GOP's Cote, Laffey set fundraising dinner
9:20 AM Mon, Mar 24, 2008 | Permalink
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Projo Politics Blog |
After lobbing grenades at the current management of the state Republican Party, South Kingstown GOP Chairman Dave Cote and his political ally — former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey — are mounting what they are calling an “unprecedented” fundraising effort. An e-mail invitation to a “Rhode Island Reagan-Lincoln Day Dinner” that went out last week from the South Kingstown GOP announced: “This May, Mayor Steve Laffey and local R.I. Republican Town Committee leaders, members and their guests will gather in an unprecedented grass-roots effort to raise money for local and statewide candidates.” And by the way, “Mayor Laffey and his wife, Kelly, have contributed to defray the overall cost of the event to maximize benefit to local GOP.” Laffey, of course, has been out of public office since his failed bid to unseat then-U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in a 2006 Republican primary, but is widely believed to be positioning himself for a possible run for governor in 2010. Cote last year pursued the GOP chairmanship, which was won by Giovanni Cicione. The GOP began 2008 with just $9,721 in the bank, according to filings with the state Board of Elections, after a fourth quarter in 2007 in which the party spent more than $50,000 on staff and fundraising costs. Cicione’s explanation: “We’re doing some things that are very aggressive to expand our donor base, and that costs money.” But that strategy has met with some opposition in the local GOP, much of which has played out recently in a long string of sometimes-caustic e-mails that were copied to dozens of people in the party. Cote says the party needs to change how it runs. “The Rhode Island GOP cannot afford the money we’re spending on a weekly basis,” he said. Cote recommended the party cut its paid staff — two employees, recently down from three — and switch to volunteers. “We need to show we’re giving as much money to candidates as possible,” he said. Cote made his pitch in e-mails to Cicione that were copied to numerous people in the party. Cicione, in a widely distributed response, wrote that Cote’s “attempt to analyze the party budget is both unproductive and grossly misleading.” “His suggestion is we give up on 2008, fire the staff, hope for the best, and then focus on 2010,” Cicione said. “I don’t think that’s a good strategy. We have the best opportunity in a generation to change the balance of the General Assembly in this state.” In interviews with Political Scene on Friday, Laffey — exulting over the recent birth of his sixth child — said he donated $1,000 to the Cranston GOP to arrange the venue for the fundraiser, and if more is needed, his wife can write another check. Without saying what, if any office, he might seek in the future, he indicated he still relishes his role as a speaker at one local GOP event after another. As to what makes the May 14 fundraiser, at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet, in Cranston, unprecedented, he said that might be hyperbole — “I didn’t write it” — but he is unaware of any other event that has brought people from all the GOP locals “in one room together” for a fundraiser of this nature. Cicione said, “anyone who is raising money for Republican candidates is OK in my book,” though he did detect a bit of one-upmanship in the promotion of the “unprecedented” fundraiser. “I don’t lay that at Steve Laffey’s feet,” he said. “I mean Dave is an independent actor and I while I think that he’s absolutely doing this because he wants to promote Steve Laffey, I don’t have any evidence that Steve Laffey is doing this. I think this is just Dave. “Yeah, the timing’s a bit funny and the message is a bit funny, but funny is our middle name here in the Republican Party in Rhode Island,” Cicione said. 
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