It’s the first day of the legislative session in Rhode Island, and here’s one sure to get the political chattering class buzzing.
Jeff Britt, a veteran campaign advisor/hired gun who has worked with major figures in both parties in Rhode Island over the past two decades, has been in talks with Senate President Dominick Ruggerio about assisting Ruggerio’s political operation this election season when every member of the General Assembly is on the ballot.
Ruggerio said no agreement has been finalized, but confirmed that the two have been meeting (this has been in the works for several months). He said Britt would help with “strategy.”
Why it matters for Ruggerio: He’s been in office (between the House and the Senate) for 43 years, but the 75-year-old North Providence Democrat isn’t quite ready to hang it up. He said he isn’t putting a timeline on when he’ll step away, joking that “I got nowhere to go, nothing to do, and all day to do it.” Bringing on Britt has the two-fold benefit of having a bulldog to chase after any political enemies and also sends a message to his own caucus not to step too far out of line.
Why it matters for Britt: He already has the ear of House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi, but Britt hasn’t been as closely tied to Ruggerio specifically or the Senate broadly since Frank Caprio Jr. made the jump from the Senate to state treasurer’s office in the 2006 election. He’s had an on-again, off-again relationship with Governor Dan McKee, but when you’ve got friends leading both the House and Senate, the lobbying doors are wide open. Last year, Britt’s clients included Ørsted, Care New England, and Scout, the company that wanted to renovate the Cranston Street Armory.
The Britt mystique: Britt has a little bit of a Roger Stone quality to him in that he seems to find a way to be a factor (and court controversy) in Rhode Island politics no matter who holds the top jobs. His win-loss record in campaigns is secondary compared to the agita he causes the people he works against. Just ask Allan Fung, Gordon Fox, John Harwood, and so on.
One last bit of political intrigue: Ruggerio has said he plans to sponsor legislation being pushed by Attorney General Peter Neronha that would require both the prosecution and the defendant to agree to jury-waived trials, rather than the current law that allows just the defendant to make that choice.
Guess who benefited from a jury-waived trial to beat Neronha a couple of years ago? That’s right: Britt was found not guilty of a misdemeanor campaign finance violation and had a felony money laundering charge dropped by none other than Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini in 2020.
This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.