Push Comes To ‘Shove It’ In R.I. Governor’s Race

Published October 26, 2010

This story was cross-posted to ElectionWire.

We’re all laser-focused on the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. But have you paid attention to the one in Rhode Island lately?

Rhode Island Treasurer and Democratic candidate for governor Frank Caprio, right, listens to independent candidate Lincoln Chafee during a forum at an assisted living center in Providence, R.I., July 21. (Stew Milne/AP)

Independent Lincoln Chafee, left, Democrat Frank Caprio (AP)

The race is divided among a Democrat, a Republican, an independent and a minor-party candidate — sound familiar? — with the Democrat and the independent running neck and neck.

Frank Caprio, the Democrat, is defending himself for telling President Obama to “shove it” ahead of the president’s visit Tuesday to the Ocean State.

Wha?

Mr. Obama won’t make an endorsement, because the independent — former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a liberal — is an old friend to the president who endorsed him for president.

As of yesterday afternoon, Chafee is running a TV ad featuring the president.

Caprio doesn’t need no stinkin’ endorsement. “He can take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as I’m concerned,” Caprio said in an interview on WPRO-AM yesterday.

This morning, on NBC’s “Today” show, Caprio was stone-faced:

I stand by my comments. The White House wanted to play politics instead of coming into Rhode Island and caring about what’s going on in the households across Rhode Island.

Now party leaders are caught between supporting their gubernatorial candidate and supporting their embattled president. The state’s congressional delegation expressed disapproval, while the Democratic Governors Association reiterated support for the candidate.

“Frank Caprio has spent his career fighting for the values of the Democratic Party. He deserves the full support of our party and its leaders,” said Nathan Daschle, head of the DGA.

The White House did not comment. Chafee seems to be keeping quiet, too, though a spokesman called the comments “unfortunate,” telling the AP: “Perhaps the strain of the campaign is wearing on Treasurer Caprio.

Polls have shown a very close race between Caprio and Chafee, with the Republican John Robitaille nipping at their heels. An Oct. 22 Rasmussen poll catapults the independent Chafee into first place, seven points ahead of Caprio, with Robitaille right behind him.