Governor Gina Raimondo would like to expand the Commerce Corporation and shrink Medicaid. Perhaps only in Rhode Island is such a political actor also a Democrat.
To her credit, she also seems committed to raising the minimum wage and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit. But she’s not really using any of her enormous political capital – gained through hurting unions, mind you – on anything aligned with the national Democratic agenda of tackling income inequality and ending poverty. This is traditionally how left-leaning thinkers would focus on jobs and the economy.
This is why conservatives like Jon Brien tend to support her and progressives like me tend not to.