Raimondo Getting Great National PR, While Struggling in RI
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
The difference is pronounced. Major newspapers around the country are praising Gina Raimondo’s efforts to recreate the state while in RI the rookie Governor who won with just 40% of the General Election vote seems to have lost ground with voters, diminished her political capital and damaged her relationship with the media.
From the Washington Post to the Boston Globe to the Wall Street Journal, Raimondo is being heralded as the bright light who could finally fix Rhode Island.
The Boston Globe wrote on Monday, “Raimondo, a 45-year-old Democrat, is trying to do what her predecessors attempted with mixed success: reinvent the Rhode Island economy.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Globe threw out catch phrases like “Many believe Raimondo is the person to do it [reinvent RI].”
The 2,000 word article in the Globe barely spoke to a detractor and lauded Rhode Island’s first female Governor with compliments for her smarts and big time connections.
“She has connections to Silicon Valley, including Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, and corporate leaders, such as Larry J. Merlo, chief executive of CVS Health of Woonsocket, R.I.; Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of the Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation; and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc.”
Last month, the Washington Post wrote an opinion piece titled, “One governor bucking the bipartisan tradition of passing the buck.”
The editorial written by Fred Hiatt, the Editor of the Editorial Page fawns over Raimondo’s RI success:
“Given the anger many voters feel, she (Raimondo) says, this isn’t easy, “but I just am of the view that we have to focus less on everyone holding onto their piece of the pie, and more on growing the pie for everybody.”
Rhode Island is tiny (just over 1 million people), and maybe politics that work there can’t work on a larger stage. Still, you can’t help wishing that a bit of her philosophy might rub off on Washington: “Don’t ignore big problems,” she says, “and don’t try to pretend that problems are smaller than they are.”
While the Globe article and Post opinion piece were laudatory, the Wall Street Journal has been an even more consistent champion of Raimondo and her agenda since she first took on pension reform as General Treasurer.
Raimondo’s Branding Motivation
“She's getting national press on two issues: Her fight with the public-sector unions and the truck toll issue. Governor Raimondo's standing assault on the public-sector unions is just a refined version of Scott Walker's assault on the teacher's union in Wisconsin,” Associate Professor Michael Scully of Journalism at Roger Williams University tells GoLocal.
“Given the fact that Gov. Raimondo is a Democrat, this issue paints her as a moderate in a party that's trending liberal and that fact makes her a standout. Her gender is also an attractive aspect of her political profile. One might argue that she is a politician of the future: A moderate, pro-business female Democrat in an age of angry white, conservative men,” said Scully.
Similarly, Valerie Endress, Associate Professor of Communications at RIC says Raimondo’s very calculating effort to gain national press attention may be less about Rhode Island and more about her future.
“When officeholders have the attention of the national press, there's often a rebranding that takes place in which achievements are placed in context of national politics. The recent "It's Working" theme may be part of that rebranding effort,” said Endress.
“The governor is certainly speaking to her statewide constituents, but the video also is not unlike what we would see from those who are aligning themselves for a federal appointment, bid for Congress, or the Oval Office. While there's been no outright declaration by Governor Raimondo about her future beyond the governorship, few officeholders would pass up such an opportunity to enhance their image on a national level.”
Can the Gap Get too Big
Presently, there is widespread criticism by the Rhode Island media because of Raimondo and her Administrations' lack of transparency and failure to release the most basic information. “Members of the local media have an inside view about how the sausage is made, have access to oppositional perspectives, monitor social media on the statewide level, and this information affords them a more balanced and realistic perspective on the limits of achievement and many of the missteps” said Endress,
“There's always a disconnect, but if the margin widens too much, then there can be some dire consequences. For example, in one of the most stunning losses in politics, House majority leader Eric Cantor was swept out of office in a primary election because he brushed off the importance of local, grassroots politics.”
Raimondo may benefit that the national press only knows her by her national reputation - they have a tendency to read each other. “The local media know Governor Raimondo and have been trailing her progress since she won the office. Clearly, they know her and her administration well. The national press only know the shadow of her: they see her as an attractive stick figure and paint ideas of her with a broad brush,” said Scully.
Some National Media is Not Buying the Pitch
While the Wall Street Journal, Globe and Post have all written glowing analysis, the one publication that has consistently explored Raimondo’s Hedge Fund strategy and her policy's benefits to Wall Street.
“…Rhode Island pension officials led by then-General Treasurer Gina Raimondo shifted roughly a quarter of the state’s pension portfolio into high-fee hedge funds, private equity firms and other so-called “alternative investments. The shift by Raimondo, a Democrat who is now governor, has generated big revenues for Wall Street firms, but only middling returns for a $7.6 billion pension fund on which more than 58,000 current and future retirees rely,” wrote David Sirota of International Business Times (IBT).
Like Rhode Island press that raises uncomfortable questions, IBT’s Sirota received a stiff arm from Raimondo. “Raimondo did not respond to IBT’s questions about her shift of retirees’ savings into alternative investments or about special preferences for certain investors. Of the pension cuts she pushed for, she recently told the Wall Street Journal: “There’s still a core group that’s angry, and in many ways I understand why they’re angry. I tell them, ‘Don’t be mad at me. Be mad at people who made promises that were unaffordable.’”
Scully breakdown the two competing roles, “As Rhode Island's chief executive, she must work to serve the people of Rhode Island…it is the responsibility of the local media to exam and evaluate her effectiveness as a governor…On the national stage, the governor's responsibilities are vastly different. Governor Raimondo's conversation with the national media should be nothing more than a PR campaign to elevate Rhode Island's national profile.”
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