In R.I., Everything is Local
M. Charles Bakst's column today is on Sen. Alves who is now the target of an FBI investigation in Operation Dollar Bill. Besides various allegations of wrong-doing, I found this paragraph telling:
"West Warwick’s Patricia Morgan, a former Republican state chairwoman, is quick to say she doesn’t like Alves. She complains, “Everyone who’s related to him seems to have a government job.” She once said she’d heard that 43 of his friends and family members had posts in government; Alves chuckled, “I’ve never done the counting.”
This is one of the complaints many Rhode Islanders have concerning state jobs - you need to be in the know for many of them. And it would seem rightly so sometimes. Local jobs are also no exception. And don't kid yourself that it applies just to Republicans. There just happens to be fewer of them.
How many legislators do you know who have obtained state/local jobs because of their membership? And how many of their relatives have obtained jobs? Doesn't exactly seem like a level playing field when it's who you know rather than what do you know & what have you done, does it?
"West Warwick’s Patricia Morgan, a former Republican state chairwoman, is quick to say she doesn’t like Alves. She complains, “Everyone who’s related to him seems to have a government job.” She once said she’d heard that 43 of his friends and family members had posts in government; Alves chuckled, “I’ve never done the counting.”
This is one of the complaints many Rhode Islanders have concerning state jobs - you need to be in the know for many of them. And it would seem rightly so sometimes. Local jobs are also no exception. And don't kid yourself that it applies just to Republicans. There just happens to be fewer of them.
How many legislators do you know who have obtained state/local jobs because of their membership? And how many of their relatives have obtained jobs? Doesn't exactly seem like a level playing field when it's who you know rather than what do you know & what have you done, does it?
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