The Clay Pell campaign is lining up to have the least transparent candidate for Governor in 2014.
Despite more than ten emails and phone calls to the Pell Campaign requesting information regarding the star of the Clay Pell campaign – Michelle Kwan – relevant to her voting record, the campaign repeatedly broke promises to provide information.
Over the past two weeks, the Pell team have ducked, dived and now have gone silent on Kwan’s participation in the democratic process over the last 15 years.
According to voting records in California, Washington, D.C., and Rhode Island it appears Kwan has only voted once in her adult life – in California.
Do As I Say
The lack of participation in the democratic process has not stopped her from launching a video campaign telling Rhode Islanders whom they should vote for.
The video on YouTube, paid for Pell for Governor Campaign, entitled, “Michelle Kwan Supporting Clay Pell,” has been advertised extensively by the Pell campaign online and has been viewed more than 10,000 times as a result of a heavy social media spend. The one-minute campaign video by Kwan is a key part of the effort to elect the 32-year-old candidate.
GoLocal conducted interviews with Board of Canvassers office in numerous communities in California, Washington, D.C. and in Rhode Island.
Kwan is now 33 years old, and has had more than 24 opportunities to vote (not counting off year and special elections), and only one record can be found of her voting in an election or primary.
Fair Game
"A spouse is fair game when a candidate puts them center stage. Michelle Kwan was right there center stage in Pell's announcement, speaking out on his behalf. If you become part of the campaign, you become part of the discussion," said Darrell West in an interview last week. West is the former Director of the Taubman Center at Brown University and is a Vice President at the Brookings Institute.
The Voting and Elections Department of the Los Angeles County Clerk's Office confirmed that Michelle Kwan registered to vote in her home state of California. Kwan was a voter as of July 15th of 2012 and has voted once, in the 2012 general election.
According to Tamra Robinson, Public Information Officer for the Washington, D.C. Board of Elections, Michelle Kwan has not been registered to vote in Washington D.C. Kwan was recently featured in an ad for Coca-Cola that cited she was a resident of Washington, D.C.
According to Providence records, Kwan registered to vote in October of 2013. She has never voted in Rhode Island.
Kwan has been a superstar ice skater and is now being positioned as the chief spokesperson and top surrogate for the campaign.
Kwan, who graduated from Tuft’s Fletcher School of Diplomacy, has had a focus of international issues. After completing her degree, Kwan has continued to pursue a career in diplomatic issues. She had worked in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Kwan won two Olympic medals and for the 2010 Olympics she served as a correspondent for NBC Sports. At the Socchi Olympics she worked for Fox Sports.
Related Slideshow: 10 Questions Pell Has to Answer When Running for Gov of RI
It is difficult to identify Clay Pell’s base beyond a few prep school chums (in California) and the lovely people who live on Bellevue Avenue in Newport.
Every winning candidate needs a core base to leverage to win.
Taveras is counting, in part, on the Hispanic community as his base.
Raimondo is working to solidify two core groups – women and fiscal conservative Democrats.
Pell, who is both wooing and being wooed by progressives and public sector unions (see #6), must grow beyond the group the summers in Newport.
Seriously – Another No Private Sector Experience Governor?
Voters should understand that two sources of revenue have funded Clay Pell’s adult life – the federal government and trust funds. His public service in the Coast Guard is admirable, but Clay Pell has never had to worry about:
Mortgage, rent, car, health insurance, groceries, credit card, electric, oil/gas, telephone, cable, cellphone, college loans, tuition, or even yacht payments.
There is no indication that Clay Pell has ever had to make a significant management decision in his life. We all saw how David Cicilline struggled with managing Providence’s budget – Mayor’s offices and Governor’s offices are tough places for on-the-job learning.
Like their decision making or not, both Taveras and Raimondo have had to make executive decisions – Pell is going to need to assure voter he can make management decisions (See tough decisions below).
Most of the places Clay Pell spent his formative years, Rhode Islanders have not experienced. The reason why – they are private clubs, top-flight private schools and colleges. The Thacher School to Harvard to Georgetown Law School. Each of these premier schools has an annual tuition of more than $50,000 a year.
While Pell may claim to be committed to “ordinary” people (as he said in a WJAR interview), he needs to demonstrate that he is can understand the plight of unemployed and underemployed Rhode Islanders.
Progressives and Unions are in Love with Pell, is that good for RI?
Two powerful and influential groups in the Democratic primary are progressives and public service unions. With Rhode Island’s unemployment the worst in the United States and the economy, de facto, still in the recession, the next Governor will have many difficult decisions.
The decisions will include difficult budget choices – not likely to be popular with public sector unions and progressives.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote this week, "...makes him attractive to public unions who are likely to spend heavily in the primary. Robert Walsh, the executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, has already welcomed Mr. Pell's entry into the race. "Suddenly, an opportunity appears."
Rhode Islanders love a good celebrity and Clay Pell’s wife Michelle Kwan is certainly a celebrity. She won her first ice-skating World Championship in 1996 when she was just 15 years old. And had qualified for the Olympics in 1994 at age 13 only to be bumped by the recovering Nancy Kerrigan.
The two-time Olympian Kwan will wow Rhode Island during the campaign, but will she overshadow her husband?
The venerable Claiborne de Borna Pell retired from the United States Senate nearly two decades ago. While older voters may be fond of the deceased Senator’s legacy – many Rhode Islanders were not old enough to vote or did not live in the state when Pell was in office.
While the Pell family name may have some limited impact and young Clay Pell’s campaign will dredge up lots of legacy stories (so many you may think Clay was the author of the legislation creating the Pell grants).
Pell’s ability to skate between Raimondo and Taveras to win the Democratic primary in a coalition of union and progressive’s support will force him to win from the left.
Coming out of the primary will have defined him to the general election voter as a liberal of the highest degree. Brookings Institute Vice President Darrell West recently told an audience during a speech at the Newport Art Museum that progressives are back in vogue (citing the recent election of ultra progressive Bill deBlasio as Mayor of New York), but with Rhode Island’s economy stuck in a recession, Pell may have a difficult time convincing voters in the General Election that he is viable.
Remember in the past five elections – Rhode Islanders have elected Republicans to the Governor’s office four times (Almond twice, Carcieri twice) and in the last election while a liberal Lincoln Chafee won, more than 60% of the voters cast a ballot for the conservative Frank Caprio (D), GOP candidate John Robitaille or the business leaning Moderate Party candidate Ken Block.
Either GOP candidate will be able to paint Pell as too liberal for the challenges facing Rhode Island’s stagnant economy (9.1% unemployment).
Pell graduated from law school in 2008. That is right; Clay Pell has only been out of school for 5 plus years.
It is hard to believe that his experience in Coast Guard as a junior officer and his White House Fellowship qualifies him to be the chief executive of a state – he has never managed senior staff (he has never been senior staff), never managed employees of any significant scale, he has never managed a major budget, and he has zero economic development experience – a trait that some voters might look for after Chafee’s term.
Both Gina Raimondo and Angel Taveras demonstrated in the past three plus years in office the ability to make “tough” decisions.
Taveras had to clean up the Cicilline budget mess that had nearly bankrupted the City of Providence and Taveras even fired all the teachers in the Capital City. Of course, he walked that dog backwards during the following months ensuring a lack of trust with both teachers and fiscal conservatives.
Raimondo’s pension reform effort has drawn passionate support and venomous scorn. Regardless, it has demonstrated Raimondo is battle tested.
Pell’s professional career is not only short (5 plus years), but also been advisory – the buck has never stopped at Clay Pell’s cubicle.
