Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has shown consistent leadership in tackling the twin public health and economic crises it has created.
She’s been smart, decisive, compassionate and generally open-minded enough to at least listen to critics, who at times have included her soon-to-be successor and fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. Daniel J. McKee.
They’re all qualities that contributed to a relatable leadership style that, along with her six-year record as governor, no doubt went a long way toward her nomination as the next United States secretary of commerce.
But since that Jan. 8 nomination, Gov. Raimondo has regrettably fallen short of her own leadership standards.
Only once since then, at a Jan. 13 public briefing on the pandemic, has she spoken publicly in the state. She did not take questions from the media at that briefing and her office has continued to issue the same vague responses to press inquiries about her being focused on the transition and “continuing to manage the public health response.”
In a state still operating under a state of emergency she ordered last March, such lack of transparency is unacceptable.
It matters not whether she and other Cabinet nominees of President Joe Biden are following direction or advice from the president’s staff to lay low. A governor’s commitment to transparency and accountability should never take a back seat to personal – or even presidential – ambitions or agendas.
That’s not who she’s been as governor, nor what Rhode Islanders deserve each day from the state’s top elected leader.