Loughlin Resigns from Hinckley Campaign

John E. Mulligan of the Projo is reporting that John Loughlin has resigned as the campaign spokesman for GOP Senate Candidate Barry Hinckley...

John J. Loughlin II has resigned as spokesman for Republican Barry Hinckley's Senate campaign, after taking responsibility for an erroneous charge leveled against a tax proposal by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

The "erroneous charge" refers to a press release put out by the Hinckley campaign which claimed that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's so-called "Buffett Rule" bill would cause property taxes to rise due to an impact on municipal bond investment, despite the fact that "the Whitehouse legislation would not affect the tax treatment of municipal bonds" (also reported on by Mulligan).

Lesson #1 from this: Rhode Islanders, even well-meaning ones, need to get over their obsession that all taxation issues can be reduced to how they impact the property tax, and that the property tax is a bad tax while other taxes are good taxes.

Lesson #2 from this: The country needs to get over its obsession that "how will this impact bondholders" is the primary question for evaluating any public policy change.

Keystone Pipeline Vote Reveals Sheldon Whitehouse's Highly Questionable Priorities

Remarkably (did the sun rise in the east this morning?), PolitiFact today ruled as "True" a statement by an R (Barry Hinckley) to the apparent detriment of a D (Senator Sheldon Whitehouse).

Benjamin "Barry" Hinckley III, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, recently criticized Whitehouse's vote in support of President Obama's decision to delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline between Canada and Texas. ...

"According to Hinckley, the impact is not just on Mid-Western construction jobs but also on jobs right here in Rhode Island," the news release said. "More than 27,000 Rhode Island jobs depend on trade with Canada, and Rhode Island sells more to Canada than to the state’s next six largest export markets combined."

The debate over the Keystone pipeline extends from Alberta to Washington, D.C. But one question hits close to home: Does Rhode Island really have 27,000 jobs that depend on trade with Canada?

More importantly, it affords the opportunity to highlight the completely misguided actions of Senator Whitehouse (and President Obama and other democrats) in opposing the project.

Let's dispense, first of all, with the assertion by its opponents that there has not been enough time to review the environmental implications of the pipeline. In fact, contrary to President Obama's statement that Republicans were trying to "rush" him into approval, a review of the pipeline on the federal, state and local level had been ongoing for years until

the [Obama State Department] backed away from signing off on the plan last year after environmentalists and local lawmakers complained.

Secondly, larger environmental concerns. Barry Hinckley summarizes nicely.

"Because Senator Whitehouse voted against the Keystone pipeline, oil from US producers in the midwest must be shipped by rail and truck, creating more carbon emissions – and the Canadian oil will most likely be shipped by oil tankers to China,” Hinckley continued. “That means greater risks to our oceans from oil spills and increased carbon emissions from tankers -- not to mention the fact that this Canadian oil will be refined and burned in China where environmental regulations are nowhere near as strict as in the US.”

Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that, in terms of both refinery and transportation processes, China and the US are on opposite ends of the environmental spectrum.

Now we're down to the core of the issue: why shouldn't the United States encourage the oil production and economy of its neighbor and strong ally, especially when it means the creation in the US of 20,000 new, private sector jobs? It has become abundantly clear that not all energy related jobs can be in the fast shrinking field of the heavily-government-subsidized green "industry".

More specific to the junior senator from Rhode Island, why is he discouraging the oil production and economy of a neighbor and strong ally from whom the state that he purportedly represents derives 27,000+ precious jobs?

"Are You Better Off Today Than Five Years Ago?"

Economics for five year olds, by a five year old.

Barry Hinkley's Intriguing New Campaign Manager Executive Director

Smart move, Barry. (What IS the difference between the "Executive Director" of a campaign and a "Campaign Manager"???)

The Barry Hinckley for Senate campaign has announced that John Loughlin, former Republican candidate for U.S. Representative in 2010 against David Cicilline will assume the position of executive director.

“I think Barry is the guy who is going to create jobs and frankly Rhode Island is dying right now, and we need a senator who will lead our congressional delegation with real business experience,” said Loughlin. Loughlin said Hinckley, a Republican, has the resume necessary to help turn the economy around.

"I am very excited that John will be joining our team to defeat Sheldon Whitehouse," said Hinckley. "John shares my values of private sector job growth and a government that doesn't continue to spend our children's future."

Check out Hinckley's website here.

Sheldon Whitehouse, Born with a Silver Spoon Horseshoe

I mentioned reports that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had apparently benefited from rules that make it OK for our Washington politicians to engage in what, in any other arena, would be considered insider trading. While Whitehouse continues to deny that he made the trades (instead, it was his financial adviser who did it for him), More details are coming out that reveal a remarkable sense of timing to the benefit of RI's junior senator (h/t Prof. Jacobson):

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also made a flurry of trades in the days after the Paulson-Bernanke meeting with legislators.

At minimum, Whitehouse sold $250,000 in the stocks below between September 18-24, 2008. He may have sold as much as $600,000 in the stock below according to disclosures.

As Whitehouse's 2012 Senatorial opponent Republican Barry Hinckley told WPRO:

Look at these trades and the timing of them and the massive volume. He is trading between 5 and 20 percent of his net worth I find it implausible that much of someone’s net worth would be traded without someone’s knowledge....It appears there are two sets of rules for people like Sheldon Whitehouse, who are career politicians, who apparently are trading their own accounts when they should be working for us...whether it is exclusive health care they have for themselves or opting out of Obama care and apparently now they are allowed to inside trade which of course is illegal for the rest of Americans....Rhode Islanders are working hard just to make ends meet and it seems like no matter what they do they can’t get ahead but rich career politicians like Sheldon Whitehouse seem to be getting ahead at our cost.

Candidate Hinckley Staffs Up

Scott McKay of WRNI (1290AM) reports that Benjamin "Barry" Hinckley, who has filed the paperwork to begin a run for Senate against incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse, has attracted some experienced political operatives to his campaign staff...

[Darcie Johnston] is a Montpelier, Vermont-based fund raising consultant who worked on then-Republican U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee’s 2006 Senate race. [Paul Hatch], who is based in Washington, D.C. is a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association. Both Johnston and Hatch were consultants on the unsuccessful GOP attempt to defeat Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank in 2010.

At least in its early stages, this is appearing to be a serious and not idiosyncratic campaign attempt.

Believe it or Not, Mister Hinckley is Running For Senate...

Dan McGowan at GoLocalProv has the initial scoop on a potential Republican challenger to Rhode Island junior Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Benjamin “Barry” Hinckley (who, as McGowan notes, has already got his campaign website up).

A quick rundown of Banjamin Hinckley's issue positions, based on the bio on his website, is that he favors repeal of Obamacare, favors reducing government spending by "by eliminating earmarks, cutting all redundant programs, and fighting for a constitutionally-sound Balanced Budget Amendment", favors tax-code reform, and that he believes something ambiguous about Social Security, that "the federal government must stop looting the Social Security Trust Fund and treating it like its own personal petty cash drawer...our citizens contribute much of their hard earned income to Social Security and those funds deserve to be respected and used for their intended purpose". Richard C. Dujardin of the Projo adds a couple of liberal positions on social issues, support for gay marriage and for the right to abortion.

McGowan also notes that the two Federal candidates that Mr. Hinckley has contributed to in recent election cycles are Scott Brown (good, from a Republican perspective) and Kristen Gillibrand (huh?).