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Trading up: The dreamer and the pragmatist

Christopher Curran
Posted 12/30/14

In January of 2015, our 75th governor of the State of Rhode Island will be inaugurated. Leaving office will be the often enigmatic and always idiosyncratic Lincoln Davenport Chafee. Entering office …

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Trading up: The dreamer and the pragmatist

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In January of 2015, our 75th governor of the State of Rhode Island will be inaugurated. Leaving office will be the often enigmatic and always idiosyncratic Lincoln Davenport Chafee. Entering office will be the current General Treasurer Gina Marie Raimondo. These two individuals could not be farther from each other in education, demeanor, and degree of political practicality.

Governor Chafee holds an undergraduate degree in Classics from Brown University and is a graduate of a horse shoeing school in Montana. While General Treasurer Raimondo holds a Magna Cum Laude Bachelors Degree in Economics from Harvard, a Rhodes Scholarship Doctorate in Sociology from Oxford, and a juris doctorate from Yale.

Other than seven years as a farrier and two years as a visiting fellow at Brown, Chafee has occupied an elective office as either a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Warwick councilman, Mayor of Warwick, United States Senator, or Governor. His successful elections were largely predicated upon his venerated family name. Whereas, Gina Raimondo has been in the private sector most of her adult life as a financial expert. When she did decide to enter public life and run for General Treasurer, she won handily. Then she set forth to revise the pension system to make it sustainable. In our state, this issue had long been the third rail of state politics. Yet she addressed the problem and engineered a pension overhaul. In concert with the General Assembly leaders, her proposal became law. Although the reform is still being challenged in court, Raimondo has been lauded for her ingenuity across the country.

If one was a human resources manager, which of these two individuals might be better suited to be Rhode Island’s Chief Executive?

The Ocean State is an out of control ever growing and wasteful government. So overly stratified with 39 municipalities and merely a million or so in population, Rhode Island has a bottomless taxpayer’s pit of duplicative expenses. With an over abundance of fire districts, school districts, and institutional hierarchies that have rendered the Ocean State one of the most costly places to live in the country. Early on in his term, Chafee stated that regionalization was not the answer to the taxpayer’s escalating burden. Hopefully, Governor-Elect Raimondo will foster the dynamic will she displayed in the pension reform in addressing the fundamental inefficiencies in our government.

When comparing these two public servants, it seems most appropriate to compare the “Dreamer” with the “Pragmatist.” The dreamer, Lincoln Chafee, sees a world as he wants it to appear. The governor lives within the snow globe of his own subjective reality. When asked recently on a channel twelve public affairs program, what letter grade he should receive as governor, he responded unabashedly “A.” Yet, he supports his argument for the grade by asserting legalized gay marriage, an extra approximately $200 million for higher education in the budget, and the supposed efficiencies brought forth at the registry of motor vehicles were great triumphs. These “victories” were hardly game changers for our state. He also took substantial credit for pension reform, which he had little to do with.

Along the way, he made a national issue on what to call a tree at the State House, protected a brutal murderer from being extradited to meet justice, and claims his administrating of executive departments was virtually flawless.

Chafee’s tenure in office was spent on inconsequential minutia. However, because of his rose colored glasses he has embellished the importance of his tasks completed. Also consistent in his term as governor, Chafee complained of unfair treatment by the press and opinionated radio talk show hosts. Chafee was confounded by these taunts of the fourth estate. He still believed he was executing the administration well and that those critiques were patently incorrect. He carried this burden of criticism personally which further constrained his willingness to attempt anything significant.

On the contrary, the pragmatist Gina Raimondo will undoubtedly draw upon her professionalism as an investment expert and her administrative experience as General Treasurer to address all issues as a factualist. Being endowed with the unique blend of diverse education and analytical skills, there is little doubt the Governor-Elect is much more qualified to be the Chief Executive than her horseshoeing predecessor.

Yet, no matter how innovative the new governor may be she will still be hamstrung by the constitutional weakness of the governor’s chair. That is why it is absolutely essential from day one to coordinate all grand endeavors with Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Theresa Paiva-Weed. If she can work in tandem with these legislative leaders from the onset, we Rhode Islanders may have finally found a leader capable of effecting positive change.

With a victory in the governor’s race of a slight 40 percent plurality, Raimondo holds no mandate. Also, considering Moderate Party Candidate Bob Healey garnered 22 percent of the vote with no campaign infrastructure, no money, and a just a few weeks campaigning, undoubtedly there are a great many disenchanted Rhode Islanders who are searching for real leadership. The governor-elect will also have to use the “Bully Pulpit” to curry favor with those who have lost their faith that Little Rhody can be ever be vibrant economically again.

Replacing Chafee with Raimondo opens a long closed door of opportunity for renewal.

Here is hoping, we citizens have traded up from the ineffective dreamer to a possibly effective factualist.

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