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| Ken Block endorses Allan Fung |
I’m here to endorse
and express my full-throated endorsement for Allan Fung for Governor.
Paired together on the statehouse steps on Providence, Fung
complimented Block, stating that:
He has shown he is a
man of his word. Not only has he come forward to stand with me today, for which
I am very grateful and thankful, but he has also followed through on his
promise to fight for real reform in state government.
Fung continued:
It’s not about us
individually. It’s about the people of the state of Rhode Island. People are still
hurting in this great state, and this is where the focus has to be on.
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| Allan Fung |
The Democratic candidates who had lost to General Treasurer
Gina Raimondo lined up behind the winner. Block came around one week after
losing the primary and presented a united front with the Republican winner.
Block’s comments were particularly noteworthy:
True change for Rhode Island cannot come from a
compromised and a conflicted Democratic party. We need a strong party of
opposition, a Republican party dedicated to putting Rhode Island on the best
economic course to move forward. We won’t change unless we undertake the hard
work of actually changing.
A conflicted
Democratic Party? Politico.com would agree with this observation, since the
online magazine submitted that the Democratic gubernatorial primary
represented the future divisions with the National Democratic Party in 2016. Putting
aside these differences, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Rhode Island scion
Clay Pell attempted to dispel these concerns. Does their on-camera cordially really help Raimondo?
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| Gina Raimondo |
Whatever one’s
conclusion about the divisions on the left, at least Republican (and in heavily liberal Rhode
Island) is playing offense against the mainstream meme of the divided,
defeated, and soon to be dead GOP.
What else can one surmise from this interesting turn of political
events?
Despite the hurts he had endured from the campaign (including
the effective yet offensive “Blockhead” commercial from the Fung campaign), the
former Moderate Party founder and 2010 gubernatorial candidate put the
conflicts behind and put Fung’s campaign ahead of him.
Whatever one may think of the man’s motives, this public
gesture of solidarity is welcoming as well as forthcoming. The personal cost of
swallowing one’s pride is praiseworthy. Republican intra-party primary fights
have bordered on political fratricide in prior national races (consider the winnable
US Senate races in Delaware in 2010 and Indiana in2012, for example), giving
Democrats more opportunity for retention or expansion in Congress.
At least in Rhode Island, feuding Republicans are behaving
like family once again.
Could the Block-Fung Reconciliation signal the healing of
wounds among National Republicans in the future, too?
It depends.
The key difference between more liberal Block and Fung
depended on their message not just their records. Just as Block had supported
Obama twice, so too there are liberal Republicans who believe in free markets
and free enterprise at the state level , who voted for Obama in 2008 or 2012 as
a protest vote against Bush, and who will shift toward a better party unity for
2016.
Block’s record of reforms for Rhode Island residents cannot
be ignored, either, and the same civic activism populates the Republican Party
to this day, specifically in the Tea Party movement. Fung represents a more
conservative Republican, a member of the traditional fold, less of an outsider
to some, but with experience and a record of accomplishment which depends on
grassroots outreach to make its case and win the race.
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| Bob Healey |
A war of personal ambition gave way to pragmatic
reconciliation. Do Fung’s chances improve of winning the governor’s seat? In a
few ways, yes. Block supporters have another reason to hold their collective
noses and support the mayor. Those who had feared a “Block cult of personality”
can take into account that the leader has supported his rival. Block’s “full-throated”
endorsement marginalizes Bob Healey, who is running under the banner of the
Party Ken Block had started. Interestingly enough, the eccentric Cool
Moose Party founder had run for statewide office on a platform of
abolishing the same office. How does he reconcile his current bid with his
penchant of odd claims and chronically low polling results?
Ironically enough, the founder of Healey’s party does not
endorse Healey. What a reversal.
Rhode Island politics was already getting interesting this
year, and the Republican bonhomie between
Block and Fung has smoothed out one crease in Mayor Fung’s rocky campaign for
governor. With a recent
poll showing Fung neck-and-neck with Raimondo, plus a higher likability
index, the embattled mayor from Cranston may have more than a chance of winning
this November.
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