Frank Caprio to run as a Republican?
Posted by: Brian Hull
in 2010 Governor
on February 02, 2010 
There was an interesting conversation on the Dan Yorke show yesterday… Marc Comtois over at Anchor Rising gives us the breakdown:
Former Steve Laffey campaign manager John Dodenhoff (he ran Laffey's Senate campaign in 2006) was on the Dan Yorke Show to explain that he ate lunch last week with Michael Lepizzera (former Laffey campaign member, now affiliated with Frank Caprio) who put forward an idea of having Frank Caprio run as a Republican so long as Steve Laffey stayed out of the 2010 Governor's race. According to Dodenhoff, Lepizzera confirmed that Caprio was "on board with this [the idea]."
A few additional points I’d like to make:
Lepizzera donated $2,100 Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign in 2007, and $2,100 to Laffey’s campaign for Senate in 2005. Lepizzera is obviously a strong Republican.
Was RISC’s endorsement of Frank Caprio conditioned on Frank Caprio running as a Republican? Jeff Deckman did serve as RIGOP Executive Director and may be trying to discourage Laffey from running.
The Caprio campaign’s statement regarding the unauthorized nature of the conversation doesn’t actually deny the proposition. Is Frank Caprio actually thinking about running as a Republican?
David Caprio’s possible indecision about running as a Democrat or a Republican makes the Progressive endorsement of Teresa Tanzi’s campaign virtually guaranteed.
Any candidate’s thinking about switching parties for the upcoming elections would have to do by 90 days before the filing deadline of June 30th (that means we’ll know by the end of March who is going to jump the Dem ship).
The whole Republican closed primary thing needs to get sorted out as well, especially since Caprio would need a large bloc of unaffiliated voters to enter the Republican Primary and vote for him (if there will be a Republican Primary). I know the RIGOP will be discussing this issue at their Feb 9 meeting, but it’s unclear if any change will be made. The Republicans would have to decide by mid-March whether or not to close their primary, because the new rule would need to go into effect 180 days before the primary election. These will be important considerations for Caprio if he’s seriously weighing a run as a Republican.
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written by Matt Jerzyk, February 02, 2010
I agree that one must be cautious when listening to such rumors and their spinsters.
Isn't in the Laffey camp's interest to portray Cicione as so "out of touch" with the GOP base that he's trying to recruit a Democratic gubernatorial candidate?
Remember: Laffey will only run with a closed primary.
And all strategy is focused on making that happen right now.
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written by DonRoach, February 02, 2010
As I've mentioned before, the Republican party bickering like this internally is not a good idea at this time. Do this in 2011, 2013 not now with the governor's race in the balance.
If Laffey is not able to win in an open primary that begs the question of his viability in the fall. For that reason alone, I like the open primary system. I mean who thought in 2002 that Don Carcieri had a shot?
I think by closing the primary we'll get more Republicans like myself (socially conservative/moderate fiscally conservative), but I'm not sure if we'll have more electable ones.
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written by Contrarian View, February 02, 2010
For that matter, Patrick Lynch is a minor cog in the party machine. Intellectually he is one rung on the ladder above Patrick Kennedy. RI under a Gov. Lynch turns into the last chapter of Atlas Shrugged.
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written by Matt D, February 03, 2010
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written by SouthCountyKing, February 06, 2010
In John Dodenhoff's words:
"... a supporter of Steve's for mayor and for Senate, to have lunch, so I went to lunch and at this lunch
it was proposed to me that there was an idea, or a brainstorm, of a way to save the Republican party or make it more relevant again or something along those lines, by getting the General Treasurer Frank Caprio, to run as a Republican, and bring his name recognition and his money, $1.7 odd million,
and was Steve Laffey 100% out, and if he was, and was I interested in bridging the gap between the "disaffected" Republicans, which I took to mean...the Mike DiPolitanos... the other 32 chairs and their members who want to have a discussion about closing the Republican primary and who are upset with the current Chairman. and obviously this was, to me, a political person, an interesting idea, and I was a little surprised
and I asked very specifically is this something that has been run by the General Treasurer, is he on board with this? and I was told yes, this is something that he is considering,
and then I asked,
and I think I used the term "the old man", and I meant Judge Caprio, and is he on board with this? and the answer I was told, "Yes"
(and the knockout punch for GA DINOs...)
"and I was also told at that same meeting, Dan, that there were five, or six, or seven State Reps that are currently Democrats that were thinking about being on board and flipping over to the Republican side, and I wanted clarification, is one of those Reps the General Treasurer's brother, and I was told that yes, he is one of the Reps."
my eyebrows are raised.
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Not only does it serve the purpose to trying to make Ciccione look like a sell out, it is targeted at taking out the biggest threat to Laffey, which is Caprio. Lynch is running a campaign based on preservation of the status quo, and it seems to me that he has no shot at galvanizing independents in the General Election. Lynch's appeal does not extend very far outside of public employee unions, lobbyist and special intrest groups. Unfortunately, for the party and the state, Laffey people see a Scott Brown/ Martha Coakley repeat in a match up between the AG and the former Mayor.
The goal of this scam: weaken the biggest threat to Laffey and to get rid of the man standing in the way of his clear path to the nomination through the closed primary.