Here are the Rhode Island National Organization for Women PAC endorsements.
(Please note that all the candidates in this post are 100% on RI NOW's issues in addition to the highlights I'm covering here.)
Campaigns I've been volunteering for :
Betsy Dennigan (National NOW endorsement):
Betsy Dennigan is an emergency nurse and attorney who is running for national office in District 2. She is an able and worthy candidate and is focusing on healthcare, education, and stimulating the fishing industry and green industries in Rhode Island. I've written several posts about her on this blog already.
Angel Taveras
A strong progressive candidate for Providence, Angel is focusing his mayoral platform on housing, which the city certainly needs, and environmental issues, including municipal composting, which I worked on back in 2008 (cut to terribly-kept old blog) with David Mittelman in congruence with Andy Posner of the Capital Good Fund. I am sure that Andy will be invested in helping guide Angel through the process of finding sufficient land, finding staff, dealing with the NIMBY'd nature of gentrification within Providence, etc. He also wants to fix zoning laws, which, after having worked for the Census, I can see is a huge problem in the city. The difference between commercial and residential zoning has really affected cost of living, making rent far too high downtown and turning Providence into a ghost town after business hours. Providence needs a mayor who will actually help uncover and remove deep-seated problems, and I think Angel's capable of doing so.
Therese Caron
A criminal defense lawyer, Therese is a fighter for justice. She is an advocate and self-identifies as a feminist. She is the lesser-known Progressive face in the race for the District 2 Representative seat vacated by David Segal, but she will make up for it by working twice as hard in office. While I would support either Therese or Chris in office, as I know them both personally, Therese's story especially appealed to me. She was been a public defender for twelve years, and now works with helping low-income people in difficult situations. She decided to run for Segal's seat when she found out it was vacated--after he announced it--on the basis that her daughter was in high school and therefore old enough to handle the time commitment that Therese would invest in the Representative position. Therese is a true Rhode Islander, and I think she would serve her district well in office if elected.
Politicians I've met with or otherwise support:
Chris Blazejewski
Gina Raimondo
Theresa Tanzi
Showing posts with label Gina Raimondo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gina Raimondo. Show all posts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Today was a big day in terms of meeting important women for me. I met Nancy Rafi and Gina Raimondo within the last four hours.
Nancy came into the Center today to speak with the interns as a personal favor to Megan about the important work she does in trying to end violence against women. Nancy is not only close friends with Megan (she helped fight the city of Pawtucket when they almost didn't let the Center open), she is also close friends with Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues. Nancy has also started her own nonprofit, the Rhode Island Crisis Assistance Center. It does amazing, immediate work for women to help deal with details in crisis situations, like providing clothing to women after going to the hospital for a rape kit, because the hospital will take clothing away as evidence and leave women to go back home in a hospital gown. Its next fundraiser will be in September, and it is an awesome concept. Called "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes," it is a walk in which men raise money to help prevent and raise awareness of domestic violence by walking a mile in bright red high heels. I fully intend to get the guys in my fraternity, including my boyfriend, involved. The interns at the Center will also have a team, and it's going to be a lot of fun.
After being thoroughly impressed with Nancy and the wonderful efforts she's made to help direct attention to relationship abuse, I attended Gina Raimondo's first "Money School" lecture in Cranston. Gina is running for Treasurer of Rhode Island, but is taking the position to the people by offering financial resources and lessons to Rhode Islanders for free. She covered basic information about savings, credit, and debt that, judging from the reactions of the people around me, were really helpful. I picked up a few tips, also, which is great, but mostly I learned about different resources for college funding that I hadn't known about. There are a lot of small organizations within the government that loan and help very specific circumstances, but are never used or known about and therefore aren't helping people. Rhode Island's unemployment rate is still ridiculously high and the cost of living is constantly increasing. Gina is trying to bring the Treasurer's office to the forefront of helping people directly, which is what the state desperately needs. She will hold banks accountable for taking advantage of their customers by holding control over the state's available bank fund, negotiating distributions of money among banks by requiring service to RI in return. I think her plans are great, and I sure as hell hope she wins the election.
This past week has also been full of candidate interviews and deciding endorsements for the upcoming primary. I think that I will talk more about that after the RI NOW PAC has come to a decision about all of its endorsements, but they are pretty exciting. We received over 30 returned questionnaires and have been choosing our candidates quite carefully. Once we announce our decisions, I will talk about meetings that I have had with specific candidates, and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to speak directly with the people who will be shaping the future of RI's policies. Also, the other women in NOW are amazing, and I'm super lucky to get to work with them so closely.
That's all for now. Take care.
Nancy came into the Center today to speak with the interns as a personal favor to Megan about the important work she does in trying to end violence against women. Nancy is not only close friends with Megan (she helped fight the city of Pawtucket when they almost didn't let the Center open), she is also close friends with Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues. Nancy has also started her own nonprofit, the Rhode Island Crisis Assistance Center. It does amazing, immediate work for women to help deal with details in crisis situations, like providing clothing to women after going to the hospital for a rape kit, because the hospital will take clothing away as evidence and leave women to go back home in a hospital gown. Its next fundraiser will be in September, and it is an awesome concept. Called "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes," it is a walk in which men raise money to help prevent and raise awareness of domestic violence by walking a mile in bright red high heels. I fully intend to get the guys in my fraternity, including my boyfriend, involved. The interns at the Center will also have a team, and it's going to be a lot of fun.
After being thoroughly impressed with Nancy and the wonderful efforts she's made to help direct attention to relationship abuse, I attended Gina Raimondo's first "Money School" lecture in Cranston. Gina is running for Treasurer of Rhode Island, but is taking the position to the people by offering financial resources and lessons to Rhode Islanders for free. She covered basic information about savings, credit, and debt that, judging from the reactions of the people around me, were really helpful. I picked up a few tips, also, which is great, but mostly I learned about different resources for college funding that I hadn't known about. There are a lot of small organizations within the government that loan and help very specific circumstances, but are never used or known about and therefore aren't helping people. Rhode Island's unemployment rate is still ridiculously high and the cost of living is constantly increasing. Gina is trying to bring the Treasurer's office to the forefront of helping people directly, which is what the state desperately needs. She will hold banks accountable for taking advantage of their customers by holding control over the state's available bank fund, negotiating distributions of money among banks by requiring service to RI in return. I think her plans are great, and I sure as hell hope she wins the election.
This past week has also been full of candidate interviews and deciding endorsements for the upcoming primary. I think that I will talk more about that after the RI NOW PAC has come to a decision about all of its endorsements, but they are pretty exciting. We received over 30 returned questionnaires and have been choosing our candidates quite carefully. Once we announce our decisions, I will talk about meetings that I have had with specific candidates, and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to speak directly with the people who will be shaping the future of RI's policies. Also, the other women in NOW are amazing, and I'm super lucky to get to work with them so closely.
That's all for now. Take care.
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