Sen. Conley Who Opposes Public Vote on PawSox, Collects 94% of Campaign Dollars from Insiders
Monday, January 15, 2018
Senate Finance Chair William Conley, who is opposed to allowing voters to decide the fate of the proposed public financing for the PawSox Stadium, receives nearly all of his campaign donations from powerful lobbyists, political action committees, state house lawyers and fellow legislators.
According to a detailed review of Conley’s 2017 campaign finance reports through the third quarter, few constituents donated to his campaign. The review of documents was especially difficult as few of the entries filed with the Board of Election’s Campaign Finance Division had complete information. Names, addresses, or employer information was missing for the vast majority of the campaign donors.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Fourth quarter campaign reports for 2017 are not due to be filled until the end of January of 2018.
The donations are a who’s who of powerful State House power players. Conley collected donations from power lobbyists Bob Goldberg, former Senate Minority Leader (CVS, Amazon, Lifespan); George Caroulo, former House Majority Leader (Lifespan); Andrew Annaldo, former Providence City Councilman (Sims Metal, Toni & Guy Hairdressing); Joe Walsh, former Democratic candidate for Governor (Prime HealthCare, RI Builders Association); Bill Murphy, former Speaker of the House (Twin River, Care New England, Deloitte); and dozens of other lobbyists.
Another group that is generous to Conley’s campaign coffers are attorneys that work full or part-time for the State Senate. Five State House attorneys who earn collectively more than $500,000 also made donations.
GoLocal was able to track 94 percent of all donation to political insiders -- registered lobbyists, elected and appointed officials, interested parties and PACs. The number may be higher, but Conley's campaign reports are missing significant amounts of data -- home addresses, name of employer, and work address.
Conley Opposes Public Vote on the PawSox Stadium
While Conley enjoys the support of insiders, he does not believe that Rhode Island voters should be allowed to determine the fate of the proposed PawSox stadium proposal.
Conley issued a statement on Saturday that said, “Resorting to referendum because an important public policy matter is difficult or controversial is a betrayal of the fundamental principles of representative democracy. As elected representatives and leaders, it is our responsibility to study and debate complex public policy questions on behalf of our constituents. It is what we are elected to do."
Back in September, Conley said in an interview on RI Public Radio, "The process has to be driven by the merits of the proposal. Is it good for the state of Rhode Island? Will there be a good return on investment? What does it mean to the future of our state? It’s not really not a wet finger to the wind process to test which way the public opinion winds are blowing."
When Conley chaired the Senate Finance hearing on the funding proposal to support the PawSox owners, the evening was widely criticized for stacking the hearing with over four hours of supporters of the project before any opponent could give testimony at about 10 p.m.
Conley refused to respond to questions.
Thousands from PawSox Supporters
Conley has received multiple donations from key political action committees who are supporting the approximately $40 million in public financing to support the building of a new stadium.
PACs of the building trades have directed made multiple donations to Conley’s campaign fund. In total, Conley collected more than $5,200 from PACs last year.
The majority of Rhode Islanders strongly oppose public financing for the PawSox stadium owners. SEE POLLING RESULTS.
Related Slideshow: GoLocal: Benchmark Poll, October 2017
Related Articles
- Lucchino Says PawSox Have Identified Attleboro Site As Alternative to Apex Location in Pawtucket
- Top Union Leader Warns Time Is Running Out for a PawSox Deal
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sheehan: PawSox Deal Breaker
- New PawSox Deal: Cost Spikes to $85M — 16% Increase UPDATED
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Stewart: Supporting PawSox Gentrification Efforts is Not Progressive
- Sasse Says RI Commerce Failed to Properly Review PawSox Deal
- I Will Vote Against Current PawSox Deal: Guest MINDSETTER™ Sheehan
- PawSox Deal Looks Dead for 2017, Mattiello Raises Concerns
- Sen. Sheehan Discusses the Need for a New PawSox Deal on GoLocal LIVE
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Mathieu - Vote Them Out of Office if They Approve New PawSox Deal
- Tuesday on LIVE: Singer Gilman & Kinch on New PawSox Deal
- PawSox Funding Deal Passes Senate Finance Committee
- RI Senate Candidate Keith Opposes PawSox Stadium Deal
- Doyle Steps Down, Senate Finance Passes PawSox Legislation: This Week at the State House
- LIVE: Raptakis on PawSox Vote, Line-Item Veto Legislation, and More
- EDITORIAL: Want to Rebuild Trust With Rhode Islanders? Let Them Vote on the PawSox Stadium
- Legislation Regarding New PawSox Stadium to be Heard Tuesday
- EDITORIAL: The PawSox Stadium Solution
- PawSox Claim Potential New Stadium Must Be Pushed Back to 2021 at Earliest
- “PawSox Will End Up on Ballot, or Leave,” Says Former Pawtucket City Councilman Kinch
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sheehan: New PawSox Proposal Still Falls Short of Public’s Approval
- Grebien Sounds the Alarm on PawSox on GoLocal LIVE
- Sen. Conley Who Opposes Public Vote on PawSox, Collects 94% of Campaign Dollars from Insiders
