Not for Nothing is back after a New Year's hiatus. Happy 2012, people. A few political/media notes and Occupy ruminations as we get back into the swing of things:

• Darrell West, the former Brown University political science professor now with the Brookings Institution will be speaking on the presidential election this Saturday, January 7, at the Newport Museum of Art at 2 p.

A new poll from EngageRI, a coalition of businesses, trade asscoations, and social services agencies, finds three-quarters of Rhode Island voters support pension reform along the lines that Treasurer Gina Raimondo has been pushing.

The poll, conducted September 7-10, found 73 percent strongly or somewhat supporting a plan described as follows:

A new poll out of Brown's Taubman Center reinforces an ironclad rule of politics: it's the economy.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has received glowing press for attacking the city's budget woes head-on. And that has certainly insulated him, to some degree, from the slings and arrows of economic misfortune. But he still gets middling reviews from voters.

New York Times columnist David Brooks has an interesting piece today on why we need to take Texas Governor Rick Perry's presidential ambitions seriously. Among the prime considerations - and this could have implications in the looming GOP primary in Rhode Island's First Congressional District between former State Representative John J.

A new, wide-ranging Brown University poll is out. Among the highlights: mixed views on Governor Chafee's sales tax proposal (lowering the rate from 7 to 6 percent, adding a 1 percent tax on some items, expanding the number of items to be taxed), poor approval ratings for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative David Cicilline, and solid support for organized labor (Wisconsin, ye seem so far away).

A new poll from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling has 50 percent of Rhode Islanders favoring same-sex marriage and 41 percent opposed. It's a good number for advocates. And the long-term picture is even better.

Young people overwhelmingly support gay marriage, according to the poll: 62 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are in favor and just 31 percent opposed.

The results of the recent WPRI-TV poll, when reviewed in detail, show just what a climb Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio faces on Election Day. The survey, most of it conducted before his "shove it" comment, showed him just a slight edge on independent Lincoln Chafee among Democrats - we've known that was a problem for awhile.

Rhode Island's bumper crop of political polls is about to grow even more robust. Brown University's Taubman Center, which came under some criticism for its primary season survey, is releasing a new poll tomorrow morning.

Given the divergent results on the gubernatorial race in recent polls, this new survey may help to steady our understanding of where the state's headline race stands.

Rhode Island's pundit class may have been flying blind in the run-up to the primaries, with little in the way of public polls to digest. But the general election has brought a quick spurt of polls. Next up: a WPRI survey, with results released in part tonight, on the 6 p.m. news, and in part tomorrow. Tonight, we'll see numbers on the governor's race and issue like the 38 Studios deal and the Deepwater offshore wind farm.

A new WJAR poll is getting attention for a finding that has Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio with a commanding lead over independent Lincoln Chafee. The Chafee camp, which points to a recent Rasmussen poll that puts its candidate in the lead, is particularly exercised - suggesting the poll is flawed.

In this week's Phoenix, I've got a piece that tackles the public opinion poll in the context of this year's elections. Two points: a lack of public polling left pundits flying blind in the run-up to the primary; and David Cicilline's candidacy raises an interesting question - could there be a gay "Bradley effect?"

The Bradley effect is named after a black candidate for governor of California, Tom Bradley, who was leading in the polls in his fall 1982 race but lost the election.

A new Rasmussen poll is getting some attention because it shows Democrat Frank Caprio running nack-and-neck with independent Lincoln Chafee in the gubernatorial race. The poll also shows Caprio faring better than fellow Democrat Patrick Lynch in a match-up with Chafee.

A couple of observations:

• As PoliticsDaily points out, Caprio leads Lynch in part because of his claim on Republican voters: he draws 19 percent to Lynch's 7 percent.

A new poll out of Brown University this morning has independent Lincoln Chafee leading the gubernatorial race and the electorate down on incumbents.

The poll shows Chafee with a 34 to 28 percent edge over Democrat Frank Caprio, should he win the party's nomination. The gap is even wider in a match-up with Democrat Patrick Lynch - 33 percent to 18 percent.

The WPRI poll released last night is, undoubtedly, bad news for Representative Patrick Kennedy. The poll found 35 percent of voters statewide giving him good marks on job performance and 62 percent giving him poor marks. And while 35 percent of First Congressional District voters said they would vote for Kennedy, 31 percent said they would consider someone else and 28 percent said they would vote to replace him.

Some in the media, including WPRO's Dan Yorke, have made reference to the "Bradley effect" theory that Barack Obama's poll ratings could be inflated by as much as six percent -- due to the dynamics of race.

Let's recognize that this issue is a lot more complex than that. For starters, as one astute local political observer mentioned to me yesterday, Obama's recent ascent in the polls is driven more by effective organizing on the ground than by the fallout from the fiscal crisis.