Elected Official Pulls Endorsement of Matos

Elected Official Pulls Endorsement of Matos

One of Rhode Island Lt. Governor Sabina Matos' early endorsers in her run for the Democratic nomination for Congress is pulling his endorsement.

In a phone call with GoLocal, Smithfield Town Councilor Sean Kilduff said he is revoking his support for Matos.

Kilduff said, “She is surrounding herself with people that can’t get the job done. It reflects poorly on her and those who support her.”

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The Rhode Island State Police have an ongoing investigation into questions regarding her signatures for her endorsement papers.

The Board of Elections invalidated more than 500 of her submitted signatures.  And the Board of Election may subpoena campaign workers and volunteers after the primary.

“There seems to be a lack of valid information from her campaign; I am not comfortable with it. It reflects on all of us,” said Kilduff.

“At this time, I am not endorsing anyone in the race,” said Kilduff.

Kilduff has served on the council since 2018 and was one of the three Council members who supported helping the town's Little League with a small grant. The team is now playing in the Little League World Series.

The Matos campaign did not respond to questions about the Kilduff announcement.

 

Matos’ Endorsement Problems

In May, GoLocal first reported Matos falsely claimed she had the endorsement of 31 elected officials; her campaign later had to walk the number down to 25. 

“I would say that if Sabina Matos continues to have a campaign that in the most charitable interpretation is that it was sloppy counting…she’s going to open herself up to being dishonest,” said University of Virginia political science professor Jennifer Lawless in May. “It would have been fine to say that she had 25 endorsements; there was no reason to say she had 31. If the campaign can’t keep track, that’s a problem, because the campaign is going to have many more balls in the air and a lot more juggling to do between now and Election Day and her staff is going to have a lot more to do if she gets elected.”

“So it’s sloppy at best, disingenuous at worse,” Lawless. “I would really encourage her campaign to be more careful because those are the kinds of missteps that other candidates can jump on.”