When It’s This Stormy in Rhode Island.

Little ol’ Rhode Island is famous as the most Democratic state in the nation.  There’s a fair amount of competition for that designation, but the smallest states wins it on many counts.  It must have come as a surprise for poor Patches Kennedy, who represents the state’s First Congressional District,  that affection for him is in sharp decline.  A WPRI-TV poll released Thursday night finds “in which 28 percent of respondents from his district said they’d vote to replace the congressman if the election were held today; 31 percent said they’d consider another candidate; while 35 percent said they’d vote to reelect him.”

As he begins the fourth year of his first term, United States Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s hold on the support of state voters who elected him over Republican incumbent Lincoln Chaffee is also slipping.  The poll finds him with a 33% approval rate.

The state’s December unemployment rate of 12.3% may have something to do with the startling poll results.  It will take more than 9 months to get that number down by enough to restore confidence in leaders of the battered state.

Maybe all the surly Romans aren’t in Massachusetts, Patches.