WBOB Original Reads

Dickinson Believes Rhode Island would be in Further Trouble if Raimondo or Brown Win the Primary

8/28/2018

Christian Martinelli

The Democratic Primary is scheduled for September 12th, and many people know of the top candidates. Gina Raimondo and Matt Brown’s names are recognized, but many people do not know about the man that is chomping at the bit right behind them.

When you put together an Army veteran and a Harvard graduate you get Spencer Dickinson, the longtime Democratic lawmaker and 2018 Gubernatorial candidate for the state of Rhode Island.

A long time contractor and home builder in the state of Rhode Island he believes that Raimondo is not fit for office and that it is time for a big change.

“She doesn’t see problems coming.” Dickinson said in an exclusive interview with 990WBOB.com. “What we need is common sense, the Governor right now does not have those abilities.”

The former House of Representatives member talked about why he is opposed to the Burrillville Power Plant project. A potential one billion dollar project that has been supported by Governor Raimondo, many residents do not want to deal with that tax and possible emission burden.

When Mr. Dickinson was asked about the power plant he said, “I built the first solar panel in the state, because there was a challenge of a fuel shortage, and the threat was the electric company wanted to build a nuclear plant. I am concerned about the nuclear plant in Burrillville. I believe climate change and rising sea levels are real. When she says she supports the power plant, she is saying she is okay with continuing fossil fuels.”

Raimondo’s reform on pension has caused many people to set back their retirement, because the reform changed many of the terms that they agreed to years ago when they initially joined the union. Dickinson does not support the changes

“When Gina came here as treasurer she had a mission, and her mission was to take pension money away from the 64,000 working and retired teachers and public employees. She took that money from them and sent it to Wall Street.”

This has not been sitting well with the people affected by this as well as many other Rhode Islanders unaffected. The loss of the PawSox has been an extremely contentious talking point between the public, and Dickinson is chipping in.

“One thing I have learned in my life is that it’s never over until it’s over,” said the candidate. “Rather than say I give up I would sit down with Larry Lucchino and have a coffee. He’d be there as an insurance policy in case the city of Worcester messes up in some way, I’d be there because we are starting the negotiations all over.”

Spencer Dickinson is also very confident that if he is to get by Raimondo and Brown in the Democratic primary, that he would have an easy time with expected Republican primary winner Allan Fung.

“No disrespect to Allan Fung, but if I win the primary I will be calling Larry Lucchino and telling him that I will probably be Governor.”

Dickinson sees our state’s business climate to be uninviting to big companies as a whole due to our corrupt nature and low numbers in business ranked annually.

“Whether it’s manufacturing or the PawSox, you’re not going to get major decision makers to come to Rhode Island if they think we play stupid.” He continued by saying, “People are going to say this is a pay to play state and it doesn’t matter if it is the Red Sox or General Motors.”

He added about how local job market would change if he was to become Governor, “I don’t visualize a program where anybody gets paid a tax break or anything else to bring their business here. My message is come here we will give you a fair shot, and we’re already the best place to be. It’s not ‘we’re so bad we’re going to bribe you to come here’, we’re not asking for a bribe and we’re not going to pay you to come here.”

Matt Brown, who is currently in second place in the projected polls behind Gina Raimondo, was the Secretary of State of Rhode Island from 2002-2006. Dickinson is not a huge fan of his fellow primary hopeful to say the least.

“Matt Brown has bold new ideas, but I think that’s just an expression [because] I haven’t seen any of them. I don’t want someone in the Governor’s office that is in the habit of pulling fast deals. When he was here in 2006 they ran him out of town because he laundered his campaign money.”

When asked if he would be able to support Raimondo or Brown were he to lose in the primary election, Dickinson would not guarantee his support of his party’s elected candidate.

“That might be the question that I can’t answer. I’m not hopeful at all that the Matt Brown Rhode Island would be any different at all from the Gina Raimondo Rhode Island or else I would probably vote for Matt Brown.” He added, “I wouldn’t be supporting Matt Brown.”

It has been reported that Raimondo has a budget of $7.8 million that she can spend on her campaign. Dickinson is not spending anything near that mark, and thinks that how much money you have to spend should not buy you a government position.

Paraphrasing the great Martin Luther King Jr., he said “An election should be about the content of your character, not the content of your bank account maybe our whole country needs to learn about that.”

He later added to that comment by saying, “Gina is a little bit stressed right now, I’m guessing. She has spent $2 million and she hasn’t moved the needle.” Dickinson continued by saying, “I don’t have $7 million, I didn’t extort seven million dollars a thousand dollars at a time.”

Many people do not know of Spencer Dickinson. He is not happy about the lack of publicity some of the bigger media outlets in the state have given him, specifically the Providence Journal.

“Some media have an agenda. I believe the Providence Journal has an agenda. I’m sorry, and that may not improve my standing over there, but I’ve got to call it like it is,” Dickinson told 990WBOB. “The media seems to have an agenda, and they’ve been leaving me out.”

When directly asked about if Raimondo has made any positive change he was hesitant.

“I’m going to really have to think about that. It seems like she says one thing and does the other thing. Honestly it’s hard to find something good to say. The tolling system that we have underway right now, if I’m governor they’re coming down.”

He finished with one last jab at Matt Brown by saying, “I want to know why Matt Brown is getting away with what he’s getting away with. I can understand the charisma; I can understand the chunk of the Bernie supporters flocking to him. What I can’t understand the media giving him a complete pass on what is a federal felony.”

For more information on Spencer Dickinson and his campaign you can contact him at
(401) 782-2484
For more information on the Dickinson campaign visit his website at spencerdickinson.com