Segal on the march

A somewhat uninformed story in Roll Call dismisses David Segal’s chances in the First Congressional District race for the seat now held by Patrick Kennedy. Yet with conservative Democrat Anthony Gemma reportedly gearing up to enter the fight, Segal shows some early signs of an ability to exceed expectations.

For starters, Segal projected his natural persona during an appearance earlier this week on WPRO’s Buddy Cianci Show: candid, self-effacing, and serious about the issues — a stark contrast to David Cicilline’s very-on-message approach. While Cicilline maintains an advantage with the biggest war chest in the race, with Bill Lynch running No. 2, Segal’s less scripted quality could be appealing in a year of anti-incumbent sentiment among voters.

And speaking of money, Segal told Cianci he’s raised about $100,000 in the time since five or so days before his campaign announcement on May 12. Whether this initial boomlet of fundraising flourishes or fizzles out is a big question for the strength of Segal’s campaign.

Here’s what’s wrong with the Roll Call story on the CD1 race:

1) it completely overlooks the longstanding antipathy of RI voters toward electing a Providence mayor to a bigger post — a trend that has held for more than a half-century, since Dennis Roberts was elected governor.

2) it mistakenly includes Providence’s South Side, a past bastion of support for Cicilline, in CD1.

Those curious about Segal can check out his Drinking Liberally appearance tomorrow, 8 pm, at the Wild Colonial in Providence.