RI-Gov: Republican Allan Fung recently received $1.2 million from the state's matching program, though he still trails Democrat Gina Raimondo $1.4 million to $824,000 in cash-on-hand for the final month of the race. Raimondo, who is not participating in the program, raised $440,000 from Sept. 5 to Oct. 8, while Fung took in around $100,000 from other sources. Raimondo's allies at the DGA also recently contributed another $1 million to their state affiliate, and WPRI's Ted Nesi says they've committed twice as much money to this race as the RGA has.
Meanwhile, conservative independent Joe Trillo has $209,000 in the bank after self-funding another $221,000 over the last month. Trillo, a former Republican state representative and 2016 Trump state co-chair, is competing for some of the same hardcore conservative voters that Fung needs to win, and he could end up costing the GOP a win in this blue state: A mid-September poll from Fleming and Associates gave Raimondo a 43-36 lead over Fung, while Trillo grabbed 7 percent.
Trillo also generated some attention on Wednesday when he went on WPRO's morning show and host Gene Valicenti revealed that the candidate had pleaded no contest to simple assault back in the 1970s for hitting a teenager who lived next door; that boy was Nicholas Mattiello, who is now the Democratic speaker of the state House.
Trillo, who was in his 30s at the time, recounted on the program that Mattiello was one of several local kids who was pounding on another neighbor's door trying to get in, and that there was a frightened young girl in the home. Trillo says he waved his arms to try and get them to go away and accidentally hit Mattiello in the process. Mattiello's parents pressed charges, but the candidate says he was never fined and the case went away after a year since he stayed out of trouble. Court records also show that the police charged Trillo with assault back in 1975, and he was found not guilty about 18 months later; the campaign spokesperson said Trillo "believes it’s the same case."
Trillo said on Wednesday that while he wishes he hadn't "accidentally came in contact with Nicholas Mattiello, I know I did the right thing, trying to protect the frightened young girl." Mattiello also said he only "vaguely recall[s] an incident that took place well over 40 years ago," and called Trillo "a friend and a good person."
Trillo also used the opportunity to accuse Fung's campaign of employing a "dirty trick" and leaking the old story. The independent also used the opportunity to tell listeners that it was time to "talk about the night that Allan Fung killed a person on 95, and shot the person in the air 96 feet," and that "[w]e don’t know whether Allan Fung was drunk, was on drugs, we don’t know anything about it, and Allan Fung doesn’t want to talk about it."
Back during his unsuccessful 2014 campaign, Fung had revealed that when he was in college in 1989, he was responsible for killing another student. Fung, who reached an out-of-court settlement with the family, said four years ago he had "lost consciousness" while driving but that drugs and alcohol were not involved. Fung was very unhappy that Trillo brought up the incident on Wednesday, and he responded by calling his rival "unhinged" and added, "You have someone in his 30’s slapping, punching, whatever, a 13 year old kid. That’s not a laughing matter."