Campaign news
Lincoln D. Chafee: My vision for Rhode Island's recovery
October 29, 2010
Projo.com
By Lincoln D. Chafee
I love Rhode Island, and know that our state has a bright future.
What we need to realize our full potential, however, is the right leadership, a pro-active leader with the experience to govern and the courage to speak the plain truth. Rhode Islanders deserve a leader who is independent, free from politics as usual and the partisan maneuvering that brought about our dire economic situation. The way we will recover is to come together and build consensus among Democrats, Republicans, Moderates and independents — to move Rhode Island on a new way forward.
Our state confronts substantial challenges. Some 65,000 of our citizens are unemployed. Tens of thousands more women and men are anxious — about our future and whether our children will be able to find good jobs here. The state’s budget deficit is projected to exceed $300 million next year. Federal stimulus money is exhausted. The tobacco-settlement money was squandered. Because of poor leadership we have fallen behind.
We also have an ethical crisis in Rhode Island. Each day we hear about corruption, cronyism and pay-to-play schemes that let insiders secure state business and provide no-bid jobs to friends and family. This is wrong and must stop. There is a direct connection between Rhode Island’s unacceptable economic condition and the disappointing reality that some of our public officials betray the public trust.
If we are going to move our state forward — create new jobs, fix the budget mess, improve our schools, repair our roads and protect our environment — Rhode Island must take advantage of its assets. My plan is centered on job-creating investments targeted at the following areas:
• Investing in public education: Better education of Rhode Islanders results in better-qualified workers, improving our opportunities to attract new employers to the state.
• Investing in the Knowledge District in Providence: I plan to be directly involved in working to bring thousands of new jobs to Providence as a result of Route 195 being relocated — health-care jobs, life-sciences jobs and high-tech manufacturing jobs.
• Investing in green, environmentally friendly technologies: I have a national reputation as a strong environmentalist and will use it to put the power of the governor’s office behind making Quonset a center for wind-power development, creating new jobs while increasing energy independence.
• Investing in the Station District in Warwick: T.F. Green Airport is being connected to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor rail line. Already a $300 million private development project with a retail, hotel and office complex has been approved next to the station, with the promise of creating hundreds of new jobs for our state. I conceived of this project as mayor, helped fund it as senator and will work every day as governor to make it a success.
• Investing in defense and high-tech manufacturing, tourism, marine industries and entrepreneurial enterprises: As governor I will make the expansion of, and support for, these vital home-grown industries a priority.
Throughout my career I have consistently demonstrated the core elements of effective leadership. Courage: I opposed the Iraq War, which has killed more than 5,000 brave U.S. servicemen and -women and wasted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Foresight: I rejected the false promises of President Bush’s reckless tax cuts for the wealthy that have hurt our economy. Building consensus: I alone called for mediation to end the Central Falls teachers dispute. Independence: I called for an open and fair opportunity for our small businesses, instead of the risky gamble with 60 percent of the state’s small-business investment portfolio on a single company with no track record of success — the Curt Schilling deal.
I have always stood up for what I believe. I have a proven record of principled, independent leadership. Every day I do my best to demonstrate thoughtful, balanced and moderate leadership — to do what I believe is best for the people of Rhode Island.
Yes, our great state has tremendous potential. It is untapped, just below the surface, waiting for the right leadership to move our state forward. Rhode Island’s greatest asset has always been its people.
I know that our best days are ahead — with the right leadership team implementing common-sense solutions to the challenges ahead. Together we can make Rhode Island a great place to live, to raise a family, to build a better future for our children.
My dad taught me a valuable lesson: Tell the truth and trust the people. That is what I’ve done in this campaign, and what I will do every day as your governor.
Lincoln D. Chafee is a former U.S. senator and former mayor of Warwick running as an independent for the Rhode Island governorship.
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Neutral Obama Stars in Rhode Island Ad
October 26, 2010
New York Times
By Bernie Becker
President Obama may be trying to stay out of Rhode Island’s campaign for governor. But that’s not stopping some of the candidates in that tight race from bringing him up.
A day after his nonendorsement of the Democratic candidate helped create headlines, Mr. Obama showed up playing a starring role in an advertisement for Lincoln Chafee, his former Senate colleague who is running for governor as an independent.
In the spot, Mr. Obama is shown praising Mr. Chafee at a 2008 event in Providence for opposing the war in Iraq. Mr. Chafee, who was a moderate Republican in the Senate, endorsed Mr. Obama’s presidential bid in February 2008, not long before Rhode Island’s primary.
“Real change isn’t voting for George Bush’s war in Iraq,” Mr. Obama says in the ad, which also includes some compliments about Mr. Chafee from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. “I knew what it was. Lincoln Chafee knew what it was. We were voting for war.”
But while Mr. Obama may speak warmly about Mr. Chafee in the ad, it doesn’t appear as if the president will be formally backing any of Rhode Island’s candidates for governor.
On Monday, not long before the president took a trip to the state, Frank T. Caprio, the Democratic candidate in the race, said Mr. Obama “could take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as I’m concerned.”
For his part, Bill Burton, the deputy White House press secretary, told reporters on Monday that the president decided to sit out this particular contest “out of respect for his friend Lincoln Chafee.”
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Linc Chafee - 2010 Independent candidate for governor
October 24, 2010
The Hummel Report
By, Jim Hummel
It is the first day of the Scituate Arts Festival and Lincoln Chafee is greeting hundreds of potential voters - one by one. Chafee, accompanied by a lone staffer at the ready with bumper stickers, often drives himself to events - like this one in Cranston earlier this month.
No entourage, just the candidate.
That solitude might be a metaphor this Republican-turned-independent's campaign. The former mayor of Warwick and U.S Senator is very much going it alone this election, with no party to shield or to boost him.
Chafee: "I'm used to not having a whole lot of party structure as a Republican in Rhode Island, but there was some. And another thing I'm learning from this experience is traditionally you can have your party chair take your hatchet attacks on your opponent and remove, or separate yourself a little bit from that fray. I don't have that either...that's been interesting when you have some negative initiatives on my opponents.''
Hummel: "Do you like getting out and campaigning, shaking people's hands? Sometimes, you seem..and I watched you at the Scituate Arts Festival. You have to do it, but it's almost like you're intruding on people's time or space. Or is that not something that concerns you?''
Chafee: "No, no. I don't know where that perception comes from because that's not accurate. I know from my council races, that's where I learned my issues, going door to door.''
When he lost his Senate seat to Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006, Chafee thought of getting out of politics altogether. He took a position teaching at his alma mater, Brown University, and saw a very crowded field of people considering a run for governor, initially including David Cicilline and Patrick Lynch as well as Frank Caprio.
He knew how much his father, the late Senator John Chafee, enjoyed his three terms as governor in the 1960s. But - truth be told - Linc Chafee was also worried about living up to the legend of John Chafee.
Chafee: "He was known almost more as Governor Chafee than as Senator Chafee for a long part of his career, and so the pro was I knew how much he enjoyed it and loved and working with the legislature through the battles they had, moving the state forward. At the same time I was thinking that's Dad's niche that he had, can I fulfill all the legendary reputation that he had? That gave me some pause actually.''
The specter of John Chafee may also have played a part in the most controversial aspect of this campaign: Linc Chafee's proposal to widen the state's sales tax to help bridge a $400 million budget gap.
In 1968 John Chafee proposed creating a controversial income tax, saying the state needed more revenue. His opponent, Frank Licht, promised no new taxes. John Chafee lost the election and two years later, Licht broke his promise by creating: a new income tax.
Chafee: "Ultimately I knew during the course of this campaign the candidates would have to be specific about what they would do about the deficit. And I wanted to be able to have an answer and defend, it. I just couldn't face the voters and not tell them what I would do. I would rather not run. And then get in office and do something different from what I said in the campaign.''
Hummel: "Does that ever go through the back of your mind that honesty sometimes, I'm not saying it isn't the best policy, but sometimes the voters may not be getting the message? Are you concerned about that repeating itself?''
Chafee: "No, because I couldn't run and not be honest with the voters. I couldn't do it. And I guess the same with my dad when he had to tell the voters he'd rather be honest with them and it didn't work out in 1968, but I'm going to work doubly hard so they know what my plan is and call out my opponents on what their plan is.''
Chafee: "The media sits back, very cynical. I found it interesting that no one's saying: `Good for Chafee, he's being honest.' They just sit back, nobody's stepping back, on the talk shows or anything and saying, `Here's a fellow being honest with what we need to do.' The other's aren't saying anything - the Republican candidate says we're going to make more tax cuts and he gets a free ride.''
Hummel: "Do you think it's the media's responsibility to step in and do that?''
Chafee: "Yes, I do, the talk shows especially. It's all just negativity.''
And that brings us to media coverage of the campaign.
Hummel: "How much do you pay attention to how the media is covering the campaign?''
Chafee: "Oh you have to pay attention - I'm not a big TV watcher. I just don't have time. So I'm a print, newspaper person. I'm not an online reader. But occasionally when I'm in the car I listen to the talk shows. But you have to pay attention.''
HJummel: "Do you ever get frustrated sometimes when you either read something in the Journal or turn on talk radio and say, `That's not right''?
Chafee: "Oh yeah, very frustrating. The thing about this campaign, people are saying there's no substance. But if you put your toe into the water of substance, all of a sudden there' a lot of criticism. I use Deborah Gist and education reform - I started to talk about the debate that's going on - a healthy and dynamic debate about testing and choice - and all of a sudden there's a front page, top of the fold story that I'm questioning. It wasn't balanced. I didn't think it was balanced at all. And if you want substance, this is important.''
Lincoln Chafee has also taken a page from the political playbook of his father, who was known as "The Man You Can Trust.''
Hummel: "I'm looking at the sign behind you and it says `Trust Chafee' - that also has a little bit of history. Is the subliminal message to the voters, you can't trust the other guys?''
Chafee: "I wouldn't say that, that wasn't the intention. It's just I've earned it, on the Iraq War, on a number of fronts, even in controversial times, to say thing that turn out to be true.''
A strategy that he is banking on again to help him in his latest quest for office.
Jim Hummel, for The Hummel Report.
Click here for original article.
Chafee fires back at Caprio, citing tax increases
October 19, 2010
Projo.com
By Katherine Gregg
Lincoln Chafee speaks to the media Monday about his opponent Frank Caprio and Caprio’s votes on raising taxes.
PROVIDENCE — With his own 1-percent sales-tax proposal the target of months of pounding by opponent Frank Caprio and his allies in the national Democratic party, independent Lincoln D. Chafee Monday turned the spotlight on Caprio’s own record as a 16-year member of the General Assembly, and, specifically, his votes to raise taxes.
In a parking lot outside a 7-Eleven on Smith Hill, Chafee stood in front of a billboard listing the tax and fee hikes for which, he said, Caprio had voted over the years, including gasoline and cigarette tax increases, new surcharges on water, telephone and car-rental bills and the ultimate decision to make permanent the state’s “temporary” 7-percent sales tax rate and extend it to over-the-counter drugs.
A big chunk of Caprio’s own TV advertising dollars have gone into attacks on Chafee’s suggested 1-percent sales tax on a host of items that are currently exempt, including food, clothing and prescription drugs, as a way to knock back the state’s persistent deficit — pegged at $320 million for next year — without forcing the cities and towns to again raise their own taxes.
In his own TV ad, Caprio says: New taxes on groceries? Not when I am governor.
In his new ad, Chafee looks directly into the camera and reminds viewers that, in 1968, his father, the late John H. Chafee, lost his own bid for reelection as governor because he said the state needed an income tax, which the man who beat him was later forced to support. “The biggest lesson I learned from my father was to tell the truth and trust the people.”
Chafee said Caprio voted for “12 different tax hikes … more than 100 fees … [and] budgets that raised taxes on everything from nursing homes to gasoline.” His chart listed electricians, plumbers, shellfishermen, truckers, auto body repair shops, travel agencies, pet shops and nursing assistants among those who paid higher registration and licensing fees as a result of Caprio’s votes.
“Now, suddenly, Caprio … believes Rhode Island needs to ‘hold the line’ on taxes,” Chafee said. “Given his record, can we really trust Frank Caprio to keep his promises…. Or is he just ... saying what everyone wants to hear to get elected?”
Continue reading "Chafee fires back at Caprio, citing tax increases"
Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 speaks with The Brown Daily Herald
October 17, 2010
The Brown Daily Herald
By Claire Peracchio
The Herald: As governor What would your top priorities be?
Lincoln Chafee: I call them the A, B, C's — make our assets work better for us. We talked about that tonight, the knowledge district that we opened up, connecting the Amtrak line to the airport, also investing in Quonset Point, (we) didn't get a chance to talk about that but that's a billion dollars in the last 10 years of infrastructure improvements. That's a huge investment. And creating assets to me is having a fair budget process so that companies have some certainty in what they're going to confront when they come to Rhode Island. And the C is very, very important — corruption. Rhode Island is just plagued by stories such as the North Providence corruption. That word spreads throughout the country —‘don't go to Rhode Island,' and we have to change that.
What do you think of the tone of this campaign? As someone with a lengthy career in politics, do you think this race for governor is particularly contentious?
This latest incident where my campaign manager's unemployment files were illegally released, that's something a little different from any other campaign. Somehow, somebody got access to his unemployment records, and it's illegal to share that confidential information. So it has taken a darker turn, I think, than any of my previous campaigns just today.
Could you comment on the allegations against your former campaign manager and how they arose?
What happened is I remember he was very, very careful not to have overlap of coming onto my campaign and the payment of his unemployment benefits. He was very adamant that we be careful about that, but as it turned out, the payroll company that we hired found that although he was paid on January 15th, it wasn't for that two week period, which he was working for the campaign in January. That payment period went for the last two weeks of December, even though that first check came on January 15th, so now he has an overlap, and I think the payment is $458. When our treasurer picked up on it, unbeknownst to my campaign manager, he did put it in our campaign filing report, so we had some responsibility in the campaign, and he submitted his resignation. But now the leak that involved the information is getting more suspicious that it's connected to the Caprio campaign.
How is there a connection?
My campaign manager, when he was working for the state, worked for the Department of Higher Education. That was his state job, and when he was laid off, he continued to collect benefits from the Department of Higher Education. Judge Caprio, my opponent's father, is chairman of the Board of Higher Education. Now as we looked at this, we thought, ‘well I didn't know initially that the Department of Higher Education would be aware of benefits being paid.' I thought it all came from the Department of Labor and Training. … But in further research today we found out that the Department of Higher Education knows what is being paid out to their former employees. So that made us suspicious. We want to find out who leaked this information — it's illegal. All the (Department of Labor and Training) or the Department of Higher Education had to do was call us and say there's an overlap, and of course we would have sent in the $458 and said that's a mistake, but when it turns into a campaign issue, then that's illegal.
What would you do to jumpstart Rhode Island's economy and create jobs for Rhode Islanders given the constraints on the state's budget?
I think my A, B, C's are very, very relevant, and they are specific. Take our assets — the day I'm elected I'm going to start making plans to go to Houston and see what they're doing right. And in the Station District, there's already some construction that has been planned, but they need tenants in the buildings before they break ground, so we can capitalize on our investment there. So it is starting on day one, taking these assets and making them work better for us and then having a good Budget that's relevant to getting our economy going and getting people back to work. And Corruption — on day one I'll be making sure that we do everything possible that in Rhode Island we're not only going to be doing business legally, but ethically. That's going to be my mantra. Is it legal? Is it ethical?
Continue reading "Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 speaks with The Brown Daily Herald"
Both Chafees had it right
October 15, 2010
South County Independent
By Rod Driver
Who remembers what happened to Lincoln Chafee's father 42 years ago?
Running for re-election in 1968, then-Governor John Chafee suggested that Rhode Island would eventually need an income tax to balance its budget. His opponent, Frank Licht, pounced on this and won the election.
A couple of years later, Gov. Frank Licht himself supported an income tax and signed it into law.
Of course Linc Chafee remembers 1968. But he went ahead anyway to suggest that, to help balance the state's budget, Rhode Island should consider a 1 percent sales tax on items currently exempt from the 7 percent and 8 percent taxes. And he is being attacked for this suggestion.
It would have been easy enough for Linc to avoid the subject. But he's too forthright for that. If he were not Lincoln Chafee, he might have concluded from his father's experience that honesty may not be the best policy for winning an election.
Legislators and the governor like to tell us they did not raise taxes. So why have many Rhode Islanders recently seen their taxes increase?
That's easy. Instead of "raising taxes," the legislature and the governor withheld money from Rhode Island's cities and towns. This forced municipalities to raise real-estate taxes and/or car taxes.
It is unclear that this is better than Linc Chafee's suggestion.
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Linc Chafee is a tested leader of unquestioned integrity and a strong independent voice. As Governor, he will work hard to create new jobs, rebuild our economy, solve our chronic budget problems, end corruption, and forge a new way forward for Rhode Island.
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