What They Are Saying: Another Bad Week For Failed RI Dem Gov Gina Raimondo

After experiencing some for the worst headlines of her term as governor last week amid job losses, a large budget shortfall, and stalled legislative proposals, Gina Raimondo’s week did not improve. After leaving to Chicago for a fundraiser, Raimondo’s trip quickly raised questions about her questionable ties to Chicago Democrats as she refused to reveal who was hosting the event. Things only got worse when the state legislature announced it would not be voting the Pawtucket Red Sox stadium deal negotiated by her staff, which caused her to take more heat even from lawmakers of her own party. With more and more bad headlines piling up with each passing day, Raimondo continues to show Rhode Islanders how undeserving she is of another term in office. Here are some highlights of recent coverage:

To escape the bad headlines, Raimondo left for Chicago on Tuesday to raise money, but her trip quickly raised questions from the Providence Journal when she would not reveal who would be hosting her fundraiser:

“Gov. Gina Raimondo’s public schedule says: ‘No public events scheduled.’

But in response to a Journal inquiry, the governor’s press office confirmed that the Democrat is in Chicago for a fundraiser.

Asked who is hosting this out-of-state money-raising event for Democrat Raimondo’s 2018 reelection campaign, spokesman David Ortiz referred questions to the governor’s campaign finance director, Kate Ramstad. Ramstad responded with this familiar statement: ‘Contributions to the governor’s campaign will be detailed in the quarterly report that will be released at the end of July.’

These quarterly filings do not, of course, require disclosure of the names of people who have opened their homes or corporate offices to Rhode Island politicos to help them raise money, though notations for ‘in-kind contributions’ sometimes give a hint.”

In its report on the fundraiser, the Providence Journal also mentioned 
Raimondo’s questionable no-bid state police contract she gave to a Chicego-based firm run by Terrance Gainer, whose niece donated to Raimondo’s campaign:

“A second Chicago connection to the Raimondo administration: the controversial no-bid award the state police gave Terrance W. Gainer Sr. LLC of Chicago to identify strategies to increase diversity in the agency’s ranks.

State Board of Elections records indicate, too, that Gainer’s niece, Bridget Gainer, donated $1,000 to Raimondo’s campaign in 2014. The two had discussed pension reform on a Chicago TV segment two years earlier.

At the time, Ortiz said that the governor’s counsel had recommended Terrance Gainer as a person with “deep” experience in the area, but that the governor had no connection with him.”

Even more bad news came Raimondo’s way when WPRI-TV reported that the deal negotiated by her staff to secure a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox would not get a vote this session in the legislature. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, who has clashed with Raimondo on her stalled education proposal, was quick to criticize Raimondo for refusing to endorse the plan after her own Commerce Secretary negotiated it:

“But Mattiello – who was burned by his strong support for the last PawSox stadium proposal, in 2015 – has appeared to be calling the governor’s bluff, insisting he would not look at the legislation ‘without her endorsement and her stamp of approval,’ House spokesman Larry Berman said.

‘The speaker finds it highly unusual that the governor is unwilling to endorse a financial plan that she and her team negotiated,’ Berman said. ‘The stadium is a significant taxpayer investment, and with the governor sending mixed signals, it is likely too late in the session to initiate a proposal of this magnitude.’”

And the Providence Journal editorial board, which was noted to have “generally been favorable to Raimondo in the past,” ripped Raimondo for her “habitual practice of playing both sides” of the legal issue regarding the growing controversy over 38 Studios:

“Gov. Gina Raimondo, meanwhile, seems to be engaging in an increasingly habitual practice of playing both sides of the issue.

She joined in urging the judge to release the grand jury records to the public, and professed to be disappointed in the ruling.

Yet, at the same time, she has broken her campaign pledge to commission a thorough and independent investigation of the 38 Studios debacle. Her administration initially said it would be inappropriate to do so while the state was in the midst of court fights with participants. Now the story is that a study would be expensive and would not yield any new information.

And politicians wonder why Rhode Island citizens are so cynical.”

Raimondo also recently raised eyebrows when NBC Providence revealed that dozens of state workers were out on paid administrative leave for years at a time, some receiving six digit taxpayer-funded salaries while doing no work. When asked about the process, Raimondo said “I think, by in large, it works:”