Guest MINDSETTER™ Mike Riley: Rhode Island is More Conservative than You Think
Thursday, December 27, 2012
The elections of 2012 included a story that the Rhode Island media did not want to tell. A little known businessman and resident of Narragansett ran as a conservative Republican against a six-time Democrat incumbent in a district considered by some experts as the safest district in the United States.
I had never held public office and I ran for Congress as a free-enterprise capitalist in a state that recently hosted Netroots Nation. This state has no Republican office holders and no Republicans in the federal delegation.
When I decided to run, the Republican Party was in disarray, losing its chairman in early 2012 and quite literally, the party was broke. I ran anyway, believing that Congressman James Langevin was not the answer to the critical financial problems we faced as a nation and particularly as a state. Rather than hide my 30-plus years of experience on Wall Street, I was openly proud of it. I spoke persistently of the failure of progressivism and the danger of continuing the decades-long socialist leaning policies in Rhode Island. I spoke of individual responsibility, free markets and capitalism.GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
But to hear Rhode Island’s politically left media tell it, I had no chance. The media virtually ignored the race. I never appeared on Newsmakers on Channel 12; Jim Taricani or Bill Rappleye did not interview me in all of 2012. Over 150 other interviews of Rhode Island politicians took place on channels 10 or 12. Furthermore, the Providence Journal’s editorial board never met with me. Jim Langevin debated only twice -- the last one was a three-way 30-minute debate on November 3rd where he was caught in a lie that went unreported by the media.
Yet with no party support, no money from the national GOP, no special interest money from banks or unions, I still scored more votes for a Republican in District 2 than any Republican in the prior 20 years.
How can this be in a year when conservative ideas were supposedly roundly rejected? We are told by Rhode Island pundits that Republicans are dead and should meet in a phone booth. Maybe, just maybe, Republicans, Independents and Democrats see what is wrong with Rhode Island and that it is in fact a “canary in the coal mine.” Maybe corruption and the nanny state is not the way to go. Maybe finishing last in national surveys has started to lose its cuteness.
There was no confusion about my message; there was no swerve. The Riley Plan that was issued in early 2012 focused on “growth” first, a stable dollar policy and then tax reform – taking the code from 77,000 pages to 100. I promoted straight forward tough decisions and real reforms based on experience, including regulatory reform and the fixing of entitlements.
In the end this message turned out 78,189 votes. These voters sent a message to the rest of Rhode Island voters that far from being dead, conservatives exist in all parties and there is a wrong way and a right way when it comes to public finance and policy. Voters are willing to cross party lines to do the right thing.
