I have faith in Rhode Islanders........................

The open invite cookout was successful. First, we were able to raise awareness of the needs of the less fortunate by getting attendees to contribute over 75 cans of tuna fish.

I was glad the Latino community was well represented, as was the RI Chapter of Reserve Officers Association, the Rhode Island Chapter of Democrats for America (DFA), the Providence Fire Department, who supplied the band and dozens of concerned citizens, neighbors and friends. As important were the members of the party infrastructure who were unable to attend, but expressed support for the changes I am trying to make in RI politics.

Here's a common trend among both Democrats and Republicans who attended. They believe government officials fail to represent the public's interests. In most cases their concerns are 100% valid. Economic fairness seemed to be the prevailing theme.

I think the root cause is there is no bridge between the voters and their elected officials and considerable partisan politics. Try calling or writing one.

I think when we have large corporations capable of lobbying for their own economic interests (not on behalf of their employees or the public) they have an unfair advantage, as if they were a private citizen. There was a time when Democrats were of, for and by the people, but in the past 30 years things have changed. Where do campaign funds come now and what kind of “indebtedness” have they created? We can talk about special interests and the wealthy some other time, but the point is essentially the same.

My point is that if we demanded that lobbyists were banned from soft or hard money contributions, then they would have no more sway than the voters who actually elect our public servants.

I believe (I want to) that the public is getting wise to how lopsided we have become. They will pay less attention to the millions of dollars in slick ads and instead will take a look at a candidate who is authentic and has the same risk as the voters if things aren't fixed in Washington.