like the Titanic sinking with the captain suggesting taking all the chairs on board to use them to blug the leak. When no one else offers an alternative, he angrily walks away. The problem? Sales tax isn’t a solution and neither will chairs stacked together plug a hole that grows daily.

Chafee is going to need to return to his Republican roots if he wants to solve this problem. His friends on the left are going to suggest increased taxes, but the problem is average Rhode Islanders have faced hefty property tax increases for years and will face even more this year. The taxpayers are about thisclose to revolting.

I’m serious, I do not think we’re far from folks just saying no to increased taxes.

And, in my opinion, Chafee has overplayed his hand. He didn’t win with 60+% of the vote in November. Instead, over 60% voted for someone else. He has zero credibility with Republicans and Democrats aren’t going to give him as much help as you’d think considering they want to lay claim to the turnaround and put forth a solid candidate in 2014 to take Chafee down. So, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place with not much in the way of political capital.

I wonder if he’ll complain or do something about it. Your move, Governor.

LOL.

Seriously, though, today I taped a show, A Lively Experiment. It airs on PBS 36 on Thursday’s and Sunday’s. I thought I performed fairly decent given this was my first time on tv in years. Sure, I did a radio show back in college, but I’ve never been on t.v. like this.

It was a pretty cool experience and I’m looking forward to doing this again (GoLocal personalities rotate on the show) and I thought it was great that such a personality as Scott MacKay was also on the show. His personality, made things a lot more comfortable for me.

Dave Lyman and Mark Murphy seemed like old pros and it was great to meet both of them. And the elder statesment of them all, Jim Hagan, was quite lively.

All-in-all a good time. And to Governor Chafee, we need better solutions!! I offered one such solution on the show.

I like Steve Laffey. I think he was a great Mayor in Cranston. I think he would have made a better Senator than Chafee or Whitehouse. I was probably the only black dude in 2006 at his Campaign HQ on that fateful night at the Crowne Plaza.

But, I now understand why Chafee beat him. I couldn’t then but it’s pretty crystal clear to me today. Laffey understands how to run organizations, he understands that in order to get to C, you have to do A and sometimes B. In other words, Laffey takes action to meet a specific end, all else be damned. It’s not heartless, just necessary to achieve a particular end.

That works fine for a guy like me who doesn’t have to be in love with a politician to vote for him, but in Rhode Island is often about who is the most likable versus who has the best ideas.

Laffey doesn’t get that, nor do I think he ever will. I heard him on the Matt Allen show and you could tell he was still upset about quite a number of things that happened in RI, and definitely not the most content with the RI GOP to say the least.

If Laffey had a wee bit more affable personality he would be a superstar in Rhode Island. But I wonder if adding a dash of affability would take a pound of his managerial expertise away? Well, we’ll probably never know. Laffey will probably ride off into the sunset doing something and we’ll only have what ifs.

But as I sat there that evening in 2006 watching Rhode Island Republicans and independents vote for Lincoln Chafee for US Senator, I cringed at the thought of this realization – In Rhode Island it’s better to be a nice guy with few ideas than an abrasive guy with THE ideas.

Politics is a funny thing and if Laffey ever softened his tone, he could be one dangerous man in this state.

Huh?

That’s what I was thinking when I first learned we were leading the forces stopping the Libyan government from fighting ‘rebels’ who are seeking to overthrow the Moammar Ghadafi led regime. I mean, isn’t this the same president who campaigned on getting us out of Iraq as soon as possible? Isn’t this the same man who seemed to indicate that involving ourselves all over the world was a bad idea?

Obama has really been a puzzling figure in my opinion moving left and right, right and left. In this case, my opinion is that we should allow the Libyans to resolve the issue themselves. I wonder if something like this happened in North Korea if we’d be so quick to interject? I doubt it.

Instead, it seems like US foreign policy is to pick off regimes we don’t like in countries that can’t hurt us militarily. In my mind that’s just being a bully and not what I expected from this administration at all.

Well folks, I lost my city councilman race. But I won a great deal of support from within the community going from a no-name to getting 36 percent of the vote against a very popular figure in the community. It wasn’t easy to do that! Spending weekends walking and some evenings calling for the last few months was hard.

Two things really hit home for me while campaigning. One, the folks on Lyndon road had a look of betrayal, feeling as though they had fought a fight but were sold out by their City Council. As I heard their stories, I was really moved by it.

Second, walking down Perkins avenue is an eerie experience. You see abandoned homes and you’re left in awe about how much these folks lost. I talked to some who are trying to get out as fast as possible and others who are refusing to leave.  I understand where each is coming from and not sure if I was in their position what I’d do.

I believe I was able to get my message of advocacy & citizen engagement to many residents and it resonated. My goal is to continue to build on this, helping residents in any way I can.

I’m grateful for all the support of those who met a guy that came knocking on their door talking about bringing change to the city. It’s not the end, only the beginning.

I was forced to ask myself this question recently. Peter writes that if you do wrong and take it patiently, what’s so great about that? But if you do good and suffer for it, that’s commendable. I had a recent situation in my life where I believed I was in the right and not doing anything wrong. I felt like wrong was being done to me. I got very upset, very, very, very, did I say very, upset. What they were doing seemed completely unjustified and almost malicious.

But then this verse came to mind. It times like this when I’m reminded how much the Holy Spirit renews our spiritual being and flails against our fleshly thoughts. Me, don roach, wanted to get these people back somehow and prove my rightness. But, as I remember that God’s in control of all situations, I want choose His rightness not my own.

Think about it, if God made sure we suffered every single wrong thought, action, word, etc. we had I’m not sure if many of us would make it past age 5. I think true humility is understanding, no embracing, your inadequacies in light of the greatness of God. Once you do that it’s not very easy to self-justify to claim the high ground over another inadequate human being.

This isn’t passive wimpiness, but the power coming from owning your place in the world. We’re loved by a forgiving Parent who sees beyond our faults and He asks us to do the same for others. While we’re not perfect at it by any stretch, when there are times you can honestly be free from a judgmental thought towards your neighbor it’s one of the most liberating experiences.

And, in my opinion, that’s the real definition of humility.

So I wrote a post for GoLocalProv suggesting that John Robitaille would win the race for Governor. Dan Yorke some how got wind of the story and asked, “Who is Don Roach?” So I called into his show, and his producer asked me a qualifying question…”What did you buy to get back in shape?” So they must have googled me and made their way over here.

Unfortunately with campaigning and establishing myself as a “key” political pundit on GoLocalProv, my personal website has not had the number of postings I’d like. Never fear, as the world gets to know Don Roach it’s good to know my weight issues will be there so I can let people know who I be.

Seriously, I almost busted a gut when he asked me that question.

…I’ll be running for City Council in Cranston Ward 1. I’ll post a link to my website once it’s up.

But it’s been kind of cool to get more traffic on this site as people investigate what I’m about. You’ll definitely get a flavor of who I am on this site, but please feel free to contact me directly at

donroach34 AT yahoo dot com

with any questions . Thanks to many of you who have supported me throughout the years in my blogging endeavors. Have some new things on the horizon that I hope to share soon!

One of my favorite shows as a kid was Married…with Children. Protagonist and shoe salesman, Al Bundy, often would say, “Let’s Rock!” just before facing a challenge. I adopted the phrase, using it most prominently when I was a sixteen year old dishwasher for a local Holiday Inn right before large stacks of dishes from a recent wedding reception came my way.

Well, my Philadelphia Flyers are facing a similar (LOL) challenge in the Stanley Cup Finals. Having come back from a 0-3 hole against Boston, fighting back from an 0-2 hole against Chicago, they face their 5th elimination game of these playoffs. They’ve gone 4-0 so far but this BlackHawks team isn’t your mom’s Boston Bruins, sorry Bruins fan. Now down 3 games to 2, I feel like the Flyers are much like the Rhode Island citizen – lose and there is no tomorrow.

As we enter into this election cycle, will we – citizens of Rhode Island – man/woman up and take a stand for ourselves and our children? Will we say no to the politics of the past? And to de-cliche this post just a bit, the question facing us this election cycle is whether or not we have the cajones to try something different and demand accountability from elected officials.

If we don’t then all we can expect and deserve is more of the same crap we’ve gotten for so many years. So Rhode Island,

Let’s Rock!

On Wednesday evening, I was in attendance at Cranston Mayor Allan Fung’s announcement that he planned to seek reelection to the position of mayor. As the mayor pointed out many people in the crowd from union leaders, police officials, regular townsfolk, and GOP candidates, I had this thought, “If all Republicans took the Fung Approach, we’d be able to wrest control away from Democrats.”

Perhaps I’m biased (I am) but no Republican in this state has been more impressive than Mayor Fung in how he has dealt with competing interests, remained a forceful executive despite having no fellow Republicans on the City Council, and navigated a city through various budget landmines with many, many, more on the horizon (thanks, General Assembly!).

And yet, I never hear his blueprint for success mentioned in Republican circles. Often times, Republicans in this state position themselves as anti-union and pro-management allowing Democrats to style themselves as pro-average joe. In Cranston, a Democrat would have a very difficult time doing the same against Fung as he has demonstrated a willingness and ability to negotiate with different unions, winning taxpayer concessions time and time again. Fung has been able to be fiscally responsible AND able to get away from the stigma that Republicans alienate unions. From all accounts, the union/city negotiations are not zero-sum games.

Put it a different way take a look at below and tell me which one rings true to you:

Anti-Union = Statewide Republicans

Anti-Union = Allan Fung

Republicans would serve themselves well in taking a softer stance with unions, and rather labelling them the bain of our state, work to resolve the issues with them as co-collaborators. Novel idea? Sure, but it seems to be working well in Cranston.