Union Leaders and Conservatives Both Say RI Needs a Siedle Candidacy
Wednesday, August 09, 2017
Rhode Island’s most conservative GOP elected official and one of the State’s most powerful labor leaders both voiced support for a Ted Siedle Attorney General run in Rhode Island on Tuesday.
It has been just two days since GoLocalProv.com first reported that Forbes columnist and soon to be the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) top whistleblower told GoLocal that he is looking to run in Rhode Island in 2018.
Siedle is not new to Rhode Island, he has been working in Rhode Island for the past four plus raising issues about the adverse impact of Governor Gina Raimondo’s hedge fund investment strategy when Raimondo served as treasurer.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn a speech in October of 2016 in Warwick to retirees, Siedle said, “The so-called experts paid millions from the pension by former Treasurer Raimondo, predicted the reckless gamble would result in stellar performance worth the outrageous fees Wall Street gunslingers charge.
Raimondo’s hired experts blessed the reckless gamble and were dead wrong. Dead wrong. How wrong? Their bad advice cost the pension over $2 billion. Over $2 billion. Hedge funds alone lost $500 million.”
GOP and Union Support
Senator Elaine Morgan (R-Hopkinton) who boasts the highest grade from The Gaspee Project — the pro-taxpayer and small business political group announced via social media on Tuesday, “He (Siedle) has my vote.”
And later on Tuesday, J. Micheal Downey, Jr. on GoLocal LIVE told News Editor Kate Nagle, on hearing Siedle is potentially looking at running for AG in RI said, "Having followed Rhode Island politics, I was genuinely excited someone like [Ted] Siedle would get into the foray in Rhode Island."
Downey is President of the Executive Board of Rhode Island Council 94, AFSCME.
”The pension issue is volatile, but could make a difference in the campaign, and for taxpayers and people like myself who contribute to the system, we know through Ted Siedle that the [pension fund] is not being run properly,” said Downey.
Council 94 has 65 local unions in Rhode Island state agencies and cities and towns. The Council also represents private sector workers and workers in quasi-public agencies including the Narragansett Bay Commission, the Rhode Island Airport Corporation and First Student school bus drivers.
On hearing Siedle is in line to get the biggest whistleblower payout in SEC history Downey said, "I was excited for him. Having worked with him -- his expertise has shown through with the settlement, for the knowledge that he has. [The news] was not surprising for me."
Similarly, Steven Day the former head of the Providence Firefighter Retirees said on GoLocal LIVE on Tuesday, “I was ecstatic (when I heard the news that he might run). Ted produced the evidence the [pension] fund lost $2 billion through investments in hedge funds.”
"It was a Wall Street grab - not pensioners. [Raimondo] put a hurt on them at their worst stage. She's done nothing to make it better," added Day.
Day takes credit for first bringing Siedle to Rhode Island in 2013.
"Ted Siedle. I begged him to come here, I told him he'd find improprieties. He teaches at the FBI -- white collar crime and whistleblowing at the academy. His credentials are impeccable...and the [Raimondo administration] called him 'that blogger,'” said Day.
GoLocal reported on July 22, that Siedle is in line to be awarded $48 million of more than $70 million in a record award by the SEC.
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