Raimondo responds to GOP ethics complaint over IGT deal

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Gina Raimondo’s lawyers in Washington and Rhode Island are seeking dismissal of an ethics complaint centered on Raimondo’s ties to former IGT Global Solutions Chairman-turned-State House lobbyist Donald Sweitzer on grounds he really doesn’t do anything as treasurer of the Democratic Governors Association and has nothing to gain personally from the proposed 20-year, no-bid IGT contract extension.

Responding to the ethics complaint the Rhode Island GOP lobbed at Democrat Raimondo — who chairs the DGA, her lawyers argue the title Raimondo gave Sweitzer at the DGA is “honorary.”

“Despite his title, Mr. Sweitzer is not a “director” or “officer” of the Democratic Governors Association, nor does he play an active or meaningful role in shaping the DGA’s ‘financial objectives’,” her lawyers at Perkins Coie in Washington and Duffy & Sweeney in R.I. argued in their 26-page filing with the R.I. Ethics Commission.

“It is an established practice at the DGA that the person filling Mr. Sweitzer’s honorary position — including his immediate predecessor — does not fulfill any of the duties that the treasurer of a nonprofit corporation or the treasurer of a state political committee normally undertakes,″ they wrote.

Read more: https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190930/raimondo-responds-to-gop-ethics-complaint-over-igt-deal