BREAKING NEWS: Trillo Asked Robitaille to Drop Out for Caprio

BREAKING NEWS: Trillo Asked Robitaille to Drop Out for Caprio

Deputy House Minority Leader Joe Trillo asked fellow Republican John Robitaille to drop out of the race for governor so Democratic candidate Frank Caprio would have a better chance of beating Lincoln Chafee, sources tell GoLocalProv.

In an interview with GoLocalProv, Robitaille would not confirm Trillo made the request. But he said the current elected Republican official he spoke with did not personally want him to quit the race. “This individual was only reaching out to me to deliver a message,” Robitaille told GoLocalProv. “He was not advocating for me in any way, shape, or form to drop out of the race.” He said he had a similar conversation with a former Republican elected official.

Robitaille also confirmed that he met with Caprio at a coffee shop in Seekonk several weeks ago. He said the two spoke for about half an hour, sticking mostly to small talk. “He didn’t say, ‘John, what would it take to get you out?’’ Robitaille recalled. But “the message was there—that it would be great if I could do the same thing as Patrick Lynch and stand beside him.”

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Robitaille accused Caprio of “shopping” parties, citing news reports that Frank Caprio met with the Republican National Committee earlier this year. “Then when he gets rejected by the RNC, then he tries this… to get the legitimate Republican candidate out of the race,” Robitaille said. “That’s pathetic.”

“If he doesn’t think he can win with me in then he should drop out,” Robitaille added. “I can win with him in.”

Robitaille said he spoke with four other people about dropping out to help Caprio over a period of five to six weeks this summer. “I told them all there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell I’ll do it,” Robitaille said.

He said two of them are in the Caprio camp—although he wasn’t sure if they were paid staffers. He said remaining two were political operatives passing on a message. “This was a concerted, weeks-long attack, or effort, to convince me to get out of this race,” Robitaille said. “This degree of aggressiveness—it goes beyond a friendly conversation.”

Repeated attempts to reach Trillo, who was out of town, were unsuccessful.

A Caprio spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of Robitaille's claims. "Frank Caprio is focused on helping small businesses and on holding the line on taxes," said Nick Hemond. "We're not going to get into a back and forth on something that has nothing to do with the challenges facing the working families of Rhode Island."