Dear Neighbors:
When the sun sets tonight, the Jewish community will begin its observance of Rosh Hashanah, making the beginning of the religious new year. To all of you, of whatever faith or belief you hold, I extend the holiday’s traditional wish:
A good year
A year of peace
May gladness reign
And joy increase.
This past Wednesday, citizens of our City and State voted in the political primary which, in many cases, selected the likely winner of November’s general election. I would like to thank those of you who voted to nominate me as the Democratic Party candidate for Rhode Island Senate in our neighborhood. I will continue my campaign of meeting with you and hearing your ideas as the November election approaches.
Other winners of that primary include candidates Helena Foulkes for Governor, Kim Ahern for Attorney General and David Morales for Providence Mayor, each of whom brought compelling visions for the future that voters endorsed. I hope you will join me in congratulating them on their victories as they head towards the general election. I will be pleased to support their campaigns over the next two months and, if they win their general elections, find ways I can work with them for the good of the people of our City and our State.
As I met with you the past few months to discuss State issues, including these campaigns, many of you expressed concern about the tone of the discourse, which on occasion focused on issues that did not always align with what was most important to you. Part of this disconnect results from the nature of primary campaigns, in which competing candidates from the same political party often share a wide range of common principles and goals, making it necessary to find other ways to differentiate them from their rivals.
Even if the recently concluded campaigns did not always achieve the Platonic ideal of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, I remain deeply grateful for the free and fair elections we have in Rhode Island. We are blessed to enjoy the fine work of our Secretary of State, Board of Elections, local Boards of Canvassers and hundreds of poll workers statewide. Within a national context of a President who tried to overturn the 2020 election, and who is currently trying to tip the scales this November through aggressive gerrymandering, U.S. Postal Service interference with mail ballots and even $5,000 attempted bribes to voters, we cannot take our American elections for granted. Instead, we can support the current efforts of our Secretary of State (and possibly our Attorney General) to protect the integrity of the democratic institutions we all cherish.