Rhode Island used to be brain drain central. People who are naturally talented and have a lot of potential in the public sector typically move on to greener pastures in municipalities like Boston since RI has a very low ceiling for ladder climbers and is also much less progressive to work for. Also, mind you, talented young politicians like Regunberg barely lose to milquetoast familiar names like McKee and then just take their talents to Harvard instead. Rinse and repeat.

We have some amazing and talented local politicians, but they're primarily at the hyper local level.