WBOB Original Reads

Five Reasons why Gina Raimondo will NOT be Reelected

10/5/2018

Tyler Krusz

While incumbent governor Gina Raimondo is in a good position to win her reelection attempt, there are several factors that could stand in between her and four more years in the state house during the 2018 election. Here are five reasons why Gina Raimondo won’t win the gubernatorial seat this year:

UHIP: Perhaps her biggest mistake as the Governor of Rhode Island was the Unified Health Infrastructure Project, or UHIP for short. Iit was a complete failure. The plan was to put all of the welfare information in one database to make life easier for the government and the people. However, the software wasn’t ready. The federal government warned Raimondo not to go through with UHIP. She refused, and hundreds of Rhode Islanders were left unable to collect any form of government aid. She took full accountability for the mistake, but it’s still not a good look for anyone.

People are Tired of the Same Old: Every year you hear it, Rhode Island needs a change. The people are corrupt, the roads suck, the schools are terrible, we’ve heard it all. People are sick of the way things are going in Rhode Island, and in response, we could see a partisan change in the governor’s seat. Gina’s connections to Wall St. certainly don’t help her surrounding this narrative.

Trump Support in RI: There’s a surprising amount of support for Donald Trump in Rhode Island. Both Allan Fung and Joe Trillo are trying to use that to their advantage. Fung has taken a hard stance on sanctuary cities and immigration while advocating for a business friendly state and improving the economy. Trillo has a businessman mentality, like Trump, and boasts of his success in business to prove his capability as governor. If one of these two candidates could win over the “on-the-fence” voters as well as the Republicans, it will spell a lot of trouble for Raimondo.

Bernie: Not only does she have the Republican voters to worry about, Raimondo ticked off a lot of the Democrats n RI in 2016. During the primaries for the presidential election, the Democratic voters elected Bernie Sanders rather than Hillary Clinton, and it wasn’t close. In response, Raimondo voted for Hillary despite the choice from her constituents. Logical, right?

Pensions: I was always told that just one mistake could haunt someone’s entire career. When she was Treasurer, I don’t think Raimondo saw moving the pension money into hedge funds as that mistake, but it’s been over her head for years. She was forced to make the move due to a seven billion dollar deficit in the pension funds, but people have reported that hauling the pensions benefited investors more than Rhode Islanders, and that is was not in the best interest of the citizens.

Check back next week for five reasons why Raimondo SHOULD be elected.