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Is Carcieri already a lame duck?
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Don't Tase Me, Bro! |
| Last Edited | Jason Apr 28, 2010 01:37am |
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| Category | Editorial |
| News Date | Thursday, June 7, 2007 12:30:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In the six months since he slipped back into office by a mere 7803 votes, Governor Donald L. Carcieri has been treated to a crash course on why second terms can be a decidedly mixed blessing.
For openers, Carcieri returned to a State House devoid as ever of fellow Republicans. Voters handed every other major office to Democrats. And worse, Democrats, more than ever, appear to be a permanent majority in the General Assembly.
Carcieri’s first headache has been the state budget. It’s a mess, thanks to the ever-increasing cost of government, combined with the loss of potential revenue because of tax cuts engineered by Carcieri and legislative Democrats.
In turn, the governor has endured months of bitter criticism from supporters of programs he wants to cut — pushing vulnerable young persons from state care at age 18 instead of 21, for example — tarnishing his public image as a good-natured grandfather.
Carcieri’s management skills are also being tested. The former banker and corporate CEO stormed into office in 2003 on the premise that, because of his real-world experience, he could put Rhode Island on a business-like footing and weed out government waste. But the headlines this spring have been about the opposite sort of stories: multi-million dollar overruns in revamping the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, and Senate hearings into whether the state pays too much for privately contracted workers.
Especially embarrassing has been the Providence Journal’s disclosure about the outsized premiums going to a private firm supplying workers for a Department of Transportation traffic monitoring center — including one typist whose work cost $102,000, something that Carcieri himself termed “outrageous.” |
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