Schiff questions Ruggiero’s integrity on campaign cash tied to 38 Studios debacle

Deputy House Majority Leader Deb Ruggiero, D-Jamestown/Middletown, is among the members of General Assembly leadership and other top state officials who accepted accelerated campaign contributions from shareholders and employees of Adler, Pollock, and Sheehan during the 15 months that the law firm was a defendant in a lawsuit for failing to protect the state from the 38 Studios disaster.

Sav Rebecchi, Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed’s opponent, this week criticized the Senate President and other top state officials for accepting these donations, spurring Rebecca Schiff, candidate for the District 74 House seat representing Jamestown and Middletown, to take deeper look into the campaign finance records of her opponent, Rep. Ruggiero.

“Deb Ruggiero’s campaign finance reports read like the who’s who of the usual lawyers, good ol’ boys, lobbyists, unions and power brokers that still call the shots on Smith Hill,” Schiff said.

Like Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, Ruggiero – who has served as House Deputy Majority Leader since 2013 – received multiple donations from people who are employed by and associated with the law firm of Adler, Pollock & Sheehan during the 33 months that the firm was a defendant in the state’s $89 million lawsuit to recoup losses from the 38 Studios disaster.

One of those Adler, Pollock, and Sheehan employee’s names particularly stuck out. “Among Deb’s supporters was Joe DeAngelis, the former Speaker of the House whose political career ended under a cloud of controversy. Joe was known as the ‘Prince of Darkness’ by those who lost access to their money in the Credit Union Crisis back in the ‘90s.”

Even former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who was then a state rep, called for DeAngelis to step down in 1991, saying that DeAngelis ‘diminishes us as an assembly and brings down the people’s respect for the assembly as well.’

“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” Schiff said. “As Speaker, Joe DeAngelis was known for cronyism, lax ethics and using his position of power to protect his friends who ran the closed banks into the ground and the defunct Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation. Even though he’s been out of politics since 1992, he’s still at his old games and using his campaign contributions to protect his friends and his law firm’s interests.”

Schiff urged voters of District 74 to support her campaign to clean up state government. “For someone who touts herself as having ‘integrity, honesty and trustworthiness,’ it seems like the only thing you can trust is for Deb Ruggiero to vote with the Party bosses on Smith Hill and protect the powerful and well-connected. No wonder she refuses to follow my lead in calling for a full independent investigation into 38 Studios. It’s time for a representative who does not have these troubling ties and will be a voice and vote for the people of Jamestown and Middletown who want clean government,” Schiff said.

For more information, visit www.rebeccaschiff.com or visit her Facebook page, facebook.com/RebeccaSchiffRI.com.