RI gubernatorial candidates making final pushes

November 4, 2018 11:28 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island’s gubernatorial candidates are all in as Election Day fast approaches.

Governor Gina Raimondo (D) rallied in Providence’s south side Sunday night, urging people to vote blue across the ticket.

“We’re finally on the move,” she told reporters. “We’ve been creating jobs, fixing our roads, fixing our schools – we can’t afford to go backwards.”

Raimondo has been banking on her track record to lead her to another victory, but her opponents argue that will be her downfall.

“I’m the one to beat Gina and turn this state around,” countered Joe Trillo, independent candidate for governor. “If you want an independent voice, I’m your guy.”

Trillo, a former republican state representative and the state’s honorary Trump campaign chairman, is touting his new internal polling – which has him trailing the governor by six points at 33-percent, with Cranston Mayor Allan Fung (R) at 21-percent. “We’re in striking distance,” Trillo said.

ABC6 News’ University of New Hampshire poll with the Public’s Radio and the Providence Journal put Trillo at just five-percent last month.

Trillo’s numbers are not scientific. The team says they come from asking 300 likely voters out and about in parking lots all across the state.

Fung tells ABC6 News he doesn’t believe anything Trillo has to say, calling him a spoiler in the race: “The Raimondo and Trillo team isn’t going to stop the change that we’re going to bring to shake up the state house and really focus back Rhode Island on the little guy – all of us.”

There is one thing the candidates can all agree on: they won’t be slowing down until after Election Day.