Dan McGowan – The Boston Globe
I’m annoyed that Joy Fox isn’t more annoyed by the opportunists she’s running against in the Democratic primary for Congress in Rhode Island’s 2nd District.
There’s Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who might very well make an excellent congressman, except it’s difficult to get past the fact that he spent seven years planning a campaign for governor until he realized this race might be a little easier to win.
There’s David Segal, a former state representative from Providence who fashions himself as progressive before it became trendy. He’s tried this before. He ran for Congress in 2010, when Patrick Kennedy retired from the 1st District. He lost, spent the next two years trying to talk himself into primarying Congressman David Cicilline (he didn’t), and then mostly disappeared for a decade.
Oh, and you can’t forget about Sarah Morgenthau. She summers in Rhode Island and her consultants have advised her that you don’t use a straw to drink Del’s, so she’s more than qualified to represent the 2nd District.
They’re all trying to succeed to retiring US Representative James Langevin, who has served Rhode Island honorably for 11 terms and probably could have won another 11 terms if he really wanted to. While these candidates are desperate to get to Washington, D.C., Langevin wants to spend more time here at home, potentially as president of Rhode Island College.
Then there’s Fox, the one credible contender in the Democratic primary who not only has deep ties to the 2nd District, but seems to actually enjoy living there year round.
She was a reporter and editor at the Cranston Herald – the best local newspaper in the district – and then worked in communications for Langevin and former governor Gina Raimondo. Now the 44-year-old runs a public relations business, and yes, she’s working while campaigning, because that’s what people who haven’t been handed everything in life have to do.
She got in the race because she looked around at the other candidates and saw a field of people who really wanted to be members of Congress because it sounds like a fun job. She learned from Langevin that you have to actually love the job and the people you serve, because most of the work doesn’t happen on cable TV.
Original source can be found here.
