6 April 2022
Chairman Richard Cascella
Warwick Republican City Committee
P.O. Box 9137
Warwick, RI 02889
Dear Chairman Cascella:
I hope this message finds you well. We live in a great community. Yes, some things could be improved but compared to many other places on the planet, we should wake up each day in an aura of gratitude.
What is your Party doing locally at present?? Is it a case where it is just some people in the Party and not the Party as a whole?? Who came up with the bright idea of letting Rob Cote speak for you and then you backing him up??
What does everyone see?? Everyone sees a Ken Block surrogate promising to attack a Mayor who is popular with both sides on a daily basis. Everyone is waiting for all these candidates you supposedly have to make themselves heard. Instead, we hear from Mr. Cote yet again.
It feels like an unprepared plot for a high school musical. Lots of promises mixed with vitriol and nothing to back it up except maybe a surprise run by Ken Block. Please do that – I have friends in Kansas who need an excuse to visit Rhode Island.
Local politics is supposed to be different from national politics. Ideally, there would be no need to identify by Party in local politics. Of course all kinds of folks would have multiple disagreements but they would be settled in a civil and happy way. Instead, a guy who took names off voter lists due to the person’s color is sending out his surrogate to mess with someone your base enjoyed voting for.
I did opposition research on Mayor Picozzi back at the start of his run. When I discovered one particular incident where a reported theft of contributions from an outside location did not match any of the paperwork, I truly started to wonder what I was dealing with. Was this another lying populist like Trump?? Turns out Mayor Picozzi is an honorable man who just doesn’t do paperwork very well.
If those problems rose up again, I would go recruit a bunch of Young Democrats, College Republicans would be welcome as well, to spend a few nights at City Hall and we would fix them. As for his “not paying bills on time” thing, I have made more money than lots of folks you know. Thanks to my sales talent, I often made 6 figures back in the day. I also spent it all thanks to my addictions and Bipolar disease going on adventures. In the late 90’s, even though I was raking it in, I had run a refined cocaine product enterprise to make ends meet. I am not going to get on somebody else’s case because the bills are a little late sometimes. This is especially true when said person performs so well in their current gig.
With regards to the Charter, most of us agree with you. The Charter should be rewritten so even if an “Unenrolled” or “3rd Party” type is elected Mayor, Republicans get to sit on Boards and Commissions. Just about every City, Town, and Village in New York has this feature in their charter. On the “no secret payees” question, everyone also agrees with you. We should know where money goes and there are no excuses for hiding that.
Seriously: who is going to “interfere” with a firm 3000 miles away to get a promotion?? What would such interference entail?? Should be a slam dunk. Oh that’s right, you guys let Mr. Cote get out front and some folks immediately turned their ears off.
When I went to your website I was also disappointed. You spent a lot of time on CRT. CRT isn’t being taught anywhere. Your need to rely on a white christian nationalist issue in an educated blue state is deeply troubling. Try to do better.
Why should you do better?? There is going to be a purge of the forced birth pig wing of the Rhode Island Democratic Party this year. In case you’re wondering, Legislators from Warwick benefit from a “hometown exemption” so they need not fear. That is a lesson from Utica. However, outside of Warwick, in Democratic circles, a lot of the state is going to be a war zone. Based on how weak your candidates are statewide, we can get away with that. I don’t need dumb issues at home to occupy my time when there’s so much fun to be had elsewhere.
Working together is in everybody’s interests. If you think a bunch of things have gone awry, make a list and have someone besides Mr. Cote present it. Trust me, if your side runs Ken Block, the number of people and money that will come in from out of town from Kansas alone will swamp you. It will not be as much fun as swamping North Providence and Johnston in New Yorkers bringing their cash, but it will be impressive. The end result is you not getting what you want and wasting a lot of time. Since Mr. Picozzi probably agrees with you on most issues, most people are going to see any challenge to him from the right as an ego exercise anyway.
I often point out that I have lived it all 3 ways. I have lived the most common way in Tiverton and Fall River where sometimes you can have political battles in your hometown. I have lived it the Newport Way where having a political fight means packing up your bags and jumping on a train headed for the upper East Side. I have also lived it the Utica way where folks show up at your house and Saturday at the local Hannaford’s has a Wrestlemania feel to it. I prefer the Newport way and I hope that’s the way it will be done here. Folks are willing to listen but not to a Ken Block surrogate pushing white nationalist trash.
In Hoc Signo,
Robert T. Oliveira
Warwick, RI
401-391-6402
Quahogs United 