Democratic rival Matt Brown’s campaign is threatening to sue Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo over what it calls false and defamatory statements in an attack ad that debuted last week. Raimondo’s campaign said it stands by the ad and it describes a cease and desist letter sent by Brown’s campaignas as “a last-gasp stunt” in the run up to the September 12 primary.
In a statement, Brown called on Raimondo’s campaign to stop running the ad that focuses on his aborted 2006 run for U.S. Senate.
“These absurd, false attacks reveal Gina Raimondo’s deep disrespect for Rhode Islanders, who she assumes aren’t smart enough to spot a blatant lie when they see it,” Brown said. “But Rhode Islanders are smart and won’t be fooled, and they won’t let our democracy be bought by someone who lies and spends millions of dollars to trick voters and buy an election while refusing to do even one debate. The truth is that the baseless attacks are an attempt to distract from Raimondo’s own financial mismanagement, which adds up to more than $1.5 billion in losses from the UHIP debacle, failed pension investments, Cooler and Warmer, 195 construction debacle, and more.”
Emily Samsel, spokeswoman for Raimondo’s campaign, shot back: “The ad informing Rhode Islanders about Matt Brown’s history of fiscal mismanagement is straightforward and factual, and we stand by it. This is a last-gasp stunt by a failed candidate who has misled Rhode Islanders and distorted the Governor’s record from beginning to end.”
The Raimondo attack ad calls Brown “A failed politician who ran a near-bankrupt campaign for Senate, with apparent laundering of campaign contributions ….”
Brown, after storming the Statehouse by defeating an establisment candidate for secretary of state in 2002, focused his attention on a U.S. Senate run in 2006. He wound up cutting that campaign short.
Democratic groups in Maine, Hawaii and Massachusetts contributed $25,000 to his Senate campaign, and then some of Brown’s top donors gave a comparable amount to those three out-of-state groups. A Providence Journal editorial in 2006 made reference to Brown’s “apparent laundering of campaign contributions through other states.”
But one year later, in 2007, the Federal Elections Commission said it found no reason to believe that Brown or the Democratic groups in Maine, Hawaii and Massachusetts violated federal election campaign law.
The Raimondo ad also charges that Brown didn’t pay workers on his 2006 campaign more than $100,000. Brown’s current campaign says every worker from his 2006 run was paid in full. It provided a statement from Tim Patterson, who managed Brown’s campaign that year that said in part: “I can say with 100% certainty that all employees of our campaign were paid in full.”
(In April 2006, when questions were swirling about the status of Brown’s Senate run, the ProJo reported: “When a reporter went to Brown’s house on the city’s East Side at 4 p.m. yesterday, Brown could be seen through a door-side window. He turned toward the front door when the bell was rung, recognized the reporter, turned and walked away. No one opened the door. Brown and his campaign manager Tim Patterson also did not return repeated phone calls to their State House and campaign offices and cell phones throughout the day yesterday.”)
Brown left Rhode Island after his 2006 race and helped establish Global Zero, a group working against nuclear proliferation.
The Raimondo ad said Brown “paid himself $299.138” in that role. According to a statement from Brown’s campaign, Global Zero’s co-founder, Dr. Bruce Blair, set Brown’s level of pay and benefits.