Rhode Islanders can be a fatalistic bunch, convinced the state will never modernize its economy or fix a political culture that seems to lurch between corruption and absurdity. And yet, there’s always hope that the “Biggest Little” state can do better.
Gina Raimondo, the Democratic governor, embodies that hope.
The daughter of a metallurgist, she studied at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale and founded the state’s first venture capital firm before entering politics.
As governor, she’s made some mistakes. But she’s projected confidence and competence in a state that needs both. And she’s focused laser-like on what should be Job 1 for any Rhode Island governor: improving an economy that’s always among the first to fall into recession and the last to climb out.
