Raimondo's Record as Governor: The Good, Bad and Ugly

UGLY: Ethics Violation for Lally

Right out of the box in 2015, the Raimondo administration tapped State Representative Don Lally for a slot at the Department of Business Regulations — before he had been out of office for one year.

The Ethics Commission found that the appointment violated the Rhode Island ethics laws.

BAD: Appointment of McDonald

In 2015, the appointment of the former aide to former Governors Don Carcieri and Lincoln Chafee, Jamie McDonald, to head DCYF when she did not have the minimum qualifications turned out to be a BAD decision that led to UGLY outcomes. The agency was investigated by a division of the federal Department of Health & Human Services and found to have violated more than two dozen policies.

BAD: Out-of-State Staffers

It was supposed to be a strategy of bringing new ideas and new people in to elevate Rhode Island, but it turned out to be a collection of unemployed staffers from the Governor’s office in Maryland (back when Hillary was the Presidential front-runner...and national ties oh-so-appealing). 

They were ineffective and dismissive of Rhode Islanders. A number of them are gone.

UGLY: Raimondo’s Initial Toll Plan

The initial toll plan proposed by the Raimondo administration was government funding as its worse.

The architect of Raimondo’s truck toll infrastructure plan is the same firm that the State of Rhode Island litigated against, for its role in the state’s loss of over $100 million in the 38 Studios collapse.

First Southwest was a key defendant in the state of Rhode Island's effort to recover the millions in loss loan funds and damages.  Ultimately, the firm settled -  and paid $16 million.

GOOD: Final Toll Plan

Rhode Island has the 47th ranked roads and bridges and the final truck toll plan minimized the influence and costs of the program. The House trimmed back Raimondo’s initial plan and shifted the structure of financing minimizing the Wall Street boondoggle.

Now, roads are getting fixed.

UGLY: Blocking Release of 38 Studios Documents

In October of 2016, GoLocal filed suit asking the court to force Raimondo to require her administration to release the State Police 38 Studios interview notes. Raimondo repeatedly claimed that they could not be released because they were tied to the Grand Jury.

That simply was not true and a few months later many of those documents were released, but not all. 

GoLocal continued to press for all of the State Police records.

UGLY: Fate of Children at DCYF

As GoLocal reported in April of 2017, "In Rhode Island, ten babies all under 18-months old, have died in the past 26 months, and at a recent State House hearing, it was disclosed by the state’s Child Advocate that two new 'near deaths' are now under investigation."

The disclosure was made during a House Finance sub-committee meeting in which most of the subcommittee's members were missing for the majority of the meeting.

BAD: McDonald Goes to Work at Deloitte

The revolving door from government, to private consultants that have contracts with the government always raises questions, but in this case it was simply inappropriate for Jamia McDonald, who was neither qualified nor competent at running DCYF to go to work for UHIP contractor Deloitte (who has not demonstrated many competencies).

Raimondo should have told Deloitte not to do it.

GREAT: Jobs Numbers

By the end of 2019 Rhode Island hit a record number of Rhode Islanders working — just over 530,000. The long recovery from the Great Recession appeared over.  

Rhode Island's job growth mirrored the national growth.

GREAT: Girls and Coding

Raimondo has pounded a constant beat to encourage girls and young women to focus on education and careers in technology.

Raimondo has supported the group Girls Who Code, which states: Women represent one of the single largest untapped sources of talent in the technology field and according to new research, only 24% of technology jobs are held by women today. Solving this challenge demands a tailored and sequenced series of actions starting in junior high school that is sustained throughout high school and college.

BAD: Deloitte Sponsorship

Just days after blasting UHIP consultant Deloitte, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo spoke at a conference in California -- sponsored by Deloitte. 

"We paid them a lot of money, we didn’t get what we paid for," Raimondo said at the time of Deloitte's involvement in the UHIP debacle. "And they represented to us that it was in much better shape than in fact it was: defective functionality, incomplete interfaces, engines that still aren’t working."

Days later, Raimondo was en route to headline the Deloitte-sanctioned event. 

"Deloitte is not paying for any of the travel," said Raimondo spokesperson David Ortiz. "She had already committed to be at the event, and was able to have a private conversation with the CEO of Deloitte Consulting, who committed to being in regular communication with the Governor."

GOOD: Cost of College Funding

Raimondo deserves credit for bringing attention to the issue of the high cost of college education. Ultimately, her proposal got severely trimmed back and she insisted on a number of provisions which undermined the program — no means test, no requirement for grads to work in Rhode Island and minimum GPA at a measly 2.5.

But, give credit where credit is due.  

UGLY: Perception of Staff Self-Dealing - Smiley Inc.

While working for Governor Raimondo, Chief-of Staff Brett Smiley owned a political consulting business that represents clients including Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, and he hired his consulting firm’s former staffers to work in the Governor’s office. Smiley earned more than $170,000 per year in his role for Raimondo.

Providence City records showed that he and his husband Jim DeRentis sold their house to Brown University for $1.1 million — 30% more than the assessed value of the house at $843,600.

UGLY: Perception of Staff Self-Dealing - Neuman and DraftKings

Governor Gina Raimondo’s first Chief of Staff Steven Neuman was negotiating legislation that impacted one of the most controversial companies in America -- just three weeks before his wife started her job for the very company as Vice President, GoLocal reported.

Boston-based DraftKings is a “fantasy sports” startup company that is now valued in excess of $1 billion, and is under fire in many states for being an unregulated gambling venture.

After Neuman’s wife was hired, only then did he seek an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission on how to handle a potential conflict moving forward, but the letter seeking the advisory opinion did not speak to Neuman’s involvement in legislation during his wife’s hiring process.

GOOD: DMV Reboot

Rhode Island DMV has been the “House of Pain” for years and faced with a major upgrade to the software, the Raimondo administration (maybe for the first time) under promised and over delivered.

The process was not perfect, but it was without a major tech failure and the outcome is an improved customer experience.

GOOD: Raimondo Releasing Tax Returns

One of the few times Raimondo demonstrated transparency — Raimondo and her husband released their tax returns annually.

UGLY: Raimondo's Ownership in Point Judith Capitol While RI Had an Investment in the Firm

Raimondo's ownership in Point Judith while she was General Treasurer and Governor had the appearance of self-dealing and conflict of interest.

BAD: Raimondo’s Invenergy Position

It was hard to know exactly what Gina Raimondo’s position is on the controversial gas powered power plant proposed for Burrillville. When the plant was proposed, she strongly endorsed the project.

Then, Raimondo said she would leave it to the State's Siting Council to determine the project's fate. Then, she took campaign donations from top officials with the company and their agents. Then she said she regretted "putting her thumb on the scale" of the process.  

Which one was it?

She then faced an opponent whose primary political focus had been fighting Invenergy.  

19.

UGLY: Raimondo Gives $3.6 M to Los Angeles “Slum Lord”

Governor Gina Raimondo and the Board of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation voted in September of 2016 to provide Urban Smart Growth — which is run by controversial developer Lance Robbins — up to a maximum of $3,569,657 in Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credits.

However, one of the top advocacy lawyers in the country, Lauren Saunders, told GoLocalProv.com following the announcement that “Robbins was one of the most dishonest and unscrupulous people I have come across in my career working for vulnerable tenants and consumers. I cannot imagine entrusting any (public) money to him.”

Despite Rhode Island leaders questioning the decision, the Raimondo administration pushed forward. 

20.

MIXED: Combating Opioid Abuse

Governor Gina Raimondo signed several pieces of legislation strengthening Rhode Island’s response to the opioid crisis. 

"This epidemic is our single greatest public health crisis, and the legislation I signed today will help our state fight back and save lives. I hear stories from families hurt by overdose everywhere I go. Fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Rhode Island have spiked in the past year, and I commend the General Assembly for passing legislation that specifically targets this problem. By ensuring that patients are aware of the risks of opioid addiction and increasing the penalties for trafficking fentanyl, we are steps closer to winning this fight,” said Raimondo.

However, in 2018, the Centers for Disease Control released data that showed that the number of Rhode Islanders who died from opioid overdoses increased from 2016 to 2017.

In 2020, RI ranked high for overall drug abuse. 

UGLY: UHIP

Raimondo has overseen the greatest financial failure, staffing failure, and human failure for Rhode Islanders -- ever.

Rhode Island Auditor General Dennis Hoyle said that the state had "unrealistic expectations" regarding the rollout of UHIP - and that project costs to develop the integrated eligibility system known as UHIP/RIBridges and HealthSource RI totaled $407.3 million at April 30, 2017. 

The auditor’s report includes observations -- including that there was "a near-term over-emphasis of purported savings" - and that the state "did not have an established and staffed project management function in place to support and facilitate the state’s oversight of this large and very complex technology initiative."

A federal court had to intervene and assign a special master to ensure that low-income Rhode Islanders get their food stamps.

By the end, the cost of UHIP was more than $700 million. 

UGLY: Budget Management

Raimondo was supposed to enter office as an experienced budget manager — both from her experience as a venture capitalist and as Rhode Island’s General Treasurer.

But in 2017, the budget shortfall (as of September 2017) was more than $230 million.

Every year was a budget fiasco and she leaves office with Rhode Island facing an estimated $500 million deficit.

GREAT: Wexford

Between federal and state investments in moving I-195, roughly a billion dollars has been spent over nearly 20 years. Raimondo deserves credit for breaking the logjam.

"For too long, the I-195 land was nothing but dirt," Raimondo said at the Wexford groundbreaking. "Today marks the start of something transformational, not just for this land, but for our state and its economy. This complex will become the epicenter of Rhode Island's resurgence, creating jobs at every rung of the ladder, from janitors to Ph.D. computer scientists. We've worked hard for this, and we are finally seeing the results of our efforts. Wexford, Cambridge Innovation Center, Johnson & Johnson, Brown University and others are making an investment in Rhode Island because we are making crucial, forward-thinking investments in our people and in our economy. This is just the beginning."

UGLY: Wexford's False Claims, Lack of Transparency, and Mismanagement 

In an interview with GoLocal, Raimondo continued to refuse to answer questions about the leases between Wexford and Brown University, Cambridge Innovation Center, and Johnson & Johnson, citing that they are private -- and unconcerned as to whether Rhode Islanders should know where their $40 million is going to. 

A GoLocal investigation found that the permanent job claims for the Wexford project by the Raimondo administration were inflated. 

Raimondo had repeatedly claimed that the project will create 1,000 new permanent jobs in Rhode Island. After weeks of requesting information about tenants, rents, and job creation, GoLocal was finally able to secure actual job numbers for the project and then fact check those claims. 

In fact, actual jobs created will be closer to 80 to 90.

$1 Million Wasted

A GoLocal investigation uncovered that the Raimondo administration will waste $1 million for incentives building out space for Johnson & Johnson. 

The monies go to the private developer Wexford and in two years, Johnson & Johnson will leave to move into another Wexford space — which is receiving $40 million in incentives.

UGLY: Lack of Support to Rhode Island Small Businesses

Under Governor Gina Raimondo, the agency in charge of building Rhode Island’s economy has spent 65 percent of its contract dollars with out-of-state companies over two years.

Nearly $8 million of taxpayer dollars went to consultants as far away as New York, Toronto, London, and Frankfurt under the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Even the money spent on porta-johns contracted for Volvo races went to out-of-state interests by an overwhelming margin. 

Havas Got as Much as All of Rhode Island

No companies scored more consulting dollars than consulting businesses located in New York. Havas, the public relations firm that oversaw the development of the tourism campaign that included the now infamous promotion video for Rhode Island that included footage from Iceland,  received payment in the past two years more than $4 million — $4,114,025.78 according to data provided to GoLocal from Commerce.

Havas has been paid nearly as much as all Rhode Island contracts combined during the past two years.

UGLY: Tourism Campaign

It was a state, national, and global embarrassment.

Gina Raimondo, accustomed to getting glowing national press, was suddenly not just in the Rhode Island media glare, but under national scrutiny for the botched rollout of the state's tourism campaign in 2015. 

“The campaign’s rocky start marks a public setback for Governor Gina Raimondo, a Democrat and former venture capitalist who has basked in waves of positive press since taking office in early 2015,” wrote Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe.

“A world-renowned designer was hired. Market research was conducted. A $5 million marketing campaign was set. What could go wrong?” quipped Katharine Seeyle for The New York Times in the post-mortem a week later. “Everything, it turns out.”

“The anatomy of a disastrous state branding campaign,” wrote Aarian Marshall for City Lab for The Atlantic Cities. “After Rhode Island’s epic screw-up, a five-step guide to doing better.”

A reboot was more successful, but the "Warmer and Cooler" campaign is forever a scar - and an ongoing joke - in the Rhode Island psyche.

UGLY: RI's Reputation for Business

CNBC annually ranks states for being best for business. Their 2019 list - its last ranking before the pandemic - had RI 50th.

When the ranking came out, Governor Gina Raimondo was not in Rhode Island — she was at a tech conference in Idaho — and she Raimondo refused to answer press questions on RI’s last-place ranking in CNBC’s "Best States to Do Business" for 2019. 

UGLY: Raimondo and Sackler Money Became a National Embarrassment PART I

Two leading activists — who gained national attention when their protest involving an 800 pound heroin spoon outside OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma ended in an arrest this past summer — traveled to RI in2018 and out Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo for keeping nearly $12,500 in contributions from Purdue scion Jonathan Sackler and his wife Mary Corson for their role in the national opioid epidemic. 

Artist Domenic Esposito and Stamford Gallery owner Fernando Luis Alvarez appeared on  GoLocalProv News Editor Kate Nagle on GoLocal LIVE, to talk about their efforts to bring attention to the role that Purdue has played — as well as elected officials in taking contributions from top drug makers  — in the hundreds of thousands of deaths in America tied to the drugs.

As GoLocal has reported, Raimondo — and Raimondo PACs — have received $8,000 from Sackler and $4,500 from Corson — and refused to return the money. 

“So it’s okay to take money from them but not from Pablo Escobar or El Chapo in Mexico? It’s the same thing — it’s probably worse, because they have sugar coated it,” said Alvarez. “Have they become so cynical and weak to the point where some Americans have become complacent to this?”

“The time has come…Americans are not going to put up with this anymore. They’re going to stand up to these politicians, and they’re going to do their own research. Absolutely don’t vote for people like that — do your homework,” said Alvarez. “Do not fall for her. Get her out of office. We need better answers than what she’s telling us.”

“Americans are not stupid. We are fed up. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people have died because of this,” said Alvarez. 

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” said Alvarez, of Raimondo. 

UGLY: Raimondo and Sackler Money PART II

In March of 2019, Governor Gina Raimondo announced that she was donating the $12,500 that she had received in campaign contributions from Jonathan Sackler and his wife Mary Corson — Sackler had been named in lawsuits for his direct involvement in the opioid crisis in America.

The move came after GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle asked Raimondo on a Democratic Governors Association call with other state Governors why Raimondo continued to refuse to give up the donations. 

Sackler and his family own Purdue Pharma the manufacturer Oxycodone.

GoLocal had written more than twenty stories related to the link between Raimondo and the Sackler family.

Lawsuits are piled up against opioid maker Purdue Pharma. Documents unveiled show the family who owns the company had direct involvement with the sales strategy that led to the national health crisis and helped build their massive fortune. Documents also reveal that one of the target markets that the Sacklers' company zeroed in on with its sales and marketing was U.S. military veterans.

According to the lawsuit filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Sackers were directly involved in the Purdue Pharma marketing strategy — a strategy that more than 1,600 lawsuits across the country allege was fraudulent and has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 2020, Sackler died and many of the lawsuits were settled.

UGLY: Endorsement of Bloomberg After Disclosure of His Record of Women and Race

A GoLocal editorial questioned why Governor Raimondo would endorse Michael Bloomberg.

READ EDITORIAL BELOW

Governor Gina Raimondo's decision to endorse former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg seems misguided at best.

Bloomberg's record as a CEO is impressive. His record as an elected official has an overriding stench of racism.

An analysis by the NY ACLU revealed that "innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 5 million times since 2002, and that Black and Latinx communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. At the height of stop-and-frisk in 2011 under the Mayor Michael Bloomberg administration, over 685,000 people were stopped. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent." 

Stop and frisk exploded not under New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani -- but under Bloomberg. 

Oh wait -- he is sorry now.

Bloomberg was Mayor from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2013, and year by year here is the data on “stop and frisk:”

In 2002, 97,296 NYPD stops were recorded.  Bloomberg not sorry.
80,176 were innocent (82 percent).
 
In 2003, 160,851 NYPD stops were recorded.  Bloomberg not sorry.
140,442 were innocent (87 percent).
77,704 were Black (54 percent).
44,581 were Latinx (31 percent).
17,623 were white (12 percent).
83,499 were aged 14-24 (55 percent).
 
In 2004, 313,523 NYPD stops were recorded.  Bloomberg not sorry.
278,933 were innocent (89 percent).
155,033 were Black (55 percent).
89,937 were Latinx (32 percent).
28,913 were white (10 percent).
152,196 were aged 14-24 (52 percent).
 
In 2005, 398,191 NYPD stops were recorded.  Bloomberg not sorry.
352,348 were innocent (89 percent).
196,570 were Black (54 percent).
115,088 were Latinx (32 percent).
40,713 were white (11 percent).
189,854 were aged 14-24 (51 percent).
 
In 2006, 506,491 NYPD stops were recorded.  Bloomberg not sorry.
457,163 were innocent (90 percent).
267,468 were Black (53 percent).
147,862 were Latinx (29 percent).
53,500 were white (11 percent).
247,691 were aged 14-24 (50 percent).
 
In 2007, 472,096 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
410,936 were innocent (87 percent).
243,766 were Black (54 percent).
141,868 were Latinx (31 percent).
52,887 were white (12 percent).
223,783 were aged 14-24 (48 percent).
 
In 2008, 540,302 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
474,387 were innocent (88 percent).
275,588 were Black (53 percent).
168,475 were Latinx (32 percent).
57,650 were white (11 percent).
263,408 were aged 14-24 (49 percent).
 
In 2009, 581,168 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
510,742 were innocent (88 percent).
310,611 were Black (55 percent).
180,055 were Latinx (32 percent).
53,601 were white (10 percent).
289,602 were aged 14-24 (50 percent).
 
In 2010, 601,285 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
518,849 were innocent (86 percent).
315,083 were Black (54 percent).
189,326 were Latinx (33 percent).
54,810 were white (9 percent).
295,902 were aged 14-24 (49 percent).
 
In 2011, 685,724 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
605,328 were innocent (88 percent).
350,743 were Black (53 percent).
223,740 were Latinx (34 percent).
61,805 were white (9 percent).
341,581 were aged 14-24 (51 percent).
 
In 2012, 532,911 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
473,644 were innocent (89 percent).
284,229 were Black (55 percent).
165,140 were Latinx (32 percent).
50,366 were white (10 percent).
 
In 2013, 191,851 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
169,252 were innocent (88 percent).
104,958 were Black (56 percent).
55,191 were Latinx (29 percent).
20,877 were white (11 percent).
 
In 2014, 45,787 NYPD stops were recorded. The year after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
37,744 were innocent (82 percent).
24,319 were Black (53 percent).
12,489 were Latinx (27 percent).
5,467 were white (12 percent).
 
In 2015, 22,565 NYPD stops were recorded. Two years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
18,353 were innocent (80 percent).
12,223 were Black (54 percent).
6,598 were Latinx (29 percent).
2,567 were white (11 percent).
 
In 2016, 12,404 NYPD stops were recorded. Three years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
9,394 were innocent (76 percent).
6,498 were Black (52 percent).
3,626 were Latinx (29 percent).
1,270 were white (10 percent).
 
In 2017, 11,629 NYPD stops were recorded. Four years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
7,833 were innocent (67 percent).
6,595 were Black (57 percent).
3,567 were Latinx (31 percent).
977 were white (8 percent).
 
In 2018, 11,008 NYPD stops were recorded. Five years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
7,645 were innocent (70 percent).
6,241 were Black (57 percent).
3,389 were Latinx (31 percent).
1,074 were white (10 percent).
 
In the first half of 2019, 7,101 stops were recorded. Six years after Bloomberg was Mayor, he announces his run for the presidency, and he is sorry.
4,795 were innocent (68 percent).
4,246 were Black (60 percent).
2,039 were Latinx (29 percent).
680 were white (10 percent). 

According to NBC News in November of 2019, "Addressing a black church in Brooklyn, Bloomberg said he was 'sorry' and acknowledged it often led to the detention of blacks and Latinos.

'I can’t change history,' Bloomberg told the congregation. 'However today, I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong.'"

DATA: NYACLU Data: NY Police Department Annual Reports

GOOD: Education Initiatives

Governor Raimondo's efforts to improve Rhode Island's schools were laudable.

From funding pre-K to focusing on Providence's deplorable schools, her focus was often on the right things.

GOOD: Early Management of the Pandemic, PART I

Raimondo had some early success in addressing the coronavirus. Her shutdown was early and her tone was reassuring to many Rhode Islanders.

There were some errors:

- Telling the public not to wear a mask

- Returning infected nursing home residents to nursing homes after hospitalizations, increase the spread and deaths 

- And, failing to wear a mask at a protest

By the first week in July, Rhode Island had a record low number of cases. 

UGLY: RI's Response to the Virus PART II

Whether it was Governor Raimondo's distraction of seeking a federal appointment or an inability to adjust, Raimondo allowed the coronavirus to explode in the fall and winter.

About September of 2020, the cases began to explode in Rhode Island and Raimondo could not adjust. She constantly sent mixed messages -- open for Halloween and allowing people to shop on Black Friday before going into a shutdown. 

By December, Rhode Island became the poster child for failed policies. Rhode Island scored the highest infection rate in the world.

In the U.S., RI has the 4th highest death rate and number of cases per 100,000 residents. The vaccination program is ranked as one of the worst in America (46th).