Gina Raimondo (D. RI), Wall Street's Preferred Candidate
There are a few primaries that are important to watch and the Rhode Island Democratic Primary for Governor is one that deserves some special attention. The top two frontrunners are Providence Mayor Angel Taveras (D. RI) and State Treasurer Gina Raimondo (D. RI). It's clear which one is the best candidate between the two:
http://www.providencejournal.com/...
Neither of the two front-runners in the Democratic primary race for governor has lobbed a TV attack ad yet, but Providence Mayor Angel Taveras is chiding one of his opponents — General Treasurer Gina Raimondo — for the $544,831 that his campaign has traced to her “Wall Street” backers.
Taveras tied the statement that his campaign issued on Monday to Raimondo’s answer to a question posed to her during last week’s debate on Rhode Island Public Radio.
Raimondo “was asked whether the hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions she has received from the financial services industry was a problem. The treasurer simply responded, ‘Campaigns are expensive,’” according to a statement issued by the Taveras campaign.
“It says a lot that, when most Rhode Islanders are struggling, Treasurer Raimondo is taking a ‘business as usual’ attitude to Wall Street,” said Dawn Bergantino, communications director for the Taveras campaign. “Her campaign is bankrolled by Wall Street.” - Providence Journal, 7/15/14
Here's Traveras' case:
http://www.golocalprov.com/...
The Taveras campaign pointed out that once Raimondo was elected, she moved more than a billion dollars into hedge funds, and while fees to Wall Street have increased to $70 million, state pension fund returns still lag behind its peers and the city of Providence.
"When it came time to reform the pension, Raimondo’s plan ensured that retirees wouldn’t receive cost of living increases until the pension fund performed well enough, but that Wall Street would get paid no matter what," said the Taveras campaign in release. "Additionally, former Enron executive and hedge fund billionaire, John Arnold and his wife have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars propping up Raimondo’s political career – including at least $100,000 to Raimondo’s LeadHERship PAC and as much as $500,000 to Engage Rhode Island which spent approximately $740,000 lobbying for pension changes. "
“We have a hedge fund billionaire and Wall Street titans who are spending big money to prop up the Treasurer's political fortunes, clearly they think Treasurer Raimondo is a good investment,” said Bergantino. “While Raimondo may not see the problem, the voters of Rhode Island do.” - Go Local Providence, 7/14/14
And Traveras attacks are backed up by facts. Like this:
http://www.providencejournal.com/...
Raimondo, a Democrat and former venture capitalist who is contemplating a run for governor in 2014, has been criticized for pushing a strategy that results in paying millions more in management fees while lower-income retirees go without cost-of-living increases. In the fall of 2011, as the Investment Commission she chairs was voting to hire hedge funds, Raimondo spearheaded an overhaul of the state pension system that reduced the unfunded liability by $3 billion, in part by partially moving state workers from defined benefit to a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan.
A key component was a suspension of cost-of-living allowances. With lower hedge fund returns a drag on the pension fund’s growth, retirees will have to wait longer for the retirement system to recover from past underfunding so they can regain their COLAs.
“They’re turning the pension fund into a fee machine for Wall Street,” said Daniel Pedrotty, of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in Washington. “In the years since 2008, the stock market has roared back. Hedge funds have not. It’s a disturbing story.”
Raimondo won national acclaim as a pension reformer, including a 2012 “urban innovator” award from a conservative New York think tank, the Manhattan Institute, which advocates for defined-benefit plans. Three of the hedge fund managers Rhode Island hired — Loeb, Singer and Garschina — are trustees of the Manhattan Institute; last spring, their funds were placed on an AFT watch list for being hostile to union workers.
The treasurer says she doesn’t like the high fees, but has a fiduciary obligation to look at the bigger picture — the welfare of the pension fund. She says she doesn’t recall meeting Loeb, Singer or Garschina, and that the selection of their hedge funds was vetted by the Treasury’s staff and outside consultant, and approved unanimously by the Investment Commission. Of Loeb’s Third Point Partners, the state’s highest-performing hedge fund with a 29.46-percent return in 2012-’13, she said, “I’m proud of his accomplishments.”
During a discussion of hedge fund fees and transparency at an Investment Commission meeting this spring, Raimondo said: “I’m troubled by the fees. It’s too much money. But my job is to maximize returns. We’ve reduced risk substantially. … A year and a half ago we sat around this table talking about how we’ve got to protect people’s pensions. We put in place a risk strategy. We monitor these guys. It’s working. So I say, let’s stay the course.” - Providence Journal, 8/3/13
And this:
http://www.providencejournal.com/...
Rhode Island's $7.7 billion pension fund earned investment returns of 11.1 percent during the past fiscal year after paying about $70 million in investor and performance fees, according to preliminary numbers presented Wednesday to the State Investment Commission.
Anne-Marie Fink, the state's chief investment officer, said the state paid about $36 million in management fees and another $34 million in performance fees for the year that ended June 30, according to her estimates.
Stephen Nesbitt, CEO of Cliffwater, the state's hedge fund consultant, said fees paid by the state were average. - Providence Journal, 9/25/13
And this:
http://www.providencejournal.com/...
State General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, a former venture capitalist whose gubernatorial rivals are trying to cast her as Wall Street’s “handpicked” candidate, raised nearly $250,000 in campaign donations last year from employees of banks, lenders, insurers, private equity firms, venture capital firms and other finance companies, according to a Providence Journal review of campaign finance records.
Her financial sector donations far outpace the roughly $98,000 in combined donations that the five other gubernatorial candidates — three Democrats and two Republicans — raised from those sources.
They also make up a greater share of Raimondo’s total donations than they do for the other candidates: approximately 14 percent of the $1.8 million in donations she collected between her individual campaign account and her political action committee, “Gina PAC.”
In comparison, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, also a Democrat, raised nearly $44,000 from workers in those sectors, or just over 5 percent of the total $816,558 in donations he received through his individual campaign account and his political action committee, “Moving Providence Forward.”
Democratic newcomer Clay Pell IV, meanwhile, raised $4,900, or about 4.4 percent, from those sectors in order to reach his $110,925 in total donations in 2013. - Providence Journal, 2/24/14
And Traveras' attacks are really starting to get under Raimondo's skin:
http://ripr.org/...
Raimondo campaign spokeswoman Nicole Kayner says the attack from the Taveras campaign is off-base.
"These personal attacks are not true," Kayner says via email. "Gina Raimondo goes above and beyond and does not accept contributions from investment managers that do business with the state's pension fund, and she has these same managers sign a pledge that they know the rules. She's doesn't work for Wall Street and never has. She is only accountable to the people of Rhode Island. Gina opened a business in Rhode lsland that helped create over a thousand jobs, and as Treasurer enacted pension reform that has saved people's pensions, saved taxpayers millions of dollars statewide and prevented other local governments from following Central Falls into bankruptcy."
Raimondo, Taveras and Clay Pell -- whose own television commercials are in heavy rotation -- are the three leading Democratic candidates for governor. Bristol contractor Todd Giroux is also running.
The stepping up of criticism of Raimondo from Taveras' campaign comes with less than two months until the September 9 primary.
Kayner says Raimondo's campaign is "disappointed in the increasingly personal and negative nature of the Mayor's campaign. He has joined with other opponents of pension reform by engaging in character attacks on Gina in an attempt to undermine the important work she is doing to save the pension system. As he caters to his political allies and opposes pension reform, we are reminded that just a few years ago he was upset that the state's pension reform didn't address the locally-administered pensions as well, including Providence's. Mayor Taveras continues to do the politically convenient thing and once again fails to make the tough decisions. He's more of the same." - RI NPR, 7/14/14
Polling has put Taveras in the lead but we can't afford to take anything for granted in this primary. The primary is September 9th (my mother's birthday!) so lets help Traveras win in November. Click here to donate and get involved with Traveras' campaign:
http://angel2014.com/