Raimondo blames ‘lies’ for declining to take part in primary debate
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A day after her two main Democratic primary challengers criticized her for not participating in a round-table debate, Gov. Gina Raimondo said she skipped the discussion because one of those challengers, Matt Brown, “lies.”
Brown, a former Rhode Island secretary of state, “is running, and from the beginning has run, a really very dishonest campaign,” Raimondo told The Journal on Wednesday. “He’s not operating in good faith and we’ve seen, every time he has a platform, like the Democratic convention, he doesn’t use it in good faith. He lies.”
During the state Democratic Convention in June, Brown attacked Raimondo, telling delegates that after Boston-based Partners HealthCare had expressed interest in acquiring Care New England, Raimondo attended a fundraiser in Boston co-hosted by Partners board members that added $200,000 to her campaign coffers.
“There was nothing true” in what Brown said, Raimondo’s campaign spokesman David Ortiz said Wednesday. “None of it. There was no $200,000. He was just making it up. Everything. It’s character assassination.”
Raimondo, however, did host a $1,000-per-plate Boston fundraiser on June 15, co-hosted by Partners Chairman Emeritus Jack Connors Jr. and Bank of America Vice Chairwoman Anne Finucane, according to an invitation for the event.
A second-quarter campaign finance report shows $27,245 donated to Raimondo on June 15, including state maximum $1,000 contributions from Connors and Finucane. Other $1,000 contributions reported June 15 came from Mark Blanchard, a vice president of engineering consultants AECOM; John Frascotti, president of Hasbro; and Thomas Glynn, CEO of MassPort.
The campaign finance reports do not show which contributions were raised at which events, and Raimondo has refused to say how much was raised at the Boston fundraiser. The Brown campaign said the $200,000 estimate from the fundraiser came from a story on the website GoLocalProv.
In response to Raimondo’s assertions, Brown’s campaign spokeswoman Juliet Barbara said: “Governor Raimondo already told us why she hasn’t accepted a debate: because it might not be a good “strategy” for her. She knows Matt’s a credible candidate who fights for working families, which is exactly why she doesn’t want to defend her record with him.
“It may be inconvenient to publicly defend a record that puts corporations and Wall Street before people, but democracy wasn’t created for the convenience of politicians.”
Ortiz also accused Brown of lying recently to a group of seniors in the Carroll Towers apartment complex in Providence, “telling them she [Raimondo] was going to take away their health coverage. They were all upset. Senator [Maryellen] Goodwin had to go in there and reassure them it wasn’t true.”
In light of Brown’s track record, “I don’t see a purpose for giving him a platform to lie to voters,” Raimondo said.
Furthermore, said Raimondo, “I’ve been here for almost four years as governor, I talk to the press every day, I’m out and about every day, I think people know where I stand on these issues and I’m happy to talk to anybody at anytime.”
If Brown were “operating in good faith, I would have done it,” Raimondo said.
Brown, a founder of City Year in Rhode Island, won state office in his first campaign in 2002 for secretary of state. He has since co-founded Global Zero, an organization that works to eliminate nuclear weapons.
Brown and Spencer Dickinson, a home builder, appeared Tuesday night at the WPRI-TV debate. They squared off again Wednesday on WPRO-radio.
Both accused Raimondo of poor management and poor leadership, evidenced most recently by her alleged failure to bring “all of the key players” — including House and Senate leaders and the Pawtucket Red Sox owners — together to try to come up with a deal to keep the team in Rhode Island.
“Not once,” Brown said to the empty chair. ‘”The question for Governor Raimondo if she is listening. … Why not?”
Dickinson: “Of course she did it wrong. She did nothing.”
WPRO moderator Bill Haberman and Dickinson asked Brown what he learned from the fundraising controversy that led him to abort his 2006 U.S. Senate campaign. The controversy centered on maxed-out Brown donors giving to Democratic committees in Maine, Massachusetts and Hawaii that contributed to him.
Brown said the controversy stemmed from attacks “made on me in the middle of a campaign by the Republican Party.” He said: “the Federal Elections Commission looked at it and determined there was, quote, no basis for the allegations.”
He said the $1,100 civil penalty he agreed to pay under a negotiated settlement related to the way he accounted for his debts.
