Former Rhode Island Dem Gov Lincoln Chafee Slams Successor Gina Raimondo, Reiterates Possible 2018 Challenge

Former Rhode Island Democrat Governor Lincoln Chafee is continuing his attacks on his successor Gina Raimondo. In an interview this morning on Rhode Island Public Radio, Chafee slammed her lack of leadership and again confirmed that he is looking at challenging Raimondo either as a Democrat or Independent in 2018, which in either case could doom Raimondo’s re-election hopes. Chafee also slammed the Democratic Governors Association for running ads for Raimondo’s tuition proposal while the state is running a deficit, claiming “it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Chafee went on to fiercely criticize Raimondo for her myriad of leadership failures while in office, attacking her for hedge fund investments as Treasurer, her duplicitous Pawtucket Red Sox stadium negotiations, and her use of taxpayer incentives to entice corporations, which like many of the Raimondo’s proposals, may no longer be feasible to do with the massive deficit Rhode Island is dealing with under her watch:

On hedge funds Raimondo got Rhode Island into as Treasurer:

“These ended up being high-fee, low-performing investments of our taxpayer dollars… this is half a billion, five hundred million dollars we lost investing in hedge funds.”

On the PawSox debacle: 

“I don’t think Governor Raimondo took a position and her team negotiated it and she told the mayor of Pawtucket, Mayor Grebien, that she supported it on Friday and by Monday she’d withdrawn her support, and that’s kind of what we’ve seen over the last two years.”

On Raimondo’s use of tax incentives for business:

“All she does is want to get some cranes in the air and she doesn’t care how much it costs… I shared a New York Times study, they did a three part study on these incentives and they said they’re foolhardy, senseless, and short-sighted, and they said it doesn’t work, they do not work, these programs, and that’s the way I believe.”