The Democratic candidate for governor in Rhode Island told President Barack Obama to “shove it” after learning that he would not be receiving the president’s endorsement when the commander-in-chief travels to the Ocean State Monday.
State general treasurer Frank T. Caprio — who is locked in a tight two-way race with former senator and Independent candidate Lincoln Chafee — learned late Sunday through the press that he would not be receiving the president’s endorsement.
Caprio pulled no punches when asked for his reaction to the news during a radio interview Monday morning.
“I never asked for president Obama’s endorsement. He can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I’m concerned,” Caprio said on WPRO-Radio.
He called Obama’s decision “Washington insider politics at its worst,” adding, “I’ll wear it as a badge of honor and a badge of courage that he doesn’t want to endorse me as a Democrat.”
Obama’s decision not to endorse his party’s representative in the contest is believed to be borne out of loyalty to Chafee, who endorsed Obama in the 2008 presidential election against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), despite being a former Republican. Also, Caprio supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary.
After serving one term in the Senate as a moderate Republican, Chafee left the party in 2007 after he lost his bid for re-election and officially changed his party affiliation to Independent.
Caprio went further in his criticism of the president, accusing him of not caring about the people of Rhode Island and using the state only as a fundraising base.
“We had one of the worst floods in the history of the United States a few months back and President Obama didn’t even do a fly over of Rhode Island … He ignored us and now he’s coming into Rhode Island and treating us like an ATM machine,” he said.
On Air Force One prior to landing in Rhode Island Monday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said that “out of respect for his friend Lincoln Chafee, the president decided to stay out of the race.”
Asked to respond to Caprio’s comments, Burton dismissed the slight, saying said that in the waning days of an election campaign “emotions are running high.”
Asked twice on Monday morning’s radio show whether or not he would appear at events with Obama later in the day, Caprio demurred. He acknowledged that he had planned to join Obama before hearing the news Sunday night, but declined to give a straight yes or no answer when asked if he would join the president at his two events in Providence and one event in Woonsocket, R.I., later Monday.
Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) Michael Steele was also campaigning in the Ocean State Monday morning and predictably had something to say about Obama’s non-endorsement of Caprio.
“You mean the president of the U.S. is coming here to Rhode Island, and he won’t even back his own guy?” Steele said at an event in Warwick. “What’s up, Mr. President. You don’t back Democratic nominees anymore,” he added according to the Providence Journal.
“We appreciate your endorsement of John Robitaille today,” Steele joked, referring to the Republican candidate, who is currently running third in the polls.
Caprio and Chafee are currently neck-and-neck in the race. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls shows Caprio with 32 percent of the vote to Chafee’s 30 percent and Robitaille’s 20 percent.