Frank Caprio: Interview

Last week, I wrote a Crimson blog post about the Harvard alumni who ran for governor. Since then, I’ve gotten in touch with a few of the candidates, to hear their thoughts on the election.
Frank Caprio (Class of ’88) was the Democratic nominee in the Rhode Island gubernatorial race. During the race, Caprio caused quite a stir by telling President Obama to take his endorsement and “shove it”. Independent candidate Lincoln Chafee came away with the election. Here Caprio talks about the race, and his plans for the future.
It seems that your campaign for governor focused a lot on a plan for small business. How would you say that concerns about the current economic climate impacted these elections?
I think that it was one of the major factors in the elections I followed, and the one here in Rhode Island. Economic issues were always in the forefront. In Rhode Island, we had a little different landscape where we had multiple candidates for governor. We had an independent, and another party, so the vote was really split up.
What specific issues were people in Rhode Island focused on?
You know, people are either nervous about losing their job, or they’re out of work and looking for a job. Rhode Island has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, 12%. The results of the election definitely spelled that out. Oddly enough, myself and the two other candidates had very similar messages, that we needed to focus on the business climate, the tax climate, and make it friendlier. The message from Chafee was not so much focused on economic issues as it was on other issues. He was looking more at what was going on with public employees and their pensions, and saying that we needed to change those things. He was able to put together enough constituencies of people who weren’t really focused on the economy. They were more focused on how their issues were going to be impacted by the election, especially the unions.
So were there specific groups or segments of the vote that you had hoped to win and did not?
I don’t think it was really that. It was more that there were three candidates, and I was one of them, that had very similar messages about holding the line on taxes and having a more business friendly climate in Rhode Island. So that vote was divided amongst three candidates. And there was a fourth candidate (Chafee) whose message was to protect what was already in place for public employees or people who depend on the public sector for funding.
It seems there was a lot of controversy surrounding Obama’s visit to Rhode Island. Why do you think the President withheld his endorsement?
You’d have to ask him.
Did you know from the start that he would withhold it?
As I’ve said in the past, I wasn’t actively pursuing his endorsement. It wasn’t until he decided that he was going to come to Rhode Island to fundraise that it became an issue for the press, anyways.
So after this election, what’s next for Frank Caprio?
I’m keeping all my options open. I’ve had a nice week and a half, and I’ve been getting a lot of calls from people from different sectors. I have a background in business, law, and finance, and people in all three of those areas have contacted me.
Do you see a return to politics in the future?
Again, I’m not focusing on anything specific when it comes to elective office in the future, but I wouldn’t rule it out.