TGIF: Ian Donnis’ Rhode Island politics roundup for April 10, 2026

Real Housewives of Rhode Island makes The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise seem a bit like Masterpiece Theatre by comparison. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, threads and X. Please note: my column will be taking next week off. Here we go.

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“Time waits for no one and it won’t wait for me,” sang The Rolling Stones – a reminder that timing is the most precious of all political commodities. That explains why House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, after passing on runs for Congress and governor, is now eyeing a vacancy on the Rhode Island Supreme Court. As Ocean State Media first reported this week, Gov. Dan McKee formally kicked off the selection process by writing last Friday to the Judicial Nominating Commission. Shekarchi is a hands-on speaker known for answering his phone at all hours, so as he edges toward completing his sixth session on the rostrum, the Benefit Street Courthouse likely looms as an appealing destination. If Shekarchi does apply for the Supreme Court vacancy, it will kick off a pointed debate about Rhode Island’s revolving door law. Back in 2020, the state Ethics Commission didn’t stand in the way when Senate Judiciary Chair Erin Lynch Prata made the jump to become a Supreme Court justice. But John Marion Jr., executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, said his view is that the revolving door law remains in effect. During an interview on One on One, Marion recalled the consecutive resignations amid scandal of two Supreme Court justices, former Speaker Joseph A. Bevilacqua Sr. and former state Rep. Thomas Fay, back in the ’80s and ’90s. Marion noted voters’ strong support for a series of reform measures after that era shows how Rhode Islanders wanted change. He also contends the Ethics Commission’s 5-2 vote in the Lynch Prata case did not create a precedent: “They just said that they didn’t agree with the (legal) staff’s draft opinion that she would have to wait a year. And most importantly, they did not put in place any precedential opinion or decision of the Ethics Commission about whether the revolving door does not apply to the Supreme Court for legislators. So there is nothing legally in place on which I think Shekarchi can rely on to say that, you know, this would be legal.” (During a brief interview this week on an unrelated story, the speaker declined comment on court-related questions.)

Rhode Islanders are known for their cynicism about state government, and there’s often a stream of grist for this mill – ranging from pothole-marked streets and under-performing public schools to the Washington Bridge debacle and recent issues with the state payroll system. Common Cause’s John Marion, who’s been carefully monitoring government and ethics in Rhode Island for years, sees the underlying problem as the state’s lackluster oversight of the work done by contractors. “So it’s on the executive to manage the contracts well,” he said on One on One. “I don’t think they have. I don’t think Gina Raimondo did a particularly good job. I don’t think Dan McKee’s done a particularly good job. But it’s also incumbent on the legislature to do good oversight to make sure that management is happening. And I don’t think that oversight has been as robust as it should be. I think that the General Assembly hasn’t sort of dug in to the issues on the staff level of why these mistakes keep happening.” One noteworthy exception was when legislative leaders hired former U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha to grill Peter Alviti – an inquiry that shed light on how the state relies on contractors to ensure the quality of their work on billions of dollars in construction projects.

H. Philip West Jr. led Common Cause of RI from 1988 through 2006 – an eventful time in local politics and government. His book, Secrets & Scandals: Reforming Rhode Island 1986-2006, is an excellent history of that era. Phil was a valuable resource during my tenure at the Providence Phoenix, on issues involving government and campaign finance, and he joined me on the second half of One on One this week. Back in 2014, West, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and former U.S. Attorney Robert Corrente joined together for a press conference urging voters to not support Buddy Cianci for mayor, so I asked West how he thinks Providence is doing these days. “I think it’s better,” he said. “I was terrified that Buddy was gonna win in 2014 …. We’ve had several mayors who I think have been honorable and have worked diligently, but it takes a long time to correct after a really corrupt mayor. People still give Buddy credit for a lot of things that I don’t think he deserves credit for. Should I speak of the dead that way? But it’s a real problem. Buddy Cianci taught us a lot about what Donald Trump does – the way corruption can be hidden behind an entertainer’s smile or an entertainer’s laugh. Buddy was better at it than Trump is, I think.”

The growth in the number of young people who are moving away from the addictive qualities of smart phones got a big write-up in The New York Times Magazine last weekend. Closer to home, Millennial RI is launching what it calls Unplugged, “a new series of phone-free social events designed to encourage people to put their devices away and fully engage with the people around them.” The first such event is set for 5:30-8 pm at the Providence Art Club on Thursday, April 16 (tickets are required). “We’re more connected than ever online, but many people feel more disconnected than ever in real life,” Travis Escobar, founder and president of Millennial Rhode Island, said in a statement. “This isn’t about rejecting technology, it’s about creating space for real conversations, meaningful relationships, and a sense of belonging.”

Rhode Islanders place a high value on state and local news, according to research done for the Rhode Island Foundation. Hart Research found that Ocean Staters are relatively attentive to state and local news, although about one in three say it’s hard to find reliable sources. Local news sources are most trusted, while social media platforms and TV news are most viewed. Eighty-two percent of respondents call misinformation a very big problem, and 66% are very concerned about the loss of local news. The foundation unveiled these findings while releasing a grantmaking strategy as part of Press Forward Rhode Island meant to strengthen local news while helping Rhode Islanders to remain informed and connected. “Access to trustworthy, reliable local news is fundamental to civic health,” RI Foundation president and CEO David Cicilline said in a statement. “It’s how communities stay informed, hold institutions accountable, and make decisions together.” In related news, a conference on the future of local news is planned next Friday, April 17, at Salve Regina University in Newport.

For now, the U.S. has fallen short in its stated goals of ending Iran’s nuclear program, destroying its military capability and putting in place a less hardline regime. There was condemnation across the political spectrum for President Trump’s threat to eliminate “a whole civilization.” With the administration seeking to raise the defense budget to $1.5 trillion, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, offered this reaction in a statement: “This is not a serious budget. From what little information we have, this flawed, irresponsible proposal is unjustified and fails to acknowledge the negative impacts of Trump’s Iran war and faltering economy. This proposed spending spree doesn’t take into account the fact that this Administration is also likely to request a major emergency war supplemental. I will not rubber-stamp a bloated, undisciplined budget. I will work with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to carefully scrutinize every penny. Our forces and their families deserve a defense budget and strategy that is worthy of their sacrifice and meets the complex and evolving challenges of the 21st-century.”

There’s always a Rhode Island angle, even when it involves a trip to the moon. As my colleague David Wright reports, East Greenwich-based Dewetron makes high-tech measuring equipment that helped Artemis II to reach its distant destination. The company’s president, Albon Redzepi, was a Star Wars fan as a kid. “Star Wars is actually what got me into space travel and all this stuff outside of Earth,” Redzepi told David. “It started there, and now I’m actively involved in the space project so that’s a really great feeling.” The story continues: “Watching the Orion spacecraft take off from the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as an invited guest of NASA, he couldn’t help flashing back to Luke Skywalker. He truly felt the power of The Force. ‘About 30 seconds after the launch, you could hear the noise and feel the vibrations hitting your body,’ he said. Those intense vibrations are exactly why work by Redzepi’s company, Dewetron, was so essential to the mission. Dewetron manufactures high-tech measuring equipment. Their engineers’ expertise helped ensure that all the sensitive electronics packed into the Orion spacecraft remained functional and precisely calibrated despite the stresses of space travel.”

As we’ve noted before, when women run for office in Rhode Island, they usually win. With that in mind, Help Her Run, a nonpartisan group dedicated to supporting women and gender-expansive candidates, has opened applications to train campaign managers for the coming election season. In related news, the Latina Leadership Institute is hosting a free workshop from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. next Saturday, April 18 “about the inner workings of all the levels of government, helps participants address questions regarding what may be keeping them up at night, and connects participants with elected officials.”

Len, a first-ballot Rhode Island Hall of Famer, passed away this week at age 95. “[A]s the news editor for The Providence Journal for more than three decades was the newsroom’s arbiter of grammar and usage, style and accuracy,” notes his obituary. Len also served as a national officer and archivist for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and was an organizer of the “Geezer Lunch” attended by ProJo retirees. I knew him just well enough to know he was a perfect gentleman and loving husband of Linda Lotridge Levin, whom he met when she was a young reporter at the Journal.

Here are some tributes, via Facebook:

Steve Eisenstadt: “Len was one of the best in the business, legendary for his razor-sharp smarts and institutional knowledge. Also, his dry wit. Len brought the term ‘Elongated Yellow Fruit Syndrome’ to the Providence Journal newsroom. That’s the journalistic habit of using tortured phrases to avoid repeating a simple word. (Ironically, Len hated bananas.)”

Scott MacKay: “He lived a long and remarkable life.”

M. Charles Bakst: “Len, until the very end, organized monthly lunch meetings of Providence Journal retirees. All too often, as in this 2017 photo, he would pause a session and lead attendees in raising a glass in memory of a recently departed colleague. No one - absolutely no one - will ever be missed more than Len.”

From Len’s obit: “He began his newspaper career after earning a bachelor’s degree from Providence College, in 1952, and a master’s in journalism from Boston University in 1953. His first job was as a reporter at the Pawtucket Times. In 1963, the Journal recruited him for its copy desk. Many years later, the New York Times tried to do the same; Mr. Levin politely declined, saying he was happy where he was.”

Supporters of the Newport Birthing Center made a full-court press this week. A coalition rallied in support at the Statehouse on Thursday. Brown University Health said it needs an additional $4.9 million a year to keep the center open. Speaker Shekarchi told me this week it’s too soon to know whether the House budget will add any money for the center. “We’re hopeful that the philanthropic effort would meet that requirement or at least come close to it so that the numbers they come to the state for is a lot less,” he said. “We are waiting to see how that unfolds but as of right now, there is no money in the governor’s proposed budget for the birthing center.”

Hugh Clements, the respected former colonel of the Providence police, has taken on a new public safety role at Brown University …. ProJo alum Dan Barry and the late Judge Frank Caprio are getting honors from CCRI …. Democratic AG candidate Jason Knight (D-Barrington) has picked up endorsements from fellow Reps. Justine Caldwell of East Greenwich, Leonela Felix of Pawtucket, Jennifer Boylan of Barrington, June Speakman of Warren, Susan Donovan of Bristol and Terri Cortvriend of Portsmouth …. Sen. Ana Quezada and Rep. Grace Diaz, both of Providence, endorsed Mayor Brett Smiley …. Jim Hummel looks into what happened with the state’s effort to reduce homelessness …. Rest in Peace, MLB legend Davey Lopes, 80, who grew up in Providence and East Providence.

In 1956, more than 23 million people voted – some of them in Rhode Island – to select the next Miss Rheingold, a sort of mascot for Rheingold beer. According to one history, “During the heyday of the contest — from 1941 to 1964, the election of a new Miss Rheingold was an exciting, anticipated event. The pictures of six young women were displayed everywhere Rheingold beer was sold — in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. In bars, in delicatessens and grocery stores, spread over billboards throughout New York and New England, the contestants smiled at bar hounds, shoppers, foreigners and citizens, adults and children.” But the competition was also a product of its time: women who were Asian, Hispanic, Jewish or Black were excluded. Miss Rheingold fueled surging sales for Brooklyn-based Rheingold, which once held about a third of the U.S. market, but it went into decline after a failed westward expansion push in the 1960s.