Independent for Governor of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
Joined October 2009
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This afternoon, I filed a second campaign finance complaint with the Rhode Island Board of Elections regarding illegal in-kind contributions from the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee to the Helena Foulkes campaign.
The Foulkes campaign accepted $90,000 in "Digital Communications" from the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee, which is well over the $25,000 annual limit a party can spend on advertising for a candidate.
The new total for illegal in-kind contributions across both complaints now exceeds $285,000.
We await the Board of Elections' enforcement of Rhode Island's campaign finance laws, which restrict this type of advertising by political parties.
Just follow the money.
If you want to see which candidate is beholden to the special interests and political insiders who control Rhode Island, just read the campaign finance report that Helena Foulkes filed last night.
In there, you'll find high-powered lobbyists, sitting members of the General Assembly, and over twenty donations from political action committees.
Helena Foulkes will give you another four years of the status quo. She's already bought and sold. Numbers don't lie.
Election Day is one week from today.
RI’s race for Governor has been…interesting.
Helena Foulkes spent most of the race claiming to be an outsider and beholden to no one. Post-primary, she has run as a classic machine insider, doing deals with many of the state’s most powerful labor unions and taking truckloads of their campaign cash.
My question is: why?
Foulkes has enormous personal wealth. She could have easily remained beholden to no one and outspent me 100 to 1.
She didn’t.
I am still being outspent at least 10:1. But, the momentum has been all mine since the primary.
We will finish this race strong. I know - and many in our state agree - that governance from the political middle is the best way. Leadership and governance are best informed by careful analysis. Outstanding leadership is only possible when paired with a strong moral compass and stronger political courage.
The time is now. Vote for change. Give me four years to show you what my team can do.
Helena Foulkes and I each sent out press releases today.
My release covered a press conference that I held this morning at the State House to discuss 17 priorities for my administration during my first 100 days in office (see below for more details). I took questions from the media for about half an hour.
Foulkes made noise about my tax returns and who I am voting for.
Guckian has been invisible.
Haven't you had enough of insider politicians like Foulkes? Don't you want change as badly as I do?
If you want things to change...then vote for change.
My opponents are just more of the same.
RI's problems are fixable. Leadership has been the missing ingredient. We cannot solve problems unless someone is working on the solutions. We cannot solve problems if our governor literally doesn't know what to do, or even how to think about it.
We have a unique chance, right now, to elect a different type of governor. Someone dedicated to solving our toughest problems.
No other candidate has proposed sweeping tax policy changes to remove the regressive taxes hidden in our utility bills.
No other candidate has proposed truly out-of-the-box solutions like a regional health insurance marketplace or my "One Stay, One Bill" proposal, which would require hospitals to send a single bill within 30 days of discharge that covers every charge from every provider during that stay.
No other candidate has proposed slowing our rush to meet a green energy goal that no other state comes close to matching, which could cost us up to a billion more than if we moved our goals to where other states have theirs.
No other candidate, and certainly no other governor, has tackled poor educational outcomes in our state.
Our government has been a reactive mess for decades. Everyone is feeling it - state workers, the public who has to interact with our government, taxpayers, businesses, and cities and towns.
Our government has let hackers make off with the confidential information of more than half of us. They have thrown money at terrible proposals. They have failed to keep businesses here and made little progress in attracting new ones.
Too many of our governors have not had what it takes. To compensate for their shortcomings, they hide behind the money and power wielded by RI's special interests.
We have all seen the cost of special interest-driven policymaking. Look no further than the Washington Bridge.
We can shake off our governmental stupor.
Vote for real change. Vote to eject special interests from the governor's office and your checkbooks.
Let's get this done. We are so close.