Business Group Endorses ‘Pro-Jobs’ Candidates
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
A coalition of local business owners is throwing its weight into the 2010 election, endorsing up to 20 pro-business candidates for the General Assembly and promising to pump more than $200,000 into their races.
“If the state of Rhode Island were a patient it would be on a resuscitator because the patient is more than anemic, it is virtually incapacitated by years of chronic abuse,” said former Attorney General Arlene Violet, who is a spokeswoman for the coalition, known as the RISC Business Network. She said supporting businesses would lead to more jobs and help Rhode Island recover from the recession.
Yesterday, the Business Network—which has 200 to 300 business members and is a project of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition—endorsed nine candidates for the General Assembly.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSix are incumbents and three are challengers from both major parties. “We don’t care if you’re Republican, Democrat, independent, or Moderate,” Violet said. “We care about how you think and if you’re pro-small business and pro-jobs we want to be able to support your candidacy.”
The four Democrats endorsed yesterday are all facing primaries against union-backed opponents: Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, D-Woonsocket; Rep. Jon Brien, D-Woonsocket; Rep. Douglas Gablinske, D-Bristol; and Sen. Michael Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“We’re going to draw the line in the sand and say if you’re going to come in and take on our folks, we’re going to show up and defend them,” said Jeff Deckman, who is a political strategist for RISC.
The RISC Business Network also announced its support for incumbent Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield; Republican Chris Ottiano against Sen. Charles Levesque, D-Portsmouth; Republican Sean Gately against Sen. Bea Lanzi, D-Cranston; and incumbent Senator Ed O’Neill, an independent from Lincoln. It also endorsed one Republican against another in a primary: Stephanie Santos Sivalingham against Rep. John Savage, of East Providence.
Group Says It Can Tip Balance of Power
The group is expected to endorse about 10 more candidates after the Sept. 14 primary.
In all, 20 candidates does not make a majority in a General Assembly with 113 members, but Deckman said that if businesses get more involved in the election, it will swing legislators who are on-the-fence to their side. Moreover, he said RISC could tip the balance in the Senate by turning just six or seven seats.
To get the endorsement—with the accompanying promise of funding—candidates had to fill out an application, which included signing a pledge that they will support streamlining regulations, consolidating services among communities, reforming taxes to make the state more economically competitive, and reforming the public pension system.
So far, the RISC Business Network has already collected $35,000 to $40,000 in pledges from donors. It is hoping to devote as much as $225,000 to the campaigns by the time the election is over, according to Deckman. He said the money will be given directly to the candidates. The role of the Business Network, he said, is to put donors in touch with reliably pro-business candidates.
Democrats Say They Can Be Pro-Business Too
Several of the Democrats endorsed yesterday said the support of the business community does not undermine their standing as Democrats and would not lead to repercussions with the party leadership.
“I’ve been a Democrat my entire life since I was 18 years old. I’ve also been a business man since I got out of college and as I have aged and, as I have become more learned and experienced, I understand that the two aren’t mutually exclusive,” Gablinske said (pictured above right).
He said that for too long, public employee unions had impeded the success of businesses and he called for reform of a public pension system that he described as too generous.
Baldelli-Hunt (pictured above left) also defended her Democratic credentials. “Whether you want to call me Democrat or Republican or a “Dempublican’—you can call me whatever you want to call me, but I feel as though I’m Democrat ... I’m an old-school Democrat.”
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