Mayor’s campaign fund is massive
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt reports more than $50,000 in re-election campaign fund, far out-pacing previous candidates
WOONSOCKET – With four months to go before candidates for elective office must file declaration papers in order to secure a spot on the November ballot, Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt has amassed a war chest of nearly $54,000 for campaign expenses.
The question is, whose? So far, no one appears committed to chal- lenging Baldelli-Hunt.
But Baldelli-Hunt, whose second term has been marked by a rocky relationship with the City Council, says she may use some of it to promote candidates on the panel who are more inclined to seek some common ground with the administration.
“I’m not looking for seven people who agree with me... that’s not good government,” said Baldelli-Hunt. “I’m looking for seven people who are truly independent thinkers... voting in a fashion they truly believe in, who can add to the conversation.”
It’s unlikely any previous mayor – at any phase of an election cycle – has ever had as much cash on hand to run a campaign for re-election. As she geared up to run for her record seventh term in office in mid-2007, former Mayor Susan D. Menard had about $30,000 in her coffers – some of which had been carried over from one campaign to the next during her 14-year run. And former Mayor Leo T. Fontaine had about $6,130 on hand ahead of the 2013 primary – even less for the general election weeks later, when he was defeated by Baldelli-Hunt.
The figure far outstrips even the $17,489 Baldelli-Hunt herself had on hand at roughly the same point ahead of the 2016 election, when she defeated former City Councilman Roger G. Jalette Sr.
If no one steps up to challenge her, Baldelli-Hunt says it’s more likely that some of her campaign cash will be used to help support candidates for council seats with whom she can forge a more
productive partnership than the reigning bloc on the existing board.
During the last 14 months, Baldelli-Hunt’s relationship with the council has been marked by conflict and criticism. Five of the panel’s seven members have often banded together to quash some of the mayor’s highest priorities, including an Illinois developer’s plan to convert the old Woonsocket Middle School into a senior housing complex, with a mix of nursing and assisted-living units; an effort to raze a deteriorating mill complex on River Street by petitioning the owner into receivership in Superior Court; and another legal maneuver to amend the deed to Barry Field, allowing it to be
sold as a revenue-raiser to redevelop Cass Park as a new recreational complex for the high school.
This week, another brouhaha erupted over efforts to sell Social Street School. The council put a hold on the sale when it found out – from one of the bidders – that he had made a contingency-free offer of $90,000 on the building in September that the mayor never disclosed to the panel. Baldelli-Hunt’s explanation was that the bidder, John Lippolis of Blackstone, was waiting for a meeting with the council before moving forward on the proposal – a charge Lippolis hotly disputes.
Lippolis now finds himself in a bid war for the property with Gary Fernandes, a local developer known for restoring historic properties. Lippolis claims that after his offer had been ignored for months, a former Statehouse ally of the mayor persuaded him to reduce his initial bid to $65,000 and resubmit it. The two bids, including Fernandes’ offer of $50,000, were disclosed to the council for the first time on Feb. 5, with no mention of Lippolis’ initial offer.
Baldelli-Hunt claims Lippolis is upset because his offer was about to be rejected – and the council is exploiting a sour-grapes situation for political gain.
“I’m not going to support
obstructionists or people looking for negative headlines,” Baldelli-Hunt said. “I’m hopeful the behavior of the council over the last 14 months hasn’t scared potential candidates away and I’m hoping it encourages people to run for office – people who truly want to be a city council member and not a council member who is continually looking to criticize an administration and drag down a community.”
But Council Vice President Jon Brien – one of Baldelli-Hunt’s most strident critics, says the council isn’t responsible for manufacturing headlines.
“The headlines in regard to Social Street School, Barry Field – those are direct reactions to her consistent pattern of behavior and if you look to the problems that have occurred over the last 14 months there’s one common denominator, and that’s the mayor.”
As for being obstructionist, Brien said, “We’ve been forced to spend so much time holding this administration accountable for doing public business privately, and quite frankly, she’s not used to that.
“For the first three years she had a basically friendly city council that was willing to look the other way,” Brien added. “Now there’s a council that’s acting as an effective legislative branch and she’s
having difficulty operating in that kind of environment.”
Despite the pointed nature of his comments, Brien says he has no plans of challenging Baldelli-Hunt – at least not at the moment. “If you ask me today,” he says. “I’m running for city council.”
The next citywide election takes place on Nov. 6. In order to secure a spot on the ballot, however, candidates must announce their intentions long before then by filing declaration papers with the Board of Canvassers at City Hall.
This year the three-day declaration period begins on June 25, according to canvassing officials.
According to the BOE’s campaign finance reports, Baldelli-Hunt has been steadily raising money since the end of the last election and started off the quarterly reporting cycle, on Oct. 1, with $41,830 cash on hand.
Between then and Jan. 31, she raised $13,700 – the overwhelming majority of it from individuals who made made contributions that generally ranged from $250 to $500.
Many of these contributions, the mayor says, represent “expressions of support” from donors who recognize the administration’s efforts to improve roads, eliminate blight and other administrative initiatives.
Some are also from employees of the city and other corporate entities with which it does business, including engineering and law firms, according to the BOE’s records. Some are also from small business owners in the city, such as Charbel Abounajem of the Coffee Connection, 100 Bernon St., who donated $250.
Another donor was House Speaker Nicholas Matiello, a Cranston Democrat with whom the mayor previously served in the legislature. He gave $250.
Yet another was Ganesan Visvabharathy of the
b Illinois-based Hawthorne Development Group – the company whose plan for the old Woonsocket Middle School was preferred by the administration. The council rejected the plan and instead chose a rival offer from Central Falls-based Tai-O Group, which calls for convertingb the school into market-rate apartments geared for young professionals. Visvabharathy gave $250.
A partial list of donors also includes Charles Adelsberger of the engineering consultingp firm CDM Smith ($250); Zi Qian Shang of JZ Real Estate, 139 Front St. ($250); Duane Boucher of Boucher Real Estate, 600 Cass Ave. ($250); Raymond Bourque of 10 Sunset Road, Attleboro, a developer with various interests in the city ($250); Steven D’Agostino, the city’s director of public works ($300); Jose Gaspar, owner of the Bocce Club Restaurant, 226 St. Louis Ave. ($500); restaurateur David Lahousse of Lahousse Enterprises, owner of Kay’s Restaurant, 1013 Cass Ave. ($500); and Joseph Rodio Jr. of the Providence law firm, Rodio & Ursillo LTD ($250).
Another donor with a familiar name was Charles Baldelli, the former mayor and uncle to Baldelli-Hunt. p
Of all the money that Baldelli-Hunt raised during the quarter, only $250 came from a political action committee, or PAC – the Rhode Island Public Employees Education PAC, according to the BOE.
In addition to taking in money – Baldelli-Hunt also claimed some expenses during the quarter, including $1,175 for a fundraiser at Trattoria Romana in Lincoln on Nov. 16. The money was for food and beverages, according to the campaign finance report.