True fans only hear what they want to hear

Last week’s revelation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration may have used a traffic study to create gridlock and exact some political revenge have grabbed  big headlines across the country. Some have speculated that these allegations could lead to criminal charges and that they could surely tank his possible White House bid in 2016. Others have said “fuggedaboutit” noting that it’s “just politics.” 

While I don’t think voters have any stomach for government corruption – and assuming that criminal charges are not filed, I think that how Christie weathers this storm is going to hinge on what people thought of him before this happened. Do they view him as a strong leader or as a bully? Do they see his praise of President Obama after Sandy as traitorous or just honest? In other words, how people will view him after this incident depends largely on whether they were Christie fans to begin with. 

Sports fans also see the world through team-colored glasses. During nationally televised games, it always seems like the commentators are rooting against the Red Sox, particularly this year when it seemed like the focus was more on what the team wasn’t (packed with superstars) than what it was (relentless).  

I had the same sense watching the Patriotss over the weekend – during the final seconds of the playoff game the commentators were talking about the talent of Andrew Luck (intercepted three times) instead of talking about the fantastic and amazing play of Tom Brady. A friend pointed out to me that all sports fans feel like others are “against them” and sure enough, studies support this idea. Fans actually see a game and interpret the call differently based on who they were supporting when they walked into the stadium. It’s part of why “fan” is short for “fanatic." We are all a bit obsessive.

This analogy is good news for Chris Christie, since he was very popular in New Jersey and clearly seen as a rising star nationally before the traffic debacle. Rhode Islanders – and maybe others from the more gritty political climates – are probably even less horrified. We’ve long heard stories about which neighborhoods and streets get plowed first after a big storm, and we can probably all list several people who got a job, a license plate, a seat on a commission or “out of trouble” because they were a friend, brother or "comare" of an elected official. It’s the Vo Dilan way.

While some acts of political retribution never see the light of day, some are actually so obvious that we don’t even notice them. White House tours were shut down for months as part of sequestration. Was it to cut costs? Not really. The people’s house was closed to the people because White House tour tickets are available through your member of Congress. President Obama and his staff knew that members would feel the wrath from constituents whose long-planned trips to Washington would be without this key stop. Instead of traffic cones, the Obama administration just locked the doors. White House fans cluck about what a shame that Congress refused to compromise and the other side rages about the hubris of Obama taking petty politics to a whole new level by denying schoolchildren the opportunity to visit the White House. And the truth is that they’re both on point, just seeing the same thing differently.

Next weekend I’m going watch the AFC Championship game and try to listen to the game impassively – as if I weren’t a fan of either team. I’m sure that the commentators will sound neutral and unbiased until they compliment that has-been Peyton Manning. Then I’ll know for sure that they’re against us. 

Are All Politics Still Local?

In our house most televised Red Sox games are at least a four-hour adventure. There’s pre-game, the game itself and then post-game coverage (“Extra Innings” followed by “Extra Innings Extra”). I watch it all and love to chuckle at some of the ridiculous and nonsensical responses that players give to the media. One of my favorite clichés is when a player says that he “stayed within himself.”  I have no idea what that means since so few of us can escape our bodies on a regular basis, but I guess I should be happy since they always seem pleased to have remained whole. I think I am especially tickled by these canned expressions because politics is full of clichés as well. There are a few that we’re sure to hear this election season, like “the only poll that counts is the one taken on election day” (which is actually true and I like to say it when I stay within myself) and “money doesn’t win elections but we will have enough to execute a winning strategy” (which is a desperate non sequitur told by campaigns that are way behind in fundraising).

The only political cliché easier to decipher than “we had to put runs on the board to win” is “all politics is local.” While the origin of the expression has been attributed to others, it was widely used by the late Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill to explain his political philosophy. He believed that congressional elections weren’t decided by national issues, but by how local issues and concerns were addressed. He thought that most voters were practical, not philosophical, and would be more inclined to vote for the politician who had been seen addressing his constituents’ needs. “All politics is local” has played out many times with high-profile members of Congress and U.S. Senators losing touch with their constituents and their seats shortly thereafter, but that tide may be turning. In recent years we saw national issues influence races around here like the Chafee-Whitehouse Senate race in 2006 and the Brown-Coakley special election in 2010. Tip O’Neill died twenty years ago this week and while his “all politics is local” phrase remains a favorite expression among pundits, this may be the year when it goes out of style. Inside the Beltway dysfunction has now become a local issue with the botched rollout of health care reform, and I expect that the Senate Democrats will suffer for it.

Without digging too deeply into the polls (which only matter on election day), a quick look at the 2014 U.S. Senate landscape shows that Democrats have a lot to lose. There are Democratic seats at stake in states like South Dakota, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana and North Carolina – states that voted for Mitt Romney, some in a big way.  Some are open seats and others have an incumbent, but they are all likely pickups for the GOP. It’s not that the incumbent lacks a connection with his or her constituents or has failed to appear at the local Jefferson Day dinner – but they're likely losers simply because each supported Obamacare and the White House has done a miserable job of implementing that signature legislation. Politifact ruled President Obama’s “if you like your health care plan you can keep it” as the Lie of the Year for 2013 giving serious ammunition to GOP candidates and creating a monstrous conundrum for those Democrats facing reelection. Do they distance themselves from the White House and risk alienating their base? Do they stick to their guns and hope to survive the anti-Washington fervor? I feel pretty good about making one prediction: I am certain they are hoping that Washington can “stay within itself” and that Tip O’Neill is right for one more year.

New Year, Same Issues

However short-lived, feelings of hope and optimism ring in the New Year. The gym is full of people determined to lose weight while politicians and baseball players are getting set for a long season. As the calendar changes, the Rhode Island General Assembly will reconvene on January 7th with plenty on its plate for 2014. While spring training games are a little more fun to preview, here’s a quick look at what lies ahead on Smith Hill in 2014.

38 Studios. While the issue for taxpayers and some politicians has been “to pay or not to pay” the bonds associated with the state’s failed investment in the video game company, another issue that needs to be addressed is the investigation of what went wrong in the first place. While the calls for an investigation have been coming primarily from Dawson Hodgson (State Senator and candidate for Attorney General), they are certainly harder to ignore as various news outlets beat the drum for an investigation. And why wouldn’t we want to investigate? The scandal has forced changes at the Economic Development Corporation and jeopardized any future public-private investment partnerships. The 38 Studios vote is a great vote for opponents to use on the campaign trail and it would seem that airing the dirty laundry now would be better than having it stink up the house all year.

Tolls. For those of us who regularly use the Sakonnet River bridge, the fancy decorative lights are as annoying to see as the sign noting the 10-cent toll. Folks from our area have done a good job in keeping up the pressure on the toll issue and most of our legislators have been fairly vocal in their opposition. It is likely that Governor Chafee (whose administration proposed the original Sakonnet River Bridge toll at $4.00) will once again include the toll in his budget when he transmits it to the General Assembly. As a lame duck he has nothing to lose and very little to leverage, so whatever solution that will be hammered out is likely to come out of the General Assembly, not the Governor’s Office, so expect our local legislators to have a key role this session in figuring this one out.

Health Care Reform. While the Rhode Island Health Benefits Exchange is up and running and appears to be functioning better than the federal system, funding to operate the Exchange will run out at the end of 2014, and the state will be responsible for its operating expenses. The General Assembly will have to decide this year how to pay for the cost of the Exchange moving forward – thought to be about $25 million each year. This is not a small nut, even in our enormous state budget and we should all be prepared to discuss how this federal mandate will be paid for in 2015 with some kind of per policy fee a most likely scenario.

As we turn the page on the calendar and make our plans for 2014, it’s amazing how much it seems just like the old year. New year, same issues, same struggles. However, by the end of the year, we’re guaranteed some new leadership in the State House and hopefully some of these issues that have been hanging over our heads for a year will be resolved. In the meantime, I’d better get to the gym.

Size Doesn’t Matter in Rhode Island

(originally posted 12/20)

Last week State Treasurer Gina Raimondo ended months of speculation by announcing her candidacy for governor. I have to admit that I am almost as excited about this race as I am about the opening of the 2014 MLB season. As the mother of two girls and someone who has spent more than twenty years working in the male-dominated political world, the truth is that Rhode Island girls need to see more women competing against men for top jobs in public life and in the business world. Rhode Island has a miserable record of electing women to statewide and federal offices. Like David Hasselhoff, we peaked in the 80s and early 90s with Arlene Violet, Susan Farmer, Nancy Mayer, Barbara Leonard, Kathleen Connell and Claudine Schneider, the only female federal elected official in Rhode Island’s history.

Just a few states away, New Hampshire has managed to have an all-woman Washington delegation while Governor Maggie Hassan leads at home. Our girls shouldn’t have to look to other states and other capitols for role models, but they do and it’s because qualified women just don’t run here. This race provides us with the opportunity to show our girls that a woman can compete for a top job.Raimondo announced by video, promising a campaign kickoff in January and giving the Rhode Island press corps the opportunity to put together this pre-holiday story from the cozy confines of their own offices. I am sure that several of them had even written their pieces long before the embargoed announcement since it was almost certain that Raimondo would run.

So as I read through the coverage of the announcement, I was stunned to see a print piece by Kathy Gregg, one of state’s leading political reporters, noting that the Treasurer is five-foot-three and thought to be “scrappy.” Really? Are the dimensions of her body relevant to the job? I didn’t remember reading anything about Ken Block’s hairline, Allan Fung’s shoe size or Angel Taveras’ weight, so I looked back at the pieces that ran after their announcements, and sure enough, no discussion of the candidates’ proportions – and no terrier-like adjectives. So while the male candidates enter the race with a discussion of their bios and coverage of their announcements, Raimondo gets the additional labels of being short and “scrappy” – a not-so-subtle dig from the reporter. It’s no wonder women don’t want to run in this state – stories might read something like, “Governor Jane Doe, delivering her state of the state this evening in a blue pant suit that makes it appear as though she has gained a few pounds, emphasized that attracting more jobs remains the focus of her administration.”

For the most part our press corps has shown remarkable restraint during the Chafee administration and adjectives like “vacant” and “nonsensical” have barely made it into the lexicon. I hope they will redouble their efforts to keep the language neutral during the next eleven months – these are serious times for our state and no matter what we’re going to get a governor who looks different than what has come before – young, short, bald, female, thin, Asian, Latino – whatever he or she looks like is just not relevant. Let’s save the descriptive language for sports where size matters (just ask short and scrappy Dustin Pedroia) and leave it out of our politics.

Next Up: Better Run Elections

These last weeks of December are generally a quiet time in both politics and baseball – giving me the opportunity to tune out, make some cookies and wrap presents. Red Sox tickets are on sale and it looks like they will open spring training with a team that looks remarkably similar to the 2013 World Champions. We can only hope they play as well.

This time next year, Rhode Islanders will be familiarizing themselves with a new lineup at the state house as all the general officers – except Attorney General Kilmartin – are moving on and a new team will be sworn in. As an electoral nerd, I am most interested in who wins the wide-open Secretary of State’s race and whether that person will make any effort to address some of the blatant and embarrassing issues with our elections process.

The Rhode Island General Assembly passed a voter ID law and while some have decried it as anti-someone, I think that if I need an ID to go to the movies, buy alcohol, cash a check, get a library card, sign a lease and receive government benefits, then flashing it to vote should not be a problem. If nothing else, the voter ID law prevents the “black helicopter” crowd from talking about busloads of people driving from polling station to polling station to vote illegally. It likely never happened and with an enforceable voter ID law, the allegation is more easily disregarded.

The challenge for the next Secretary of State is making sure that polls are set up to accommodate ID checks without slowing the line. Two things spring to mind - we need to recruit young civic-minded poll workers and we need to be more aggressive in promoting “no excuse” mail ballots. That’s right folks – you don’t need to wait until election day to cast your ballot and not very many people know about it. While Rhode Island lags behind 32 other U.S. states that allow for in-person early voting, you can still request a mail ballot – and you don’t even need a note from your mother. By making a conscious effort to recruit poll workers as soon as possible and educate people about the no-excuse mail ballot option, the next Secretary of State has the ability to make election day run smoothly.

However I think the most egregious issue with Rhode Island elections is that our primary date is late – so late in fact that it could violate ederal law under the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act) that requires ballots for uniformed services and overseas citizen voters be sent at least 45 days prior to a general election for Federal office. While there are actually 55 days between the primary and the general election in 2014, that’s barely enough time to get the ballots out the door – particularly if multiple recounts are required or there is a problem at the printer. Rather than just move the date back a few weeks, there’s a mad rush to get the ballots to the troops in time. As a military spouse, I find it disturbing that our elected officials are more concerned about the inconvenience of showing an ID at a polling place than making sure tour front line troops have the ability to exercise a right they are fighting for on our behalf.

Why not just move the date? It’s one of those things that fall under “incumbent protection.”  Once the dust from the primary settles, a challenger barely has enough time to mount a serious campaign, greatly favoring the person with existing name ID. And make no mistake – this is another area where Rhode Island is last: September 9^th is the latest primary date set for 2014. Bottom line - we need a Secretary of State who will step up and advocate for an earlier primary.

So in this quiet time for baseball and politics, take a moment to take a close look at the players – and candidates on the roster for 2014. Unlike the Red Sox, Rhode Island has some important roles to fill and we need to make sure that the candidates are up for the job.

Learning from Bad Deals

Like many Red Sox fans, I’m a bit sad to see one of my favorite players, Jacoby Ellbury, go to the Yankees.  However I’ll admit that news of his seven-year, $153 million contract actually provided a little relief since I will not have to witness his inevitable decline firsthand. With several long stints on the DL in his best years, I expect that he’ll be less durable as he gets older, making the last several years of his contract seem like wasted money. It’s appropriate that he’s in New York since paying old players for past performance seems to be part of the “Yankee way” and I’m happy that the Steinbrenners want to compensate him for the two World Series trophies he helped bring to Boston.

It’s worth noting that the Yankees aren’t the only ones dishing out the dough. Robinson Cano’s ridiculous $240 million ten-year contract with the Mariners shows that baseball teams haven’t learned that these obscene contracts just don’t work out and that putting their “eggs in one basket” is not a prudent path. So when fans like me gripe about wasting money, even though it’s not “our” money, it means we’re frustrated that our teams have not learned any lessons about long-term, big money contracts. I’m hearing the same frustration about Rhode Island’s disastrous, long-term, big money deal with a famous baseball player – and in this case, it is “our” money.

Most readers know the basic facts on the 38 Studios loan guaranty that brought the ailing video game firm to Rhode Island and left taxpayers holding the bag. A generation ago, the credit union crisis rocked Rhode Island and Governor Bruce Sundlun and the General Assembly created a commission to independently investigate what went wrong. Republican State Senator Dawson Hodgson is urging his colleagues to launch a similar investigation into 38 Studios and seems to be getting the silent treatment in response. Is it because many of the legislators voted in favor of financing the deal? Or worse yet, voted in favor of it, but didn’t know what they were voting for? Is there something even worse and we’re looking at a “full Rhode Island’ where someone’s cousin made money because her boyfriend knew a guy who worked with his sister on the deal? Who knows? We certainly won’t until it is appropriately examined.

While I think it’s important to investigate to examine the deal for malfeasance and (once again) embrace a “never again” approach for insider deals, I think it’s even more important to make sure that we have the opportunity to learn from the 38 Studios deal so we don’t cripple our economic development efforts going forward. There is an important role for public investment and partnerships with private companies, but until we know what happened with 38 Studios, the mere mention of that debacle ends any discussion about serious economic development efforts. We’re doing a disservice to ourselves and hamstringing future economic development with a “never again” strategy on public-private partnerships while our neighbors to the north and west attract businesses and give incentives all the time.  All because we don’t know what really happened with 38 Studios and really don’t want to talk about it. This is just dumb.

Baseball executives have an amazing array of statistics at their fingertips when they make a trade and invest in a player. Fans of “Moneyball” know that there are sabermetrics far more useful than old school stats like RBIs and ERA. WAR (wins above replacement) shows how a combination of a players’ skills makes him more valuable than another player at his position. Having these pieces of information allows teams to justify bringing Ellsbury (WAR 5.8 in 2013) and Cano (WAR 6.0 in 2013) on board for ridiculous amounts of money. Here in Rhode Island we need to amass all the information we can to make good decisions in economic development – and future leadership. Otherwise we’ll never be able to compete with our neighbors or know when to replace declining players with new candidates with better skills for the job. 

No Place for Boo Birds

This fall I was in Milwaukee for a business trip and spotted Daniel Bard walking through the hotel lobby. When I said his name, he looked up, obviously surprised that he would be recognized – and likely horrified that a middle-aged woman was so eager to meet him. For those that don’t remember him, Daniel Bard was a top Red Sox pitching prospect – and lights-out pitcher – until he and the rest of the team imploded in September of 2011.  In 2012 they tried to make him into a starter and he spent much of 2013 in Portland, presumably trying to get his groove back. I told him I was a Red Sox fan and he looked at the carpet, saying that he didn’t play for them anymore.

Bard seemed surprised that I knew he’s just been signed by Theo Epstein and the Cubs (and in Milwaukee for the game against the Brewers) and perked up saying he was glad that Theo picked him up. We had a short conversation about his time with the Sox – I thanked him for his many good innings and he was somewhat apologetic about his struggles. I was struck by how young he seemed and how he was clearly embarrassed by his poor performance with the Red Sox. He was not the arrogant and cocky professional baseball player I imagined from TV – he’s just a nice kid trying to pitch like he knows he can. How hurt he would be to know that someone started a “Daniel Bard Sucks” message board online.

I thought of Daniel Bard last week when I read about the controversy surrounding John DePetro calling union protesters “wh__res.”  While Mr. DePetro certainly has a right to use whatever language he’d like – and clearly his employer, WPRO, continues to employ him so they must approve of his behavior, I think that kind of public name-calling is intolerable in a civilized society. Whether you agree with the anti-pension reform union protesters (and I do not) calling them obscene names does not further the debate – it just makes politics more divisive and more unpleasant.

Sadly this kind of name-calling – and the labeling that follows -- is common in politics and accomplishes nothing. Whether it’s calling all Republicans “right wing extremists” (a particularly humorous label in Rhode Island where many Republicans are to the left of leading Democrats on social issues) – or hearing those same anti-pension reform union protesters yell at Treasurer Gina Raimondo, name-calling is literally a waste of breath. We’ve watched the extreme partisanship in Washington lead to a sequester and a government shutdown – it’s time to turn the page, stop the name-calling and figure out what we can do across party lines and in spite of ideological differences.

And so next time you go to a baseball game and a player on your team makes an error or gives up a grand slam, try not to boo or yell “you s_ck!”  That player is someone's son, father or husband and they probably know that they just stunk it up.

Unless of course, you’re a Yankees fan – then go ahead and let them know how you feel.

And FWIW, Daniel Bard takes a great selfie!