Russ Moore: Chafee, Licht—Poster Boys for Old School Politics

Monday, May 26, 2014

Russell J. Moore, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

Richard Licht

The Richard Licht appointment was a nice touch.

It capped off a hell of a week in the ongoing tale that is Old School Rhode Island Backroom Politics, starring Governor Lincoln Chafee.

First, the legacy media caught up to golocalprov.com and reported that the administration re-hired First Southwest as the state's financial adviser in March. It doesn't matter to the Chafee administration that we're suing for the company for fraud, among other nefarious things. That's just how we roll here in Little Rhody.

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Shameless

Then the much anticipated news that Governor Lincoln Chafee would appoint political insider and long time Rhode Island power broker Richard Licht, to a seat on the state's superior court arrived. Not a bad one-two punch.

That's some pretty shameless hypocrisy from a guy who ran for governor on a platform of ethics and good government.

Let not your heart be troubled: there's light at the end of this 4-year tunnel. Rhode Island currently finds itself in the twilight of the Chafee years. In about six months the state will turn the page and welcome new leadership into the state government's executive branch.

Fire First Southwest!

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't pressure the administration to reverse these latest two abominations.

If Rhode Island wants to retain any semblance of self-respect, it cannot retain First Southwest as its financial adviser. The contract with this company has to be cancelled immediately. If only we could send them southwest so they could wreak havoc somewhere else.

In addition to being sued by the state of Rhode Island in a civil suit, the FBI has reportedly convened a grand jury to investigate issues surrounding 38 studios--according to former House Speaker Gordon Fox's lawyer Albin Moser.

Stranger than fiction

So it's possible that we could have First Southwest's Sr. Vice President Maureen E. Gurghigian being called to testify in civil court about her culpability in the failed, potentially fraudulent 38 studios deal on a Monday.

On Tuesday she could be testifying in criminal court about the chain of events that led to the 38 studios deal. When Wednesday rolls around, Gurghigian will be advising the state on finacial issues such as borrowing money.

Tone deaf

Dear Angel Taveras, Clay Pell, and Allan Fung--this is why Rhode Islanders are negative about the government, as you three seem to be perplexed.

It doesn't take a professor of ethics to see there's a serious issue with rehiring someone that you're suing for being knee-deep in what you're asserting was a fraudulent deal.

But the tenets of logic are apparently lost on our Governor. Chafee, in one breath, tells Rhode Islanders to have faith in the state's lawsuit against the organizations involved in executing the ill-fated 38 studios deal.

Yet at the same time, Chafee has rehired one of the institutions that he's suing. Apparently, the Governor really doesn't have too much faith in the state's lawsuit if he's rehired one of the companies that he's suing. Chafee may say that he believes in the state's lawsuit, but his actions tell a completely different story.

This is a situation so strange, that if a fiction writer wrote it up and submitted it to a publishing company, the editor would reject the story as being too unrealistic.

The door revolves

There's been much talk lately about the state of Rhode Island's reputation with respect to whether or not it should pay back the moral obligation bonds that the state doesn't even legally owe. But if we were truly concerned about the state's reputation, Rhoade Island wouldn't be rehiring a company with that the state is suing for fraud. That's a sure-fire way to contribute to the state's tarnished image.

Which brings us back to Richard Licht. Let's not forget that the state is also suing Adler, Pollack, and Sheehan--the white shoe Providence law firm that gets so many sweet bond deals--in the 38 studios lawsuit. And by golly, wouldn't you know that Licht worked at that law firm when the deal was being crafted and executed? What a coincidence!

Ethical challenges

Chafee is fond of saying he wasn't in favor of old school politics, yet when he appoints one of the most politically connected lobbyists in the history of Rhode Island to become a powerful supreme court judge--well his actions tell us a different story.

If the Senate confirms Licht as a Superior Court Judge, they'll be confirming a former insurance industry lobbyist who is the prototypical Rhode Island insider. His nomination to the bench is a firm salute to the old way of doing business in Rhode Island.

As a former Chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Governor's For Education in the mid to late nineties, Licht was fined $500 by the state ethics commission for a conflict of interest in representing a Providence developer while serving on the board. (A Superior Court judge eventually overturned the fine.)

Conflicted

Call my crazy, but I'm thinking Chafee could've found someone less...conflicted, to serve on the bench.

Give credit to Ken Block for sending out a press release criticizing this maneuvor.

"This is yet another occurrence of the 'who-do-you-know-state' political culture that most Rhode Islanders have come to expect from their state leaders," said Block in a release.

Block is directly on point. But let's not hold our breath waiting for anything similar from Cranston Mayor Allan Fung. One former lobbyist isn't going to criticize another.

Trust Chafee...to be Chafee

In any event, none of this is a surprise from Chafee. When he was Mayor of Warwick he built a political machine by giving his former opponents positions of power in city government to make them allies on a going forward basis. In other words, it was old school machine politics.

So with that in mind, Chafee's slogan was always pretty accurate. We can always "trust Chafee" to be Chafee--a cynical, backroom politician.

A native Rhode Islander, Russell J. Moore is a graduate of Providence College and St. Raphael Academy. He worked as a news reporter for 7 years (2004-2010), 5 of which with The Warwick Beacon, focusing on government. He continues to keep a close eye on the inner workings of Rhode Islands state and local governments.

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