During an emotional farewell, state Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed of Newport announced Wednesday she’s leaving the General Assembly after 24 years to become president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI).
Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio, 68, is poised to get the support to succeed Paiva Weed during a Democratic caucus slated for the Senate lounge at 3 p.m. Thursday. Ruggerio, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said he is not aware of any rivals and that he wants Senate Judiciary Chairman Michael McCaffrey to serve as his majority leader.
The rise of the Ruggerio/McCaffrey leadership team was first reported by Rhode Island Public Radio Tuesday night.
Senators flanked Paiva Weed in the Senate lounge as she announced her plans during a news conference that had been announced just a few hours earlier, following media reports that she was about to become HARI’s president.
“I think by now you know why I called you all here today or asked you to come join me all here today,” Paiva Weed said, speaking haltingly at times. “Effective May first, I will begin the role as president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island. Over the next days I will transition out of my Senate duties and responsibilities. This is hard,” she said, her voice quavering. “I’m happy, but this is hard.”
HARI spokeswoman Amanda Barney declined to specify Paiva Weed’s compensation. But her salary is expected to be in the range of about $300,000 a year.
Paiva Weed said she doesn’t intend to try to serve as a lobbyist on Smith Hill, but will seek an advisory opinion from the state Ethics Commission for guidance.
Asked about how the one-year revolving door law would apply to a former Senate president, John Marion, executive director of the good government group Common Cause of RI, said, “The so-called ‘revolving door’ restriction prohibits someone from lobbying their former employer. In the case of the Senate president, that means she would not be prohibited from lobbying the executive branch. Past advisory opinions of the Ethics Commission have interpreted the revolving door’s prohibition on lobbying by former legislators to apply to both the House and the Senate.”
Paiva Weed, 57, joined the General Assembly as part of a large incoming class elected in 1992, after the state banking crisis. A lawyer, she went on to become the first female majority leader and president in the state Senate.
In looking back on her tenure, she praised the quality of the Senate’s professional staff and expressed satisfaction with helping to establish RIteCare, the state healthcare program for poor children; supporting environmental improvements; and making changes in the state’s welfare program and the selection process for picking judicial candidates.
Although she didn’t mention it in her remarks, Paiva Weed supported — or let happen — the move to legalize same-sex marriage in Rhode Island in 2013, at a time when Senate opposition ran into changing public attitudes.
To critics, the General Assembly has been too complacent in tackling Rhode Island’s perennial economic challenges. Many Rhode Islanders view the legislature critically due to periodic outbreaks of corruption and other embarrassments.
But Paiva Weed praised the senators she’s known for their commitment and dedication. She spoke warmly of colleagues, past and present, including former Sens. Charles Fogarty and Rhoda Perry; former Senate majority leader Paul Kelly; former Senate president Joseph Montalbano; Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere; and her longtime executive assistant, Paula Gemma.
Paiva Weed recalled how she had won the support of a Senate caucus following the upset defeat of Montalbano in his North Providence-based Senate seat 2008. A month later, she learned her husband, Mark, was diagnosed with cancer and given a prognosis of living just a short time (he died at age 50 in 2009). “And I said to him, ‘I can’t be Senate president.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘We worked too hard to get here, you’re going to be Senate president!’ “
Her voice shaking with emotion, Paiva Weed said many senators stood with her “through the most difficult journey that any human being ever takes in their life. They weren’t my colleagues. They were my friends, and since then, they’ve been my family.”
Paiva Weed has been Governor Gina Raimondo’s top legislative cheerleader, so some observers believe the Senate president’s exit marks a setback for Raimondo and her legislative priorities. Paiva Weed rejected that idea, and said some level of disagreement among state leaders is part of a healthy process. She said Raimondo and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello have the capacity to work together for the state.
For now, though, Raimondo’s marquee legislative proposal — to offer two years of free college tuition at CCRI, RIC or URI — has gotten a chilly reception from Mattiello and faces uncertain prospects.
Although Ruggerio is closer in political philosophy to Mattiello than Paiva Weed, Ruggerio said he doesn’t expect significant policy changes if he wins the Senate’s support to become president.
If he wins the Senate presidency, Ruggerio did not rule out trying to serve beyond the remainder of Paiva Weed’s remaining time in office. He said he’s contemplating retiring from his post as an administrator for the New England Laborers Labor Management Co-Op Trust.
The majority leader from Providence said he’s gained insight into the president’s job during Paiva Weed’s time in the post. Ruggerio is well-liked among his colleagues and is known for keeping his word — a coin of the realm in the Statehouse — although some Rhode Islanders still relish noting his 1990 arrest for shoplifting condoms from a CVS store.
In Paiva Weed, the Hospital Association of RI gains as president a savvy well-connected insider at a time when hospitals are vexed by sharp fiscal challenges. Meanwhile, with the association having an opening with President Michael Souza leaving this week to lead Landmark Medical Center, an appealing exit strategy for Paiva Weed presented itself.
“The opportunity came now and the people in my immediate life that I love and trust, including my parents all said, opportunities, you don’t get to pick when opportunities come,” she said, “and I knew that I had a group that would carry on the things that I believed in and sometimes you just follow your intuition.”
The timing of Paiva Weed’s departure from the Senate has been the source of speculation for years, as has her putative level of interest in landing a judicial appointment. She’s downplayed that talk.
In a statement, Raimondo said, “Senate President Paiva Weed has dedicated her adult life to public service. Throughout her career, she has led the way to protect the most vulnerable people in our state and has taken strong stances to improve and protect social services. By rising to the top post in the Rhode Island Senate, she shattered a glass ceiling and has led her chamber with dignity, compassion and integrity for nearly a decade.”
