Rep. Walsh ‘furious’ to lose endorsement to ex-Republican

Providence Journal (RI)

July 03--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The chairman of the state Democratic Party has endorsed a Trump-backing former Republican -- who, in December, switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat -- over freshman state Rep. Moira Walsh, the outspoken Providence Democrat who gave her fellow lawmakers a case of agita with her comments, soon after she arrived at the State House, about how much alcohol she saw there.

Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairman Joseph McNamara endorsed Michael Earnheart over Walsh in House District 3 in Providence, according to a letter he filed with the secretary of state's office on June 28 that came to light over the weekend amid angry retorts from Walsh and her backers on social media.

"I am FURIOUS," Walsh wrote Saturday on Facebook. "Tell me how the Democratic Party endorsed my gun toting, Trump voting opponent."

She produced copies of Earnheart's deleted tweets, including one that said: "The left hijacked the Dems." Another hailed the benefits of a wall with "impaling, anti-climbing spikes," and a third from this past May 2018: "Just so you are aware, illegals are self-entitled lawbreakers and thieves, stealing jobs and government benefits meant for our own people."

"I don't think it is a coincidence that I am outspoken, and the fact they endorsed my opponent," said Walsh, a former waitress. "I think that strong, outspoken women who demand what they deserve really bothers the good old boys club up there, and I think that rather than acquiesce to our really, really reasonable requests they think that the easier thing to do is to replace us with people who won't make such audacious requests as equal pay and women's reproductive rights .... and not locking up drug addicts."

Reached by telephone, Earnheart told The Providence Journal he was at work and not immediately available to respond to questions, but would do so at a later time.

"WOW," tweeted state GOP Chairman Brandon Bell. "Joe McNamara wrote in an endorsement for a Pro-Trump Democrat to be State Representative. Must have been really upset that @RepMoira_Jayne talked about what's really in those file cabinets at the State House #RIAnimalHouse"

McNamara, a Democratic representative from Warwick, did not respond to a Journal inquiry, but T. Kevin Olasanoye, the state party's executive director, said this was simply a case where Earnheart came to the state party seeking the endorsement, Walsh did not and she "did not inoculate herself" by appointing a representative district committee friendly to her when she had the chance.

Walsh acknowledges she did not seek the endorsement because she did not expect to get it.

Olasanoye only concedes this point: the party could have done a better job "vetting" Earnheart before the chairman agreed to endorse him. At the point Earnheart made his case for why he should get the endorsement, Olasanoye said he appeared to be just the kind of "Trump Democrat" the state party knows it needs to woo back into the mainstream of the party.

"What he told us was his support for Donald Trump has everything to do with his disdain for Hillary Clinton," but that he had been "a Democrat beforehand." (The dates don't exactly match up. The Providence canvassers office says Earnheart registered as a Republican when he first registered in the city in 2014.)

But Olasanoye said: "Coming out of the 2016 election one thing that we heard repeatedly was that for every person who was dejected, upset ... that Hillary Clinton didn't win, there was a Democrat who voted for Donald Trump who either didn't like Hillary Clinton because of the baggage that came with her, or felt like she tipped the scales in the primary. ... Our job in this election cycle is to figure out how to bring those people back."

But Walsh was not the only progressive woman legislator in the Rhode Island legislature who lost their party's endorsement, though the other decisions were made at the local level by "district committees" assembled two years ago by the politicians in power at the time, including then-House majority Leader John DeSimone, who lost his bid for reelection to Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell.

Stepping back from Olasanoye's hypertechnical explanations of how state-level and district endorsements work, state Rep. Aaron Regunberg -- a high-profile progressive running for lieutenant governor -- issued a statement denouncing "the Democratic establishment's string of anti-woman endorsements this week."

"It is absolutely shameful that the establishment machine is lining up behind conservative, unethical and anti-woman candidates to run against real Democrats in races across Rhode Island," said Regunberg, citing party endorsements of "a vocal Trump supporter" over Walsh in House District 3; Holly Taylor Coolman, "running on a specifically anti-choice platform" against Ranglin-Vassell in House District 5, and Gregory Acciardo, "a former state senator with a criminal record" over Bridget Valverde, a Democratic candidate competing for a Republican-held seat in Senate District 35.

(The Superior Court has scheduled a hearing for July 27 on Acciardo's motion to expunge his 2009 drunken-driving record.)

Regunberg also voiced his dismay at the endorsement of former Rep. John Carnevale's comeback bid, by his local House district committee, while he is facing criminal charges -- including perjury.

Carnevale, a retired Providence police officer, served in the Assembly until 2016, when he was forced out of the race after allegations that he did not live at 150 Barbara St., but in fact in another house he owned in Johnston. He was indicted by a grand jury for perjury over allegations that he lied about where he lived. The case is pending. He is running again from the same Barbara Street address he claimed as his home in 2016.

"I don't know how it happened," Ranglin-Vassell told The Journal. "What I can say is that the system of endorsements is broken, and it needs fixing. There needs to be full transparency."

Coolman fired back at Regunberg, saying his description of her campaign as "specifically anti-choice" was an "intentionally misleading" characterization of her "nuanced pro-life" stance.

In the Senate, another female incumbent, Sen. Jeanine Calkin of Warwick, was also passed over for endorsement in favor of a male primary challenger, in this case Mark McKenney.

___

Visit The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) at www.projo.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.