Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

A $200 political donation is hardly a game-changing sum for Rep. Marvin Abney of Newport, or Rep. Scott Slater of Providence, Rhode Island.

But the pair of contributions to the top two lawmakers on the House Committee on Finance from Citizens Bank’s political action committee came a day before the panel approved a revised fiscal 2025 budget. They were part of Citizens’ session-long spending strategy to drum up support for a controversial bank tax rewrite.

The political check-writing appears to have paid off. The bill signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee on June 24 will reduce Citizens’ state property tax bill by allowing the bank to eliminate in-state payroll and property from what it owes. ...

A small stack of clipboards spread across a corner table, flanked by an inches-high American flag, were the only indication of political activity inside Brewed Awakenings in Johnston on Wednesday.

Members of the Johnston Republican Town Committee sat scattered across the coffee shop, chatting and apparently unbothered by the task at hand: collecting nomination signatures for Republican presidential candidates ahead of the looming deadline 24 hours away..

Their demeanor stood in stark contrast to the urgent tone of the Rhode Island Republican Party’s email the previous day, at which time none of the six Republican presidential hopefuls had enough signatures to qualify for the state’s April 2 primary. ...