Republican party challenge to Healey candidacy struck down
The Rhode Island Board of Elections struck down an official petition by the R.I. Republican Party yesterday, which challenged the gubernatorial candidacy of Robert Healey who is running as a Moderate Party candidate, the Providence Journal reported.
Healey, founder and former leader of Rhode Island’s Cool Moose Party, replaced James Spooner as the Moderate party’s choice Sept. 11 after Spooner dropped out of the race for medical reasons. The Board of Elections voted against the GOP’s arguments, one of which claimed Healey was ineligible because he was not affiliated with the Moderate Party, “upon information and belief,” prior to Sept. 11.
Healey has run three times each for governor and lieutenant governor, but lost all six elections. In his last race for lieutenant governor in 2010, he garnered 39 percent of the vote, and received 10 percent of the vote when he ran for governor in 1994. A central tenant of his platform was abolishing the office of the lieutenant governor, which has no specified official duties in Rhode Island aside from assuming the governor’s responsibilities if he or she is unable to perform them.
Fung campaign poll shows Fung and Raimondo tied
Allan Fung, the Republican mayor of Cranston, and Democrat Gina Raimondo, the state’s general treasurer, are neck-and-neck in the race for governor, with 42 percent of the votes each in an internal poll of 500 Rhode Island voters conducted by the Fung campaign, the Providence Journal reported. Sixteen percent of voters remain undecided, according to the poll.
The poll results also suggest that Fung and Raimondo both have high levels of name recognition, but that Fung has a higher likability rating than Raimondo. While 64 percent of voters have a “favorable opinion” of Fung, 54 percent have a “favorable opinion” of Raimondo, the Journal reported.
Cianci will not collect Providence pension
Providence mayoral candidate Buddy Cianci, who is running as an Independent, said he will not accept the city pension he earned in his two previous terms as mayor of Providence, WPRI reported.
Now 72 years old, Cianci is eligible to draw from a $209,000 pension he accumulated during his 22 years of city employment, the Providence Journal reported. Cianci said he thought the other mayoral candidates — Democrat Jorge Elorza, a former Housing Court Judge, and Republican Daniel Harrop ’76 MD’79 — should also reject collecting pensions if they are elected mayor.
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