Democratic Governor's Primary Winner is Gina Raimondo
GoLocal News Team and Kate Nagle
Democratic Governor's Primary Winner is Gina Raimondo
The race sets up a battle with Cranston Mayor Allan Fung.
Raimondo, Rhode Island's General Treasurer rose to national prominence after leading the effort to reform the Rhode Island's pension plan. Raimondo’s pension reform effort has drawn venomous from the public employee unions, who split support between Pell and Taveras in the primary, but she has received endorsements from many of the state's private employee unions, as well as prominent statewide and national figures including Myrth York, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPell, a former Coast Guard attorney and grandson of the late Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell is married to former U.S. Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan. The Pell campaign got off to a rocky start after a series of incidences involving Kwan's Prius last winter, but was able to build momentum over the summer thanks to a strong ground game and seemingly limitless budget for television advertising. Current Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, a Democrat who is not seeking reelection, endorsed Pell on the eve of the primary. Pell also received strong support from the teachers and nurses unions, with National Education Association (NEA) Executive Director Bob Walsh serving as a behind-the-scenes advisor and public facing surrogate for the campaign.
Taveras, who is currently serving out his first and only term as Mayor of Providence has been credited with cleaning up the Cicilline budget mess after inheriting what he has categorized as a "category five fiscal hurricane." The son of Dominican immigrants, Taveras emphasized his connection to working Rhode Islanders and journey from "Head Start to Harvard" on the campaign trail. For more than 60 years, no Providence Mayor has been successful running for Governor of Rhode Island. You have to go back to the 1950 election when Dennis Roberts was elected Governor.
Raimondo scored 42% of the vote and won over Providence Mayor Angel Taveras (29%) and Clay Pell (27%). If elected Raimondo would be Rhode Island's first female Governor.
Historic Spending
This year's Democratic primary for Governor will go down in history for being one of the most expensive in Rhode Island's history with more than $10 million in spending by the three campaigns.
The Raimondo campaign was the biggest spender, topping $5 million in campaign expenditures over the course of the entire election cycle according to reports filed with the Rhode Island Board of Elections. Pell, whose campaign was largely self-funded to the tune of $3.4 million in personal loans by the candidate, spent slightly over $3.5 million over the duration of the campaign. Taveras, who frequently pointed out that he was being outspent 2-1 by his opponents during the final weeks leading up to Primary Day spent about $2.5 million.
Low Voter Turnout
Turnout across the state was lower than expected this year.
In 2002, the Democrats faced a three-way battle ultimately won by Myrth York. Total turnout among the three high profile Democrats (York, now U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and then-House Finance Committee Chair Tony Pires) was 119,524 votes. The 2002 turnout was nearly 30% lower than the Democratic primary in 1990 which recorded 167,916 total votes (Sundlun, Flaherty and Paolino).
10 Questions Gina Raimondo Has to Answer When Running for Governor
10. Money
Can she explain the amount of out of state money?
Most of the candidates for Governor need to answer the question, can they raise enough to be competitive? That is not a problem for Raimondo. She has proven to be the most skilled fundraiser, but her issue is justifying that the vast majority of the money is coming from out-of-state.
Raimondo will face a number of questions regarding who is really behind her campaign - the amount of out-of-state dollars is just one of the questions.
9. Pension Reform
Did she only reform certain pensions?
Raimondo rose to celebrity status because of her leadership on pension reform. Her efforts helped to stabilize the pension system, but the reform was hardly democratic.
Teachers took the vast majority of the hit, while major groups of pensioners escaped reform including the judges, state police and disability pensioners. Raimondo has some explaining to do.
8. Lack of Transparency
If she lacks transparency as Treasurer, what will it be like as Governor?
From her deepest critics to the media and even members of the retirement board, many have questioned her and her office's willingness to share information and provide the public insights into her management of the investment commission and the performance of the fund under her leadership.
Data which historically was easily accessed by the public and media is now locked behind the Raimondo wall. Often this raises serious questions and forces the media to seek the simplest information via FOIA requests.
7. Wall Street
Why is Wall Street spending so much money supporting Raimondo?
Raimondo is the queen of fundraising and so much of it derives from the major players on Wall Street.
6. Performance
Has Raimondo managed the pension fund competently?
The most important job of the General Treasurer might be the management of the state's retirement fund. The blockbuster investigative piece by Stephen Beale unveiled that the pension system under Raimondo lost $200 million.
While she may be able to blitz the airwaves with positive messages about her bio and her leadership in pension reform, her Democratic primary competitors and/or her GOP opponent in the General Election may be able to destroy her credibility by playing up her "mismanagement of the pension system."
5. Hedge Funds
Will Raimondo pay the price for shifting so much of the assets into Hedge Funds?
For the past six months, Raimondo has been under constant critique for shifting more than 20% of the State's retirement dollars into unregulated Hedge Funds. The critics has included forensic auditor/Forbes contributor Ted Siedle, Rolling Stones magazine's star reporter Matt Taibbi, former General Treasurer and candidate again, Frank Caprio, as well as many of the public unions. The combination of where she gets her campaign dollars, coupled with the shift in investment strategy and the under performance of the fund may all build into a snowball effect.
4. Connect to RIers
Educated at Yale and Harvard, a Rhode Scholar and a millionaire, can she connect to the average RIer?
Raimondo is a born and bred Rhode Islander, but for her adult life she has been educated at the best colleges in the world and living a professional life aligned with many of America's super rich associated with Wall Street. In her announcement she mentioned a number of times she was a mother, but did not mention that her husband is a partner at Mckinsey - and according to Forbes magazine probably takes home $2 million or so per year.
Raimondo talks a lot about her father losing his job when she was a child, but she has come a long way since then. She could come across as the ultimate RI success story or be perceived as an out of touch venture capitalist.
3. Siedle and Taibbi
Neither Ted Siedle or Matt Taibbi are going away - can she deflect their questions and charges?
In the past two months, both forensic auditor/Forbes columnist Ted Siedle and Rolling Stone's star reporter Matt Taibbi have raised serious issues about Raimondo's motivation and judgment.
As Taibbi wrote, "The dynamic young Rhodes scholar was allowing her state to be used as a test case for the rest of the country, at the behest of powerful out-of-state financiers with dreams of pushing pension reform down the throats of taxpayers and public workers from coast to coast."
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926#ixzz2o2bLhqKW
2. Is she a Democrat?
Will Taveras and Pell paint her to be too conservative?
Raimondo is simply hated by the teachers unions and others - big blocks of voters in the Democratic primary. Both Clay Pell and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras will tack to the left and may compete for the same voters allowing her to sneak through to the general. However, progressives and unions may decide to pick Pell over Taveras (who is struggling to raise money and whose track record in Providence may come under fire) and then Pell can take the left leaning primary.
1. SEC Investigation
Can Raimondo survive an SEC investigation?
Both Siedle and a state senator have written to the SEC calling for an investigation into the investment practices of Raimondo. A federal investigation would be at a minimum a black eye to the General Treasurer and an enforcement action might end a credible campaign. Timing may prove to be everything.
