The Valley Breeze

TOM WARD - Will Steve Laffey run?

We're only a day or two away from the first anniversary of the date former Republican Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Steve Laffey of Cranston told WPRO radio talk show host Dan Yorke "I love Rhode Island. I love the people," but "you only want me if you have a serious financial problem in an organization and you want to fix it. I'm not so sure that the people really want to fix it." On that day, Laffey said he would not be a candidate for governor.

A lot has changed since March 5, 2009.

A year ago, America was still basking in the afterglow of President Barack Obama's inauguration. "Hope" and "change" were in the air, and a massive fiscal stimulus was easily passed as a jobs plan. As the summer wore on, joblessness worsened, the federal deficit exploded, and a complex and unreadable health care reform plan frightened Americans. They spoke out - loudly - and a national grassroots movement called the "tea party" was born.

The noise settled down as fall arrived, but Republican election wins in Virginia and New Jersey - and later in Massachusetts - made it clear that an anti-Obama backlash had arrived on the wings of tea party anger and mistrust.

Rhode Island's fiscal problems are huge. Will we "really want to fix it?"

I imagine that's what Laffey is trying to figure out as he criss-crosses the state telling all who will listen his plan named How to Fix Rhode Island's Economy. In January, even Laffey claims he was surprised when more than 400 folks turned out at the Quonset 'O' Club to hear him speak.

Read Laffey's complete plan here:

www.valleybreeze.com/www/Laffey_Fix_RI.pdf

I met him for the first time a few weeks ago when he visited Woonsocket's Bocce Club to speak with the Taxpayer Coalition there. It was a smaller crowd, no more than 70 including about 20 city firefighers. As a rule, Laffey is perceived as an enemy of the unions, but on this night firefighters had tough but fair questions, and Laffey had direct answers. They might not like his message, but he argued that he would tell them the truth about their endangered pensions, and warned them that the people they kept choosing as their representatives were in fact betraying them.

Laffey's main points:

* General Assembly leaders and Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri knowingly passed an unbalanced budget last summer. He calls it "fraud" and thinks every one of them should be turned out of office.

* The R.I. pension system is broken. It should be closed, and all funds given to pensioners in a lump sum so they can have their own portable IRAs. Give current workers a generous IRA.

* Welfare is far too generous in Rhode Island as compared to other states, and is bankrupting us.

* Laffey is no fan of fellow Republican Carcieri, and barely knows him, though he claims to have made several efforts to meet with him. He blames Carcieri for the budget fiasco, and for not engaging in party-building during his eight years in office.

"15 minutes with Steve Laffey" an interview with Tom Ward

Laffey is an interesting man. A financier by trade and Harvard educated, he understands money and speaks forcefully when he tells you that we're broke, and deficits looms for many years ahead. He understands that wealthy Rhode Islanders are leaving, and their departure will hasten our downward spiral.

Laffey's plans will be labeled "bold" and "courageous" if you like him, and "extreme" if you don't. But he's been there before, taking the near-bankrupt Cranston back from the brink in 2003. He made his name by firing $100 a day (plus benefits) school crossing guards who worked for an hour.

He speaks as if he is utterly unafraid of any candidate in the race for governor now, and calls them out separately on issue after issue. That said, it is also clear to me that his message will frighten a lot of voters. His "plan" is shock therapy for Rhode Island, and many people are comfortable with the status quo, no matter how much financial havoc the agents of the status quo are creating.

Could Laffey work with a General Assembly still controlled by Democrats? He's sure he can, as he did in Cranston, he says, by speaking directly to the people.

So, will Steve Laffey run? He made it clear that he wasn't prepared to announce his candidacy last week. But our editor, Marcia Green, may have posed the best question during our time together as he spoke of his controversial ideas to better the Ocean State.

"You can't stop yourself, can you?" she asked. Laffey just smiled.

One thing is for sure. The world of American politics has changed dramatically since Laffey bowed out of the race a year ago.

Are Rhode Islanders ready to make bold - and even extreme - changes to the way the state runs? I think we'll get our chance to find out.

- Ward is publisher of

the Valley Breeze newspapers

Copyright © Breeze Publications Inc.