Rhode Island’s Democratic candidates for governor can’t agree on a way to limit outside spending in next year’s primary and instead are trading attacks on each other’s records on campaign finance.
General Treasurer Seth Magaziner Tuesday said only Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea responded to his Nov. 17 letter seeking a People’s Pledge among candidates to offset any outside spending on their behalf.
And in some of the most aggressive attacks of the fledgling 2022 campaign, Magaziner criticized Gov. Dan McKee for benefitting from outside groups in his campaigns for lieutenant governor.
“Dark money Super PACs have influenced other elections in Rhode Island … including the 2014 and 2018 Democratic primaries for Lieutenant Governor, during which out of state super PACS funded by interests like the Sackler Family, owners of notorious opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, spent nearly $250,000 in support of Dan McKee’s campaigns,” the Magaziner campaign wrote in a news release.
2022 RI governor race:Seth Magaziner, Matt Brown clash over use of ‘dark money’
But as they did when he first proposed a People’s Pledge, Magaziner’s rivals Tuesday objected to any deal on outside spending that doesn’t include Magaziner repaying a personal loan to his campaign for treasurer. Magaziner loaned his campaign $800,000 in 2013-14 and repaid $100,000 of it.
“Today, our correspondence to the General Treasurer’s campaign restated our openness to having a conversation regarding the People’s Pledge, and emphasized the importance of leveling the playing field with a request that he pay back the substantial personal loan he has given to his campaign by Jan. 1st, 2022,” Gorbea campaign spokesman Dan Walton wrote.
Candidate Luis Daniel Muñoz has also called on Magaziner to repay the $700,000 personal loan as part of any People’s Pledge agreement.
In response to accusations that McKee relies on so-called “dark money” from outside groups, the McKee campaign has revived questions raised by Ernest Almonte in the 2014 campaign for treasurer about where Magaziner got the $800,000 he loaned his campaign.
Before he ran for treasurer, Magaziner had worked as a teacher and in 2013 reported between $50,000 and $100,000 in income as vice president of Trillium Asset Management. In 2014 the Magaziner campaign had said only that the loan was a “personal investment” in his campaign.
“Given an amount this large, there should be more detail on how that money was transferred, coming from someone who is all about transparency,” McKee campaign manager Brexton Isaacs said Tuesday.
Pressed by The Journal for more detail, Magaziner campaign manager Katie Nee said that the treasurer is “fortunate to come from a well-off family, and that allowed him to put personal money into the 2014 race.”
She did not elaborate on whether that meant he inherited the money, took it from a trust or some other mechanism. Campaign-finance law limits individual campaign donations to $1,000 per year.
Previous proposals
The People’s Pledge Magaziner proposed was used in the 2014 governor’s race between Gina Raimondo, Angel Taveras and Clay Pell. The candidates agree that whenever an outside group makes an “independent expenditure” that benefits them, they will donate an equivalent sum from their campaign to charity.
Political Scene:Tax returns shed light on the financial lives of RI’s top politicos
The suggestion that McKee has benefited from shady outside groups also arose from the 2014 race when a Connecticut nonprofit produced a television ad backing McKee after it had received $100,000 from the 50Can Action Fund, a pro-charter school group that received money from, among others, the founders of Walmart and Purdue Pharma.
McKee received $3,000 directly from Purdue Pharma’s Sackler family from 2013 to 2015, but donated it to charity.
50Can spent more than $100,000 in support of McKee in 2018 in his reelection campaign against Aaron Regunberg.
Former CVS executive Helena Foulkes’ campaign did not comment on Magaziner’s People’s Pledge proposal.
(On Tuesday she separately called for an audit of all Rhode Island spending of federal COVID aid.)
Matt Brown spokesman Kolby Lee said that, “It’s unbelievable that Seth Magaziner still wants to talk about the issue of corporate money when he takes tens of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs and lobbyists, including from lobbyists for some of the most greedy and dangerous corporations in the country.”
panderson@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7384
On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_
