Goncalves Exposed - Trouble in His Own Neighborhood

Goncalves Exposed - Trouble in His Own Neighborhood

John Goncalves, the Fox Point City Councilor, had a tough day on primary day. He finished eighth in the Democratic primary — he received just a little more than 1,100 votes in his run for Congress.

During the course of the race, his record took a grilling and it exposed flip-flopping on issues, an ever-changing resume, and an incident of plagiarism. 

Goncalves looks more like George Santos, the disgraced Republican House member, than the future of the Democratic party in Rhode Island.

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A look inside the numbers shows that Goncalves seemingly always changing positions on issues and his own bio may have caught up with him.

Goncalves raised over $190,000 in his Congressional bid and spent about $170 per vote.

“Our message was drowned out due to lack of resources. We worked as hard as anyone with less resources. This was clearly an air race, not a ground one, and our inability to get our message on the air - given the fact that we didn’t have DC dollars, Super PAC, PAC dollars, major independent expenditures or outside spending flowing into our campaign, like the other candidates, inhibited our message from getting out there,” said Goncalves.

But the numbers don’t lie.

Goncalves finished behind Ana Quezada — she spent just over $87,000.

He received less than half the number of votes of conservative Democrat Stephen Casey — and spent twice as much as the Woonsocket representative.

First-time candidate Walter Berbrick -- a lecturer at the Naval War College -- also topped Goncalves by hundreds of votes and spent less than half of Goncalves.

 

Poor Performance in His Own Ward

Goncalves performed poorly among those who knew him best.

At the Temple Beth El polling location, Goncalves received just 45 votes, finishing fourth.

At his home precinct — Fox Point Boys and Girls Club —Goncalves finished third with just 140 votes.

At Brown’s voting district — Brown RISD Hillel, despite claiming two degrees from the school — he received just two votes.

But, Goncalves is resolute in defending his poor performance. "The number of candidates also contributed to voter confusion and made the election overwhelming for many, especially over the summer. Finally, in what was seemingly a tight race for the two top voter-getters, folks didn’t want to waste their vote on more down-ballot candidates," said Goncalves.

 

Incidents Pilling Up

Goncalves got caught changing his resume. When running for City Council, he had one claim about his education and when he ran for Congress, it was another. 

“I think it speaks to the fact that this is not somebody that should be sent to Washington —  there are too many people in Washington who already fit that bill, and it stuns me that in an era where we're seeing, you know, the George Santos unraveling and we're seeing sort of what this means for democracy,” said University of Virginia Professor of Political Science Jennifer Lawless on GoLocal LIVE in May.

In April, GoLocal unveiled Goncalves flip-flop-flip on a local ward issue.

Providence City Councilman John Goncalves is introducing a resolution at the Providence City Council in support of a liquor license carve out — for one business. 

As GoLocal reported in March, Goncalves had initially been opposed to a liquor license for a new Greek restaurant in Wayland Square. 

Then, after receiving a donation from the owner, he changed his mind and asked elected officials for special state legislation to allow for one. 

In August of 2022, GoLocal unveiled that Goncalves plagiarized a portion of his response to a questionnaire submitted to all the candidates running for office in Providence. He says it was done by a “university student doing research.”

The questionnaire issued by Providence Streets Coalition asked candidates about their positions on a number of environmental issues.

In response to a question about pollution from vehicles, Goncalves' response, in part, stated, “We plan to install fast-charging stations on city-owned property and install curbside level 2 chargers in conjunction with con edison in order to increase the number of public chargers across the city.”

The reference to “con edison” is to the main energy company in New York City — the "RI Energy" of that market. Goncalves blamed a Brown intern.

More recently, despite dozens of Fox Point residents opposing a new development, Goncalves refused to take a position. The developer is the controversial Dustin Dezube. 

Dezube and other Providence Realty Advisors personnel are Goncalves' largest donors to his congressional campaign, with $3,300 in recent months.