Can Carcieri be beat?(continued)
	Hot buttons How the candidates stack up Choice Carcieri opposes abortion rights, and he and wife, Sue, have welcomed occasional gatherings of abortion opponents at the State House. Fogarty is personally opposed to abortion, but supports existing abortion rights. Day care workers Carcieri strongly opposes the union-organizing effort by 1300 home-based child-care workers, calling it a bad precedent that could lead other independent contractors to become virtual state workers and reduce the state’s ability to offer oversight of child-care. Fogarty supports the effort, as long as it doesn’t result in new state employees or reduce the state’s ability to regulate child-care. He cites quality child-care as something important to the state’s economic wellbeing. Death penalty Carcieri opposes capital punishment in principle, but is willing to consider reinstituting it for "the most heinous crimes," such as the terrorist attacks of September 11. Fogarty opposes the death penalty, although he would allow an exception for cases involving the murder of a police officer. Gay marriage Carcieri opposes gay marriage, subscribing to the traditional view that marriage is between a man and a woman. Fogarty supports civil unions. Gambling As a candidate, Carcieri was highly critical of efforts to expand the number of video lottery terminals in Rhode Island. As governor, he is backing BLB Investors’ attempt to buy Lincoln Park and significantly expand the park’s number of VLTs. Carcieri has been a staunch opponent of attempts by Harrah’s Entertainment and the Narragansett Indians to establish a casino in West Warwick, and strongly opposes putting the casino measure to a statewide vote. Fogarty says the state is already too dependent on gambling revenue and he opposes the establishment of a casino in Rhode Island. He supports putting the casino concept before voters to settle the matter, and predicts that voters would reject it. Like Carcieri, Fogarty describes gambling as an essentially negative form of economic development. Health-care co-pays for public employees Carcieri has aggressively pursued this, resulting in what looks like a pending agreement for the first contributions by state employees to their health-care premium co-pays. Fogarty says he supports the concept and would have backed a more collaborative approach to reach a solution with state employees. Medical marijuana Carcieri is opposed to medical marijuana legislation in the General Assembly, citing potential concerns about the unrestricted growth and distribution of marijuana. Fogarty supports "compassionate use for medical marijuana, with appropriate safeguards." Pension reform A pension reform proposal introduced in the legislature on Carcieri’s behalf targets $20.6 million in savings to the state’s cities and towns for fiscal 2006. Fogarty says he recognizes the need for pension reform and plans to examine the various legislative proposals. Tax cuts Carcieri calls for broad-based tax cuts. He backs a plan for BLB Investors to buy Lincoln Park, which would reduce property taxes in five distressed communities and use slot revenue to phase out the auto excise tax. He also supports cutting the state income tax. Fogarty calls for a more consistent approach to using tax incentives, and he has introduced legislation to create an office to study the state’s tax policies. He favors broad-based tax cuts, prioritizing the property tax first and the income tax second. He supported a previous 10 percent cut in the income tax. The war in Iraq Carcieri has been an essentially unstinting supporter of the Bush administration policy on Iraq. Fogarty says he favored giving more time to search for weapons of mass destruction. — I.D.

Playing for position

The waning weeks of the legislative session will offer plenty of grist for the forthcoming political mill, with both Democrats and Republicans vying for advantage.

The General Assembly, for example, appears poised to pass legislation enabling 1300 home-based day-care providers to organize and requiring the state to bargain with them about the conditions of their work. In some respects, these low-paid workers seem like potential constituents for Carcieri; as hard-working, low-paid entrepreneurs, they make it possible for other adults to go to work. The governor, however, has bitterly fought the organizing effort, calling it an awful precedent that could allow scores of other independent contractors to negotiate with the state. At a time when state spending needs to be reduced, he says, it’s a bad idea to add more quasi-state workers. But to critics like Matthew Jerzyk, an organizer with District 1199, Service Employees International Union, which is supporting the organizing drive, Carcieri has unreasonably opposed efforts to narrow the differences. "There’s a way he could have figured out how to reach a compromise and show he knows how to get something done," Jerzyk says. "[But] he and Tom DeLay share something very similar in that they don’t want to get things done. They want to use their office as a political tool to build the party."

Although it enflames his critics, the governor’s fight with the day-care providers strikes his supporters — who clearly extend beyond the small number of registered Republicans in Rhode Island — as another instance in which he is holding the line against out-of-touch, profligate Democrats.

A related case in point is how Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest union of state workers, is expected to pass a contract agreement in which state workers would, for the first time, contribute to the co-shares for their health-care premiums. The issue is a red herring in many ways, since raises received by Council 94’s approximately 5500 workers will cost the state far more than the revenue generated by their contributions for co-pays. In a statement, Carcieri nonetheless hails the implementation of co-shares for state employees as "fair and reasonable, and [it] represents an historic step forward in reforming state government." Union activist Robert A. Walsh Jr., executive director of the National Education Association-Rhode Island, citing the involvement of a neutral conciliator, responds by saying, "It took an outside party to make him see the light. That’s too bad. We could have got this done a year ago."

Although he opens himself to charges of hypocrisy by backing a massive expansion of video lottery terminals at Lincoln Park — a concept that Carcieri opposed as a candidate — the governor’s backing of BLB Investors as his preferred buyer for the park is a cagey move. Lincoln is in the backyard of Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano (D-North Providence), who worked with Carcieri to craft a deal connecting BLB’s prospective purchase with up to $10 million in revenue for the Narragansett Indians and $20 million in property tax relief for five distressed communities. Not surprisingly, the concept encountered a hostile reception in the House, where Speaker William P. Murphy, a proponent of the envisioned Harrah’s Entertainment-Narragansett casino, represents West Warwick, the city where it would be sited.

Carcieri freely concedes that the BLB proposal is an attempt to preempt a casino, although he rebuts suggestions of hypocrisy, citing the existing presence of the state’s two gambling facilities at Lincoln and Newport, and describing the Lincoln plan as better for taxpayers. "We’re getting the best deal in the United States at 60 percent," the governor says, referring to the amount of slot machine revenue received by the state from Lincoln, compared to the 25 percent share proposed for Harrah’s-Narragansett casino. The $600 million cost of building the casino doesn’t justify the lower percentage, he says, since Lincoln’s future owner will spend $450 million to buy the facility and $125 million to improve it.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly is expected to act on pension reform — another pet project of the governor — before it adjourns for the summer, although the specifics remain to be determined. The governor and General Treasurer Paul J. Tavares, among others, have made pension reform proposals, although the Democrat-controlled legislature will certainly try to get the maximum political mileage from what emerges.

"One of the critical issues is how the media and the Journal play out the resolution of the pension system, and the resolution of the workers’ contracts," notes Maureen Moakley, chairwoman of the political science department at the University of Rhode Island. "Obviously, the [Democratic] mantra at the moment is that he [Carcieri] hasn’t done anything, but they’ve got themselves somewhat of a bind, because they are going to do something [with pension reform], lest he blame the legislature. Whomever comes off as the prime motivator of the reform will have a lot to do with what they can say down the road about Carcieri’s accomplishments . . . How that plays out is really going to set up the groundwork for the nature of the campaign."

As is stands, Moakley says, the Democratic critique that Carcieri hasn’t worked well within the confines of government "is a two-edged sword, because I think the voters like and respect a powerful counterforce to what they rightly perceive as a very powerful legislature that’s strongly aligned with the Democratic Party. Insofar as they can rally middle-class workers and the unions, and play the fairness issue, that might be something that resonates with the voters, but overall Carcieri has the edge, because I think they want some checks and balances in a partisan sense, and that’s what he’s going to try to offer."