Remember when SEIU’s Andy Stern rushed to the
defense of Gina Raimondo, a former venture capitalist who slashed the
pensions of Rhode Island workers and then funneled a billion dollars of
workers’ retirement money to her buddies at Wall Street hedge funds?
Well, Raimondo is now trying to become the
Governor of Rhode Island… but is facing blowback from voters due to her pension-slashing extravaganza, according to the New York Times.
Raimondo, a Democrat, should have an easy time
getting elected in Rhode Island, where Dems outnumber Republicans by 4 to 1.
But here's what the New York Times reported in
an article over the weekend (“In
Rhode Island Governor’s Race, Pension Issue Could Hurt Raimondo,” Nov. 1,
2014):
In this Democratic state, Ms. Raimondo could be expected to be doing well, but a Brown University poll released on Tuesday showed her and Mr. Fung running neck and neck. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report now calls the race a tossup. One big reason is the pension issue, which alienated the public-sector unions, an important ally in any traditional Democratic coalition.
If Raimondo loses tomorrow's election, let’s hope she’s consigned
to the political dustbin for, uh, maybe an eon or two.
Raimondo -- who critics describe as "a
tool of Wall Street” who “trumped up the pension problem to enrich her Wall
Street friends, in part through increased state payments in hedge fund fees” --
seems to symbolize everything that's wrong in a society where billionaires and
hedge-fund fatcats enjoy unprecedented wealth at the expense of the rest of us.
And Andy Stern, of course, represents everything that's wrong with corrupt
union leaders who rush to the side of the Perelmans, Raimondos, and David Cotes
instead of workers.
