Happy Saturday! Here's another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com -- as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@wpri.com and follow me on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Nesi's Notes SIGN UP NOW 1. From the day Seth Magaziner announced he would abandon a run for governor and seek Jim Langevin's congressional seat instead, he has faced endless questions about when he would actually move his family into the 2nd Congressional District. Until now, he'd had a consistent answer: he and his wife were only staying in their East Side home until they finished renovating a house in Cranston. But on this week's Newsmakers, Magaziner announced he's changed his mind, and plans to remain a constituent of Gabe Amo's in the 1st District while representing the 2nd. "Frankly, our family’s circumstances have changed," the 41-year-old Democrat told Tim White and me. "My wife got a new job that requires her to commute to Cambridge, about a two-hour commute. We had a new baby, and ... the house in Cranston ended up needing a lot more work than we expected." Time will tell if that answer satisfies voters; Magaziner notes he only lives about a mile from the district line, and urged a focus on his work in Washington. Unsurprisingly, that isn't the view of GOP Chairman Joe Powers, whose party came within a few points of flipping the 2nd District in 2022, when Magaziner was promising voters he'd move. "Seth may not be required to live in District 2 — but it’s clear he never really intended to," Powers said. "And that, more than anything, shows exactly where his priorities lie: not with the people he represents, but with his own political convenience." Next year's midterm election is still far away, and Democrats haven't lost a House race in Rhode Island since 1992. But Magaziner has certainly given his eventual opponent some easy campaign fodder for 2026, and set tongues wagging in Providence and Washington alike. 2. One of the striking things about our current political environment is its combination of dramatic policy shifts and stable public opinion, particularly when it comes to President Trump. The first two months of Trump's second administration have seen a huge number of significant developments. Yet a brand-new UNH poll of Rhode Island voters suggests almost no minds have been changed by events. The president's job approval rating in Rhode Island stands at 40%, almost identical to the 42% of the vote he received in the state last November. That's not necessarily a surprise -- Trump's first-term poll numbers were unusually stable, too -- but it's still worth noting. On Newsmakers, Congressman Magaziner acknowledged that the polling suggests a sizable share of his 2nd District constituents are happy with the results of an administration he condemns as lawless and incompetent. "What I am seeing is that there may be people who voted for Trump -- including in Rhode Island -- who like some of what he's doing, but those same people disagree with many of the things that he's doing," he argued. "And it's our job to stand up to him when necessary." The poll does offer some evidence for that contention, with support for Trump's tariff policy at only 34%, lower than his overall approval, though on foreign policy there's basically no gap. Meantime, the UNH poll also indicates how independents are driving the small but measurable political divergence between Rhode Island and Massachusetts of late. In Rhode Island, 66% of independent voters approve of Trump's job performance, but in Massachusetts, only 35% do. 3. Rhode Island got some good news from D.C. on Thursday, with Governor McKee announcing that U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had signed the documents unlocking $221 million in federal funding for the Washington Bridge which had been awarded in the waning months of the Biden administration. McKee called a hastily scheduled news conference late Thursday to make the announcement, ahead of his departure Friday for a 12-day trip out of state with family. "We are tremendously grateful to Secretary Duffy and the Trump administration for following through with this commitment to Rhode Islanders," McKee said. The next step will be finding out how much the bridge will actually cost and when it will be finished; those announcements are slated for early June. In a statement, the four members of the Rhode Island congressional delegation said they worked "on a bipartisan basis" to ensure the bridge funding was secured. Senator Whitehouse went out of his way to thank his GOP colleague Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia -- who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, where Whitehouse just became the top Democrat -- for her help. Intriguingly, Whitehouse noted that Duffy released the bridge funding "as Wednesday’s committee hearing for the secretary loomed." Those two comments may shed more light on why Whitehouse decided to vote in favor of confirming Duffy last month -- the only senator from Southern New England who supported him. 4. Congressional Republicans have generally had President Trump's back in the early months of his administration, so it's noteworthy that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker agreed to join Jack Reed, his Democratic counterpart, in demanding clear answers on the Signal chat affair. While the Armed Services Committee has a long tradition of bipartisanship, that comity has been strained in the current climate, with Pete Hegseth being the first defense secretary whom Reed has ever voted against. 5. Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde has followed through on his pledge to file an impeachment resolution against Rhode Island U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell. But it's unclear if House GOP leaders want to spend time on judicial impeachments, particularly with Chief Justice Roberts warning against them. 6. As mentioned in this column last week, the legislative outlook for the proposed Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2025 remains a bit murky. A majority of lawmakers in both the House and the Senate are cosponsoring the bill, suggesting it would pass if a floor vote is called and every cosponsor stays on board. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio is clearly more open to allowing a vote on the measure than in the past, even if he himself doesn't support it. And the Rhode Island AFL-CIO is touting a poll that showed 64% support among Rhode Island voters. But the enormous turnout at the State House for Wednesday's House Judiciary hearing on the bill reinforced that advocates of gun rights are organized and activated on the issue, which may make at least some Democratic lawmakers nervous. And as The Globe's Dan McGowan noted, one of the Democrats trying to line up votes to eventually succeed Ruggerio as Senate president -- Frank Ciccone -- is an opponent of the bill. The next step will be the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduling its own hearing. 7. Speaking of Senate President Ruggerio, he returned to the Senate for the first time since Feb. 4 on Tuesday to preside over that day's session, but opted to skip Thursday's. 8. Not for the first time, the Projo's Kathy Gregg unearthed the scheduling of a public hearing to vet proposed raises for cabinet members, setting off a State House brouhaha. Governor McKee has stood by the pay bumps for his top lieutenants, despite bipartisan criticism from House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, among others. The question is whether legislative leaders would actually take the step of voting against the raises, rather than just making unhappy noises about them. Once McKee submits the formal list of raises to the Assembly, legislative leaders will have 30 days to decide whether to take a vote rejecting them. 9. If you're the type who cuts checks to politicians, you may want to put your phone on "Do Not Disturb" this weekend, as candidates and would-be candidates dial for dollars ahead of Monday's first-quarter fundraising deadline. Both Rhode Island congressmen have been holding local events, with Seth Magaziner gathering donors at the University Club on March 18 and Gabe Amo doing the same at The Guild in Pawtucket on Thursday night. Scott Millard passed along word of a reception for Dan McKee that was held March 19 at the Park Theatre in Cranston. And after the deadline, Joe Shekarchi will travel to Washington to keep adding to his $3 million campaign stockpile: Gina Raimondo is headlining an April 16 event for the speaker in D.C. hosted by the lobbying firm Stateside Associates, per an invite. 10. Pawtucket Superintendent Patricia Royal is going to war against Mayor Grebien and other city officials. She sat down with our Alexandra Leslie and Eli Sherman to explain why. 11. They said this day would never come: trains are now running daily from New Bedford and Fall River to Boston. Governor Healey and other top officials trooped to Bristol County on Monday for celebratory rides, hailing the first commuter rail trips between the capital and the South Coast since the Eisenhower administration. All major cities within 50 miles of Boston now have train service to the Hub. At full fare, a weekday ride will cost you $24.50 round trip -- the same cost as from Providence to Boston and back, though the trip from New Bedford takes longer. Amid the celebrations, MassINC's Elise Rapoza (a New Bedford native) offered this note of caution: "Now that the train is here, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture: the current service was always meant as a temporary solution until the shorter, more direct route through Stoughton is completed. I worry that ridership numbers may determine whether Phase 2 moves forward, when the very factors that make the Phase 1 Middleborough route less desirable could suppress those numbers. I also worry about how long, expensive, and complicated construction projects are in Massachusetts." 12. People in the news ... Cox Communications has named Nora Crowley, most recently at DLT, as its new government affairs director for its East region; she succeeds Steve Iannazzi, who is now out in Ohio ... RIPEC has promoted Justine Oliva to director of policy and research after five years as manager of research ... the Partnership for Rhode Island is looking for a new executive director now that Tom Giordano is stepping down ... Rhode Island PBS/Public's Radio CEO Pam Johnston is seeking public input about the merged organization's future ... former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker will deliver New England Tech's commencement address, and Judge Caprio will do the honors at PC. 13. Abe Beame ponders whether the future of cinema might simply be old movies. 14. All of us at WPRI 12 have been elated by the response to our 70th anniversary coverage this week, which has brought back memories for many viewers, just as it has for us. If you want to catch up, the best place is to start is the half-hour special we aired Thursday night, which you can stream on the 12+ TV app or watch on WPRI.com here. The 30-minute special features highlights from the week's stories, but there is even more 70th content compiled on this page, including this very fun piece by our Sophia Szabo and Ryan Welch testing out 1950s TV equipment up at the Museum of Broadcast Technology in Woonsocket. On Thursday, meteorologist T.J. Del Santo trooped to Smith Hill to represent us when the House passed a resolution marking the occasion. And if you missed the email on Monday, check out my Rhode Map Q&A about why we went big for the 70th and what we learned from the process. Now I'm just wondering how much more rare footage we can unearth for our 75th in 2030! 15. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — Congressman Magaziner. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday. Ted Nesi (tnesi@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi's Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the new 12+ smart TV app. Follow us on social media:                     Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup SIGN UP NOW ...read more read less