GOP to Caprio: Drop Out of the Race

GOP to Caprio: Drop Out of the Race

State Republicans are calling on Democrat Frank Caprio to drop out of the race for governor and back John Robitaille—using the same kind of argument that they say he used when he asked their nominee to withdraw earlier this summer.

“There has been an argument that spoilers should not spoil the race,” said state Chairman Giovanni Cicione. “The fact is that the person in the third place is the spoiler.”

That person is Caprio—at least according to yesterday’s NCB 10-Quest Research poll, which showed Chafee at 35 percent, Robitabille at 28 percent, and Caprio at 25 percent.

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In an open letter to Caprio, Cicione said his base of support was too divided for him to win.

“You are too astute of a politician not to know that the ballgame is over. Your Democrat base is split into the Clinton and Obama camps, while Robitaille is unifying our Party and leading among independents in the latest Rasmussen poll,” Cicione wrote.

He added: “Frank, if you truly believe in the message you’ve been selling for the last two years, do the right thing and use the last $323,461 in your campaign account to tell voters that John Robitaille is their only hope to stop this State from enduring four years of tax hikes, four years of union giveaways, and four years of rolling over to the demands of the General Assembly – in other words, four years of Governor Lincoln Chafee. …”

“In one scenario, you can be remembered as the man who told a president to ‘shove it,’ then acted as a spoiler in a Governor’s race – because, as you know, the second place finisher is never the spoiler. In the other scenario – the better scenario – you can be the man of courage and principle who demonstrates a type of leadership rarely seen in the modern era.”