Progressives Launch Political Rankings in RI to Rival Conservatives

Progressives Launch Political Rankings in RI to Rival Conservatives

A new political ranking has emerged in Rhode Island to provide what it says is “unbiased and accurate” information about Rhode Island legislators ahead of the 2020 election cycle  — by a co-owner and author at a progressive website who has donated to left-leaning Democratic candidates. 

Last week, “RI Rank” — produced by Uprise RI’s Greg Brailsford — released its first ranking of what it said were the Senators who put in the “most effort to communicate and interact with Rhode Islanders.” 

Taking the top spot was progressive Democrat Senator Sam Bell, followed by Democratic Senators Gayle Golden, Bridget Valverde, Cynthia Armour Coyne, Melissa Murray, and Stephen Archambault.

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Brailsford, in a blog post on RI Rank last fall, wrote the purpose of the rankings were in part to expose Republicans running as Democrats.

“Rhode Island has a problem. It is a two-headed monster of a problem: Voters do not have enough information about their state representatives to know who to vote for, so in turn they vote by party. Due to this information gap, most Republican candidates for the State House in turn run as Democrats, banking on the State’s large Democratic voter base and lack of information that would expose them as conservatives,” wrote Brailsford on the RI Rank website. 

“That changes on January 1st. Beginning in 2020, every Rhode Island voter will have access to easy to understand ratings that compile each legislator’s voting record,” the site added. 

According to campaign finance records, Brailsford has given $1,6000 to Democratic candidates Aaron Regunberg, Moira Jayne Walsh, and Jeanine Calkin. 

In its description, RI Rank calls itself “unbiased.” 

“RI Rank is built on trust — the public’s trust that the information we provide is unbiased and accurate," according to the website. 

Multiple efforts by GoLocal to reach Brailsford and Uprise RI were unsuccessful. 

Left Meets Right

For the past several years, the conservative-leaning Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity has produced rankings of lawmakers, including its “Freedom Index 2019” last fall.

The Center in its latest rankings reported that only Republican lawmakers scored “in the positive” — with all Democrats scoring negatively. 

“Once again in 2019, Rhode Island lawmakers significantly encroached upon the freedoms of its citizens. The Senate, collectively, was the biggest violator of economic, individual, and constitutional liberties with a dismal score… while the House was almost as bad. Individually, only 12 lawmakers scored above zero — all Republicans Among party caucuses,” wrote the Center, stating that:

* The 66 House Democrats scored a negative (-47.22) while their 9 GOP counterparts scored a positive (+44.61)
* The 30 Senate Democrats scored a negative (-59.63) while their 5 GOP counterparts scored a positive (+28.90)

“Our Center’s Freedom Index is named so, because it evaluates whether or not lawmakers, per their official voting records, preserve or encroach upon the freedoms that Americans hold so dearly; individual freedoms, economic freedoms, educational freedoms, Bill of Rights freedoms, etc,” said Center CEO Mike Stenhouse, when reached for comment. “A well-intended piece of legislation that infringes on any of our freedoms, will generally receive a negative score.”

Stenhouse addressed if he thought there were biases in their rankings, as Republicans were all at the top. 

“Conservatives largely seek public policy solutions that protect freedom, while liberals and progressives are usually willing to sacrifice one person’s freedoms for some perceived benefit to some other person,” said Stenhouse, who donated to Republican Cranston Mayor Allan Fung’s gubernatorial campaign last election cycle. 

Stenhouse said he took issue with RI Rank’s examination of social media interaction as a tool of effective governance. 

“Social media responsiveness is not an effective measure of lawmakers’ public policy positions and is an illegitimate metric to judge the record of elected officials,” said Stenhouse.