Let's see, besides name calling your point boils down to "she's a beautiful person". I missed the day in PoliSci they taught beauty as a necessary component to effective governance.
However if elections are in RI are, as you allege, beauty contests, then the veil of misunderstanding has been lifted from my eyes! When I think of RI’s electoral process as a student council election- or the homecoming queen selection process- then I finally have an explanation for its results: massive debt...cosmetic change... infantile spending initiatives...civic goals crafted by overly tanned princesses who just want world peace and a two hour recess.
She spends on SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS per year on her children (or allows to be spent on them via financial aid). That is more than the TOTAL INCOME of nearly TWO THIRDS of RI households. It's almost ten thousand dollars higher than the state median. I can grudgingly abide by public school teachers sending their kids to private school but a legislator that stands on the issue of public school education has ZERO credibility when they think their own brood is above the fray. Nobody's education is worth double the poverty level. Period. To think otherwise is pure elitism.
Secondly, please explain to me why 'sweet', 'beautiful' Linda is so willing to mention her job, her Jesus work, her grandmother, her whole family history, her working motherhood....all that stuff and, yet, her hubby and job goes unmentioned. That's pretty freaking odd.

compared to what? an ideologue from elsewhere with a narrow vision? I will take the articulate and educated any day.

Hey I did not know that about Reilly.....so what is new? The inmates have taken over the GOP and run that party drooling and frothing all over. Sad.

You brag about the 66-9 majority in the house as if they are doing a good job at running this state or something. Seriously, don't brag about your team when your team is constantly striking out. And before you try to paint me as a conservative, I'm not. This election cycle however, I am taking a different approach. I will not be voting for any incumbents. I think it's time to put some RI politicians out of their jobs and start all over again. I think that a bunch of school children could randomly make better decisions than the current version of the Rhode Island General Assembly. So great...I'm a Liberal and you're a Liberal and so are 66 out of the 75 members of the House and our state is still in shambles. Must be the Republicans fault, huh?

Oh, and I forgot to say, good luck to Ms. Finn in her campaign!

"Bobby Oliveira" If this nut is involved in her campaign Reilly is a shoe in .

Joe.....my remarks may seem ignorant to someone who only looks at the current talking points.......true RI has the same problem as Mass had a few years ago.....we will never be able to upend the entrenched pols from Prov and Pawtucket....but....and it is a big but....the quality of pol from down here has to be superior to that that exists elsewhere....and I find that a woman like Ms. Finn transcends the useless right wing philosophy of Mr. Reilly. If you think that she is less than a good rep. then do not vote for her.
She has my vote and she represents a better and more ar ticulate vision in the govt. So there

"what does progressie and liberal thinking social democrat have to do with the disappearing jobs here?"

How about super Majority legislature, controled by the DEMS for over 78 years now. Just saying he has a valid point in this State. ;-}

I get that....but what does that have to do with the loss of jobs....that is in the private sector. The industry that was here until 1965 has left and nothing has taken its' place....There is just not a qualified labor 'gene' pool available to justify big new development from afar.....and Boston is so close....

Mike it is all about that in my opinion.

It was that ideology that drove industry out of this State; it was they who destroyed the Fishing industry.

They pushed the State to be dependent on a tourism industry like Greece (the parallels are unbelievable) that provides nothing but low wage seasonal jobs. They destroyed the education system in this State.

I blame both parties nationwide, but in this state, there is only a single party rule, even the party governorship means nothing. No bill can be vetoed unless the legislature allows it period.

Not to mention the total corruption of this state which today still ranks in the top ten, down from the usual top 5 a few years ago.

We are also near the top as the worst State for businesses to invest in or even come here, and now they just think gambling will solve it all, just like the lottery was touted as solution to all end education problems and lower Property taxes.
Sorry but Joe is absolutely correct on the policies in this State in my opinion.

When you only have one party ideology for 78 years, where else can the blame go?
Most GOP in this are about 10% of any local or State offices. Even then we have had so many in name only or independent in name only also so it appears there is some equality, but that is a lie.

On the labor gene pool, those who do have the skills have no choice but to move just across the border to MA, to save on comute fees, heck the majority that work in the defence industry even in this State live in MA.

This State is so over taxed it has reached unsustainable levels and the State Government has shrunk, not one iota. They could careless about the labor force getting high paying jobs. I has been like that since the Navy pulled out. The guy in office now, whose father (he was Secretary of the Navy at the time) could have cared less about that, his son just gives rhetoric so far and no concrete idea's other than 2 pages of new taxes, on everything from water, to tanning salons and medicines.

He also was only a GOP in name ony in congress before he decided to become independent in name only and won by getting 34% of the vote.

mike westman.Try reading a newspaper . Educate yourself before you post such ignorant remarks

More name calling. Please explain to me how your progressive belief system justifies directing regressive ad hominem towards anyone who chooses to differ with your world view or belief system. So all those with whom you disagree are branded bullies or just the ones who you assume don't like you? Grow up, child. Howard Zinn, one of the progressives great patrons, said "dissent is the highest form of patriotism".
Your story speaks to the commendable side of Finn's nature but governing in the name of 'caring' is a slippery slope- the same one that dope, Reilly, has coasted on for four years. So, I'm not sure if there's a defensible logic to replacing new blood with...more new blood.

John Weisley - When, exactly, did Rep. Reilly not pay his taxes? Please enlighten us! And apparently now people are ineligible to run for office because of the time commitments the rest of their lives require - I guess the legislature can just be made up of garden designers! Then all of our problems will go away!