Sunday, November 30, 2025

EDITORIAL

An open letter to Governor Armand Sabitoni:

Pretty much everyone in politics in Rhode Island knows that Dan McKee is “your” guy. 

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And, we all know you handpicked that middling Laborers’ staffer, Peter Alviti, to serve as the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. Boy, that was not such a good idea.

Sir, with all due respect, they aren’t doing very well.

When you put “schmoes” into serious positions, sooner or later, they are going to screw things up. And, boy, oh boy, have they.

For the purposes of this letter, we will recount how you stuck us with these two guys.

After all, you funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars through an independent expenditure account to fuel McKee’s election in 2022.

You, sir, served as the General Secretary and Treasurer of the Laborers’ International Union — a union with a rich history of ties to the Patriarca crime family, corruption, and even former President Bill Clinton.

You and the Laborers have always been a powerful force in the Rhode Island State House, but in recent years, the union’s influence has grown.  The Laborers dramatically bolstered their sway in the road and bridge building industry with the appointment of “their brother,” a 15-year veteran of the union, Alviti, to head RIDOT. 

As GoLocal previously reported, McKee’s campaign received a massive expenditure from Laborers’ International via an independent expenditure group — called Forward Rhode Island.

Money flowed from the “Laborers Political League – Education Fund” and a separate account, the “Build New England Fund,” to the special Forward Rhode Island account. Each of the Laborers’ funds funneled $300,000 to benefit McKee.

More than 100 donations were made to the “Laborers Political League – Education Fund,” according to a document filed with the Rhode Island Board of Elections’ Campaign Finance Division.   

None of the donations were made from Rhode Island; most were union “Locals” from around the country, and the list included donations from just two individuals – two Laborers’ officers of Local 341 in Alaska — Augustine Merrick and Wesley Canfield.  There was more READ HERE.

Certainly, no one can blame you for wanting to get Alviti off the Laborers’ payroll. No one faults you for that.

First, you dumped Alviti on Gina, and then you made sure McKee kept him on the payroll.

By placing Alviti in such an important position with the state, it certainly helps the Laborers’ influence, but the failure of the bridge, ya gotta admit, that is embarrassing. To put it lightly. 

For anyone trying to get to work, pick up their kids, or live life, Alviti’s bridge strategy has been a bust.  Heck, that bridge has only been busted for about two years, and we bet it won’t be fixed before the end of the decade.

There has been one benefit, at a time when Americans and Rhode Islanders are divided, nearly everyone agrees that Alviti is the worst Department director in Rhode Island history.

Alviti, in such a bizarre twist, has brought Rhode Islanders together. Nearly everyone is disgusted.

But, at the end of the day, those appointments — McKee and Alviti — have been a bust.

The irony is that your team of McKee and Alviti almost ensures corporate executive Helena Foulkes wins the Democratic primary as it sits now. You know her; she is the woman who donated to former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and slashed thousands of jobs as CEO of the Hudson’s Bay Company. We didn’t even mention her friendships with the Sackler family (of Purdue Pharma opioid infamy). 

Foulkes will make former anti-union GOP Governor Don Carcieri look like Samuel Gompers.

Governor Sabitoni, Rhode Island, deserves better than a broken bridge and a couple of schmoes.

You are really not doing a very good job.

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