On July 20, 2010 Sean was endorsed by the Rhode Island Statewide Coaliltion (RISC). Watch the 2010 candidate endorsements. (Sean is the 14th frame.)
http://riscmediacenter.com/
The Official RISC Business Network announcement page
http://www.statewidecoalition.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=173:risc-business-network-makes-first-endorsements
RI taxpayer group endorses Assembly candidates - Projo Politics Blog
politicsblog.projo.com
WARWICK. R.I. -- Voicing support for a pro-growth, pro-business agenda, the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition Business Network on Wednesday endorsed nine General Assembly candidates who, coalition members said, are willing to put the state's interests of the political considerations that often domina...
http://politicsblog.projo.com/2010/07/statewide-coali.html
Sean on Helen Glover WHJJ, July 19, 2010, Speaking about candidate sign stealing.
helen 7-19-10 8am
Cranston Herald - Gately comes out swinging again for Dist 26 seat
cranstononline.com
http://cranstononline.com/view/full_story_news/7965777/article-Gately-comes-out-swinging-again-for-Dist--26-seat?instance=home_news_2nd_left
Two visions of a better RI, each for the price of a vote
By Elizabeth Seal Printed in the Cranston Hearld 8/20/2008
Incumbent Sen. Beatrice Lanzi is used to having to fight for her District 26 seat, but Republican challenger Sean Gately is convinced this is the year the victory banner will wave elsewhere.
Lanzi, a 16-year veteran of the General Assembly, survived a transition from the House to the Senate and then a district restructuring that forced her into a primary. This year, however, she seriously considered turning in her Senate plate and leaving the “constant turmoil” to someone else.
“There’s been a lot of frustrating moments,” Lanzi said, bemoaning the disorganization – especially in the House – that strands many pieces of legislation. “It’s very difficult to get legislation through. It can get somewhat discouraging.”
However, when Lanzi told her school-age daughter, Sofia, of her intention to retire, Sofia wouldn’t hear of it.
“As only a first-grader can do, she looks at me and says, ‘Mom, a lot of things are difficult…my teacher says if you quit something, that makes you a quitter,’” Lanzi recalled. “She really made me stop and think.”
Now that her daughter is in school, Lanzi said, she has a new perspective on school issues and the importance of getting young people involved in government. She also feels the General Assembly spends too much time engaged in pointless debate and not enough time doing the work it was elected to do.
For that reason, Lanzi feels she has a lot of unfinished business to complete; one pet project for her is the Lindsay Ann Burke Act, which was supposed to be revised but died a quiet death upon leaving the Senate.
“It came to our attention a lot of domestic violence issues weren’t being prosecuted properly because they weren’t classified correctly,” Lanzi said. “You’d think that would be a cut and dried issue – there were no opponents…but we couldn’t even get a hearing in the House.”
Meanwhile, “when a debate on renaming the Sakonnet Bridge takes three hours, people watching [the session] at home must be extremely frustrated,” she continued.
If granted another term, Lanzi wants to put the entire education system on the table and start talking about whether it’s doing the job it’s supposed to. If it isn’t, she said, the General Assembly needs to make whatever changes are necessary. Although she said she agrees with Congressman James Langevin that No Child Left Behind is a “burden on our schools,” Lanzi feels many mandates – such as special education and maximum class size – are important to retain.
“I’ve come to see more and more, providing education – K through college – is the key for our economic development,” she said. “If you’re not educating people in the K-12 system, you’re having to provide services to them later in life. We need to not study it anymore – we need to sit down [and do something].”
Gately’s opinion is the current General Assembly members have been given plenty of time to do something and have proven that they can’t. Between a shrinking job market and a “shrinking pie” of public resources and monies, Gately said the state needs a major turnaround to survive.
“I don’t think anyone is happy with the status quo and my opponent represents [that],” he said.
Gately, who works for a company that tracks down, rounds up and keeps tabs on all court materials related to specific cases, rattled off a number of initiatives he’d like to launch if elected. At the heart of his ideas is his drive to improve the business climate in Rhode Island that, to Gately, necessitates improving the tax climate.
“[Let’s] completely remove the corporate welfare system…where certain businesses get certain breaks,” he said, explaining that he doesn’t think all these tax breaks are doing a thing to attract businesses or keep businesses in the state.
In fact, he’d like to see Rhode Island seek out creative manufacturing as a potential growth area. Drawing on the facilities and expertise at Quonset and elsewhere, Gately said, Rhode Island could place itself at the forefront of alternative energy production. The state’s ranks of trained blue-collar workers are an un-exploited asset, according to Gately.
“Renewable energy is going to be the Internet of this decade,” he said. “We have the resources and the manpower to make Rhode Island the center of manufacturing and distribution for renewable energy hardware.”
Gately also supports cracking down on illegal immigrants in the state, which includes making the use of E-Verify mandatory for businesses. When some businesses hire illegal immigrants and pay them low wages under the table, he said, that makes it very hard for law-abiding businesses to stay in business.
“The people who want to do business legally can’t compete with the people who don’t,” Gately said. “We have plenty of legal immigrants and residents who need jobs. You need to not only punish the people who [are here illegally], you need to punish the people who hire them.”
