Frank T. Caprio (born May 10, 1966) is an American politician and banker from
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
. His twenty-year political career has included being elected as the 29th
General Treasurer of
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
from 2007 to 2011. He was the first political candidate in the United States to use
on-demand television to reach voters and one of the first candidates to launch an
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
TV channel for use in a political campaign in 2006.
Caprio was the
Democratic nominee in the
2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election
The 2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2010. It was preceded by the primary election on September 14, 2010. Incumbent Republican Party (United States), Republican List of Governors of Rhode Island, Governor Donald Ca ...
, losing to Independent candidate
Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a m ...
, who won with 36 percent of the vote. He ran for the Democratic nomination for General Treasurer in
2014 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2014.
* 2014 United Nations Security Council election 16 October 2014
Africa
* 2014 Algerian presidential election 17 April 2014
* 2014 Botswana general election 24 October 2014
* 2014 Comorian presi ...
, but lost to first-time candidate
Seth Magaziner
Seth Michael Magaziner (born July 22, 1983) is an American investment professional and politician who is the U.S. representative for . He served as the 31st General Treasurer of Rhode Island from 2015 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Part ...
. He also is a Managing Director at Chatham Capital, a
mezzanine finance firm with offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Providence.
Education and early career
Frank T. Caprio is the eldest child of Joyce and
Judge Frank Caprio, and he is the brother of Rhode Island State Representative
David Caprio
David A. Caprio (born June 5, 1967) is an American businessman, investor, lawyer, and politician who served as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from District 34. He was first elected on December 21, 1999. In 2010, Caprio was ...
. His paternal grandfather had immigrated from
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, Italy. He attended public schools in
Narragansett, Rhode Island
Narragansett is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 14,532 at the 2020 census. However, during the summer months the town's population more than doubles to near 34,000. The town of Narragansett occupie ...
, and graduated from
Bishop Hendricken High School
Bishop Hendricken High School (or Hendricken) is a Catholic, all-male, college preparatory high school located in Warwick, Rhode Island, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.
Founded by the Brothers of the Holy Cross in 1959, and named ...
in 1984. He earned a
degree in economics from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1988. While at Harvard, Caprio was captain of the Harvard baseball team. He was an All-Eastern League outfielder in 1988, and an All-Ivy League defensive back on the championship Harvard football team in 1987. He played against
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens (born August 4, 1962), nicknamed "Rocket", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Boston Red Sox. Clemens was one of the most dominant pi ...
in a 1987 exhibition game and was scouted by
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...
legend
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1 ...
. Caprio earned a J.D. at
Suffolk University Law School in 1991 and passed the bar exams in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
As a lawyer, Caprio focused on corporate, tax, and finance issues. He worked as an in-house counsel at
Cookson Group plc, a publicly traded company on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
.
Early career
Caprio began his political career while a senior at Harvard, when he was 21 years old. He was elected a delegate from Rhode Island's Congressional District 2 and attended the
1988 Democratic National Convention in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. In 1990, while still attending law school, Caprio was elected to the
Rhode Island House of Representatives
The Rhode Island House of Representatives is the lower house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the upper house being the Rhode Island Senate. It is composed of 75 members, elected ...
for District 14 (Providence). He served two terms as a state representative, traveling by train between classes in Boston each morning and legislative sessions in Providence each afternoon.
Following those two terms, Caprio spent the next 12 years serving in the
Rhode Island Senate
The Rhode Island Senate is the upper house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the lower house being the Rhode Island House of Representatives. It is composed of 38 Senators, each of wh ...
, where he chaired the Senate Finance Committee in 2001–2002. In this position, Caprio saved an annual $5 million affordable housing program from being cut by the governor in 2001. He then proposed and implemented a plan to expand the $5 million to $10 million through an affordable housing bond. In 2006, he co-sponsored a bill to increase the annual $10 million bond to a $50 million affordable housing fund. The housing fund was approved by voters in 2006.
Caprio also led the debate on phasing out Rhode Island's
capital gains tax
A capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax on profits realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property.
Not all countries impose a c ...
, which would allow Rhode Islanders to have the nation's lowest tax rate on their
stock and
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
profits. This tax change became law in 2007. He was removed from his chairmanship by Senate leadership in 2002 as a result of his outspoken advocacy of the Separation of Powers amendment. After some of the Senate leaders were removed from office in 2003, the amendment passed the legislature and became law after a statewide vote. In 2004, Caprio was named chair of the Senate Commerce, Housing, and Municipal Government Committee.
Political career
General Treasurer of Rhode Island
2006 election
On November 7, 2006, Caprio, the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Party, was elected General Treasurer of Rhode Island, receiving 73% of the vote. He won by a larger margin than any candidate for a contested statewide office on the Rhode Island ballot in 2006.
Caprio made Rhode Island history as the first candidate in the state to officially announce his candidacy via a
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...
broadcast that included television,
Web, on-demand cable television, and radio. This was done, he explained, because he wants his "vision for the treasurer's office" to be accessible to "as many Rhode Islanders as possible in as comfortable a format as possible."
Caprio was the first political candidate in the United States to use On-Demand Television in a campaign. His television documentary, ''Caprio, the Biography'', was available for free viewing throughout Rhode Island via
Cox Communications's On-Demand program. He also launched one of the nation's first campaign internet TV channels. Both the website and his television ads garnered awards.
Investments and the 2008 market crisis
Months before the subprime mortgage crisis began to take a toll on banks, financial services companies and public pension funds, Caprio began to minimize the State's exposure to asset backed securities. Steps included conducting a competitive bidding process that expanded the number of qualified investment banks underwriting the State's bond transactions, and minimizing the State's exposure to companies such as Bear Stearns.
As part of his effort to ensure the health of Rhode Island's pension system, Caprio moved $1 billion from Quality D money market funds (with loose terms that could have allowed for investment in CDOs and SIVs) into Quality A institutional money market funds. This occurred before the subprime crisis began to shake financial markets. At the same time, Caprio moved approximately $150 million in high-yield investments into safe Treasury bonds, before the high yield market began to decline. Rhode Island's pension fund has maintained its five-year average on investment returns in spite of the current economic turmoil.
Caprio's approach to assessing and managing risk has helped ensure that the public funds managed by his office avoid the investment losses now plaguing other states.
During Caprio's term the Rhode Island State Pension fund outperformed the States of Massachusetts and California State Pension funds as well as the Harvard endowment. In the midst of the 2008 market collapse, Caprio established a financial "SWAT team" of Rhode Island's top financial minds to ensure the State's protection from AIG's collapse.
For the fiscal year 2010 a national study was done by the Maryland Public Policy Institute which found that Rhode Island's pension plan under Frank Caprio paid some of the lowest fees to outside money managers when compared to the other 49 states.
2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election
In 2010, Caprio was the Democratic nominee for
governor of Rhode Island
The governor of Rhode Island is the head of government of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and serves as commander-in-chief of the state's Army National Guard and Air National Guard. The current governor is Democrat Dan McKee. In their capac ...
in the general election. He ran on the platform of advancing small business.
After learning that President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
would not endorse him in the election, Caprio said that Obama could "take his endorsement and really shove it."
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
suggested that Obama did not endorse Caprio out of respect for
Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a m ...
, the Independent nominee who had endorsed Obama in 2008.
2014 General Treasurer election
In May 2013, Caprio announced his intention to regain the Rhode Island General Treasurer's post in the 2014 election.
He lost in the Democratic primary to first-time candidate
Seth Magaziner
Seth Michael Magaziner (born July 22, 1983) is an American investment professional and politician who is the U.S. representative for . He served as the 31st General Treasurer of Rhode Island from 2015 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Part ...
in a landslide, 80,378 votes (66.55%) to 40,402 (33.45%).
See also
*
Rhode Island gubernatorial election, 2010
References
External links
Caprio TV''official campaign site'' (Archived)
Rhode Island General Treasurer
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caprio, Frank T.
1966 births
Candidates in the 2010 United States elections
Harvard Crimson football players
Living people
Massachusetts lawyers
Democratic Party members of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
People from Narragansett, Rhode Island
Rhode Island lawyers
Democratic Party Rhode Island state senators
State treasurers of Rhode Island
Bishop Hendricken High School alumni
Suffolk University Law School alumni
American people of Italian descent