With her electoral victory, Gina M. Raimondo will become the first woman as well as the 82nd person to be governor of Rhode Island since the Royal Charter of 1663. But her story stands up to the scrutiny that company demands.
Daughter of a working-class Rhode Islander, she earned her way to Harvard and Yale, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. She worked in New York before returning home to found Point Judith Capital, moving in the opposite direction of the oft-decried “brain drain.”
Rhode Island will need all of the toughness displayed during the public-employee pension battle, as well as her experience helping businesses start and grow in her venture-capital career as it battles the still significant headwinds of the Great Recession.
The Ocean State finds itself at an inflection point, one at which the old mix of businesses is not robust enough to build a new economy. We need new ideas, and nowhere is that more true than in the public sector. The state must find ways to deliver the services its citizens need at the price they can afford. Businesses need a government that regulates clearly, consistently, logically and is quick to action.
Congratulations, Gov.-elect Raimondo. Unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of time to savor your victory. The time to deliver the goods is upon us. •