The clock is ticking down rapidly to the September 9 primary where Democrats will have to choose between Seth Magaziner and Frank Caprio as the Democratic candidate for General Treasurer. Polling shows Seth’s public support has jetted ahead to take a 12 point lead over Frank Caprio in the final days. This is a huge shift from the 18 point lead Caprio held over Magaziner in June – a 30-point swing!

It’s pretty easy to understand why this surge happened. One factor was the decision by the third contender, Ernie Almonte, to run not as a Democrat, but rather as an independent with the Republican Party’s tacit endorsement. That was probably a wise move for Almonte, after video emerged showing him promoting right-wing views on issues like Social Security, Medicare and tax cuts for the rich.

It looks like Magaziner picked up all of Almonte’s supporters and then some. Frank Caprio is stuck with his core constituency of very conservative Democrats and party regulars loyal to his father, Judge Frank Caprio.

David Caprio

It also didn’t help that his brother David, a former Narragansett/South Kingstown state Representative, to be revealed as a player and partner with Rep. Peter Palumbo in a sleazy deal to get the state’s big beach concession contract. In what looks like blatant bid-rigging, David Caprio filed the second best bid behind Rep. Palumbo to run the concessions at state beaches.

Once Palumbo won the bid, he withdrew, so the state awarded the contract to David Caprio. Then, Caprio hires Palumbo to actually perform the contract, but at a loss of $250,000 to the taxpayers. The State Police are investigating and the state Ethics Commission is going after Rep. Palumbo because, as a state legislator, he is forbidden from bidding for, or carrying out, state contracts. David Caprio, for his part, resigned as Democratic State Party Chair. He has apparently not resigned from the RI Judiciary Disciplinary Board where he oversees the conduct of all Rhode Island lawyers, including his father and his brother Frank.

As a Democratic State Committee member over the past several election cycles, I saw David Caprio’s only achievement as state party chair was to grease the wheels and whip the vote to get the state party regulars to endorse his brother Frank.

Other than that, David Caprio was practically invisible. Statements by Republicans, no matter how outrageous, remained unanswered. Former state party chair Ed Pacheco had us spoiled – he never let the GOP get away with attacks without a fast and furious response.

The excuse given for David Caprio’s very rare appearances was that he was too busy doing party fund-raising. At least that was the excuse when party members would ask why they never saw him around. However, the campaign finance reports filed by the state party show that Caprio raised virtually no money. The party’s primary sources of funds were contributions of $3500 from most of the candidates for state office. The party reports show that even with a depleted staff, they were running close to the bone.

This unseemliness was enough to shake the faith of even the most loyal party regulars, questioning where the Caprio family was leading them this time.

No resume, no second chance

Lacking any message other than ‘give me another chance,’ Frank Caprio has rolled out negative TV ads challenging Seth Magaziner’s résumé. Caprio’s attacks twisted the facts beyond recognition, as Magaziner’s former boss made clear, Caprio’s attacks on Seth’s résumé only make you want to take another look at Frank Caprio’s own résumé:

• When Frank Caprio served as General Treasurer from 2006-2010, he failed to take action to prevent the underfunding of public workers’ pension funds.
• As a candidate for Governor in 2010, Caprio pretended he had nothing to do with the pension crisis and instead blamed public workers and ran on the position that he would slash their pension benefits.
• In 2010, Caprio actually had private talks with the Republicans about running for Governor as a Republican but, after beating Patrick Lynch, he went on to run one of the worst Democratic campaigns in Rhode Island history.
• It was so bad that, when hearing that President Obama would not endorse him, he publicly said the President could take his endorsement and “shove it.”
• After coming in third in the 2010 Governor’s race, he dropped his Democratic Party membership and in 2012, rooted for Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama.
• When Caprio decided to run again for his old seat as Treasurer, he first discussed running as a Republican with the GOP State Party chair, just as he did in 2010.
• Finally, he decided to run as a Democrat after his brother David was installed as the new state Party Chair.

Accepting the state party convention’s endorsement, Frank Caprio’s acceptance speech can be easily summed up as ‘I won’t screw up as much as I did last time.’

Seth Magaziner

After all that, you would think that Rhode Island Democrats would support a yellow dog rather than Caprio, provided the yellow dog had an untarnished reputation. Fortunately for RI Democratic voters, they already have an alternative with great qualifications and an unblemished reputation in Seth Magaziner.

Here’s a short list of reasons why Seth is the clear choice:

• Life-long Democrat
• Backed by state and national democrats such as Bill Clinton, Deval Patrick, Patrick Kennedy, Liz Roberts, 13 Democratic city and town committees, RI Progressive Democrats, organized labor, RI-NOW and a host of others.
• Activist investor who has proven he can beat the market while also standing up to big-banks to lower fees and fight predatory financial practices like systemic foreclosure.
• Only candidate in the race who testified at the state and federal level about the dangers of predatory financial services such as payday lending and pawn shop check cashing.
• In addition, Seth has published a detailed plan  to make the Treasurer’s office an economic engine, including launching an RI green bank and (this is one of my favorites) investing more of the Treasury’s dollars locally.

And if you want to read more about Seth and what he plans to do on behalf of the people of Rhode Island, click here.

“Sundlun took the lead and went to great lengths to cultivate consensus, which he did rather quickly,” said David Preston, a Sundlun confidant who worked for the former governor and was executive director of the Democratic Party at the time. It was 1991 and Mark Weiner was appointed as the new chairman of the state Democratic Party.

This time, though, Governor Linc Chafee, who won office as an independent and then became a Democrat, said he would cede the responsibility to more senior members of the party.

“Despite my status as a Democratic Governor,” Chafee said in a prepared statement, “as a new Party member, I will defer these decisions to more veteran members.”

Jonathan Boucher, current executive director for the party, said the chair is elected by the majority vote of the state committee. There are 243 members.  “A candidate for chair has to get nominated and obtain a majority vote of those present,” he said. “At this time Grace Diaz will be the acting chair and will continue in that role until a meeting is called to elect a new chair, or the current term expires.”The Speaker of the House is said to have much influence over who becomes chairperson of the party.

The Young Democrats of Rhode Island, who can be said to represent the more progressive wing of the the Rhode Island Democratic caucus, said the next chairperson should reflect “both the best interests of Rhode Island and the principles of the national Democratic Party.”

Representative Peter Palumbo, is perhaps best-known for calling my niece, Jessica Ahlquist, an “Evil Little Thing” on the John DePetro Show and in the process creating an internet meme demonstrating the casual way in which politicians dehumanize atheists and women with their rhetoric. Or maybe he’s better known for the hateful anti-refuge letter he recently sent to Governor Chafee, or his .

But now he’s in the news because there’s an investigation involving beach concession stands he managed for now-former Democratic Party chairman David Caprio. Palumbo won the bid to manage the three concession stands, and then declined the contract. It was assumed, at a lower price by Caprio, who then hired Palumbo to manage the concession stands. The people lost out on $266,000 in revenue as a result. Caprio resigned Tuesday.

This, in the middle of an election season.

Rhode Island Republicans Mark Smiley, Chairman of the Rhode Island GOP and Executive Director Robert Paquin III have issued a press release calling “for State Representative Peter Palumbo to step down and aside from his race for re-election while he is investigated by the RI State Police.” If Palumbo steps down his Democratic primary opponent, Kirk McDonough will be running unopposed in the primary (Update: McDonough did not qualify for the primary ballot, so if Palumbo doesn’t run the seat would go to a Republican). The Republicans are fielding two candidates for Palumbo’s seat.

Should Peter Palumbo step down? If he and David Caprio colluded to profit $266,000 at the people’s expense, then yes he should. Certainly everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence, and no one is sure as of yet that this entire affair involves anything precisely illegal, but the stench of insider politics and profits at the expense of taxpayers hovers over this mess in a way familiar to those who follow Rhode island politics. At the very least it should move the citizenry to demand that the Ethics Commission be granted oversight of the General Assembly, and we should all be wondering why elected officials are free to bid on state contracts, an obvious preventable conflict of interest.

[Edit: Common Cause RI tweeted to me, “the Ethics Commission still has jurisdiction over GA for not legislative actions such as this.”]

Scandal aside, Palumbo’s policy proscriptions are wrong for Rhode Island.

Politically, Palumbo is to the right of most Republicans in this state. His conservative voting record paints him as a true Rhode Island DINO, a Democrat in name only. Palumbo has a 100% rating from the NRA, voted for Voter ID, is rated at 22% on Civil Rights by the ACLU and somehow avoided voting for or against marriage equality when it passed last year.

How conservative is Palumbo?  In 2010 Palumbo a he introduced that mirrored a controversial immigration bill from Arizona. Palumbo ended his appearance saying, “Thank God for Fox News.”

That’s pretty conservative.

The Young Democrats of Rhode Island says the next chairperson of the state Democratic Party should reflect “both the best interests of Rhode Island and the principles of the national Democratic Party.”

“That includes,” they said in an email, “firm commitments to reproductive justice, gun safety reforms, repealing voter ID, and making government more accessible and transparent.”

David Caprio resigned yesterday from the post after an NBC 10 Parker Gavigan scoop about his beach concession stand contract. Gavigan reported that Caprio assumed the contracts after Cranston state Rep. Peter Palumbo won the bid, dropped out and then took a job managing the concession stands for Caprio.

Caprio is a conservative Democrat who was ousted from his legislative seat by progressive Democrat Teresa Tanzi in 2010. Caprio was recommended as chairman by former Speaker Gordon Fox.

Here’s the Young Democrats full press release:

Like many in the state, the Young Democrats of Rhode Island were surprised to learn of David Caprio’s resignation from the crucial role of Rhode Island Democratic Party Chair. We wish to sincerely thank him for his hard work and his many years of service to Rhode Island.

We now must look to the future; YDRI congratulates Representative Grace Diaz on her elevation to Acting Chair, and we wish her the best of luck during this time of transition.

The RI Democratic Party Chair plays a powerful but underappreciated role. The Chair facilitates connections between candidates and incumbents at every level of our state’s democracy, from our city and town committees up through the Governor’s office. The Chair wields and distributes both financial and informational resources, including fundraising support and access to our party’s voter tracking database.

Most importantly, the Chair must act as a visible embodiment of and vigorous advocate for the ideals of the Democratic Party.

It is with these responsibilities in mind that the Young Democrats of Rhode Island urges that we, as soon as possible, nominate a new chair that reflects both the best interests of Rhode Island and the principles of the national Democratic Party. That includes firm commitments to reproductive justice, gun safety reforms, repealing voter ID, and making government more accessible and transparent, positions that are keystones of the national Democratic Platform and popular with Rhode Islanders. As always, we are confident that a Rhode Island Democratic Party built on these principles will help level the playing field, expand economic opportunities, and raise the quality of life for Rhode Islanders—young and old—across our state.

The Barrington house where radio shock jock John DePetro allegedly sexually harassed WPRO coworker Dee DeQuattro is owned by former state Rep. David Caprio.

Sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the address of the house in question as being 32 Lorraine St., a very high end vacation rental known as Beach House, a 9,000-square-foot, 1895 Victorian-style mansion that rents for $8,800 in the summertime, according to a vacation rental website.

Barrington property records indicate the property is owned by John LaRochelle and David Caprio, both Providence attorneys. It is appraised at $1,545,800 and has 24 rooms, 14 bedrooms and 5 full bathrooms.

Caprio, a Democrat, was a state legislator representing Narragansett from 1999 until 2010 when he lost in a primary to Rep. Teresa Tanzi. His brother Frank ran for governor against Linc Chafee and famously told President Obama to “shove it.” Their father Frank is a well-known local TV judge on the show “Caught in Providence.”

A phone number of the vacation rental website rings Caprio’s phone, who could not be immediately reached for comment. According to a press release dated January 21, 2011 from his web designer, Caprio has recently stepped up efforts to rent the property.

“Former State Representative David Caprio recently stepped up efforts to attract visitors to his 9,000 square foot vacation home in Barrington, Rhode Island,” reads the press release. “Although the Victorian estate, affectionately known as the Beach Mansion, has been available for booking in the past, Caprio received fewer reservations than he would have liked.”

According to DeQuattro’s lawsuit, her and DePetro were to get lunch together on the afternoon of May 21.

“DePetro instead stated he had another place in mind and drove to a house on a dead end street in Barrington,” according to the filing. “Plaintiff inquired where they were and DePetro said he owned the property and insisted plaintiff exit the car and come into the house while he retrieved an item. While inside the house DePetro made sexual advances towards the Plaintiff.”

DeQuattro declined to comment on the lawsuit or the house in question.