Frank T. Caprio
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Frank T. Caprio (born May 10, 1966) is the General Treasurer of Rhode Island. He was the first political candidate in United States to use On-Demand television to reach voters and one of the first candidates to launch an internet TV channel for use in a political campaign in 2006. 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.
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[edit] Education
Caprio attended public schools in Narragansett, Rhode Island. He later graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School in 1984, where he was a Providence Journal All-State Football and Baseball player. He earned a degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988. While at Harvard, Caprio was captain of the Harvard baseball team. He was an All-Eastern League outfielder in 1988 [1], and an All-Ivy League defensive back on the championship Harvard football team in 1987 [2]. He played against Roger Clemens in a 1987 exhibition game [3] and was scouted by Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams. Caprio earned a J.D. at Suffolk University Law School in 1991 and passed the bar exams in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
[edit] Legal Career
Caprio’s focus as a lawyer was corporate, tax and finance matters. He has represented a range of clients throughout his legal career, from local businesses to multinational corporations. He has also worked as an in-house counsel at Cookson Group plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange. At Cookson, Caprio was responsible for many of its acquisitions and divestitures in North America.
[edit] Public Service
Caprio began his political career while a senior at Harvard, when he was 21 years old. For his political debut, he was elected a Delegate from Rhode Island’s Congressional District 2; he attended the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta as a Delegate in 1988.
In 1990 at 24, while still attending law school, Caprio was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives for District 14 (Providence), after winning a three-candidate primary and general election by wide margins. He served two terms as a state representative, traveling by train between classes in Boston each morning and legislative sessions in Providence each afternoon.
Caprio was elected to the state senate in 1994 and served there until 2007 when he was sworn in as Rhode Island's General Treasurer. Caprio chaired the Senate Finance Committee in 2001-2002. As chair of the Finance Committee, 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. With Caprio's support the statewide ballot question passed in 2006 creating the housing fund.
Caprio also led the debate on phasing out Rhode Island's capital gains tax, which would allow Rhode Islanders to have the nation’s lowest tax rate on their stock and real estate profits. This tax change became law in 2007.
In an attempt to convert Rhode Island’s government to a more modern political system, Caprio also advocated the passage of the stalled Separation of Powers amendment in 2002. As a result of his outspoken advocacy regarding the issue, the former Senate leadership removed him from his post as Chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee; those individuals, however, were themselves removed from office in 2003. The amendment then passed the legislature and went on the state ballot in 2004; Rhode Island voters made it a law with nearly 80% approval. Caprio was also named to chair the Senate Commerce, Housing, and Municipal Government Committee in 2004.
[edit] General Treasurer of Rhode Island
Frank T. Caprio began his campaign for General Treasurer of Rhode Island in March of 2005. He plans to make all state spending available to the public online if he is elected [4]. He would also like to increase awareness of the state’s acclaimed CollegeBoundfund®, a tax-free fund that matches each dollar parents put aside for their children’s college tuition.
Caprio was endorsed by the Democratic Party; On November 7, 2006 he was elected having received 73% of the vote for General Treasurer. He won more votes than any statewide candidate on the Rhode Island ballot in 2006.
Caprio was the first political candidate in the United States to use On-Demand Television in a campaign [5]. In order to reach voters through innovative, alternative methods, he created a television documentary entitled Caprio, the Biography. It was available for free viewing On-Demand throughout Rhode Island on Cox Communications Channel 1. He also launched http://www.CaprioTV.com one of the nation's first campaign internet TV channels. [6] Caprio also made Rhode Island history as the first candidate in the state to officially announce his candidacy via a multimedia broadcast that included television, web, On-Demand cable, 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.” [7]. In accordance with Caprio’s vision for an inclusive, transparent government, all Rhode Islanders were included in his campaign from the onset. The announcement could be viewed on On-Demand TV, as well as on his website at www.frankcaprio.com. The award-winning Caprio website [8] and television ads [9] garnered local and national attention.
Frank T. Caprio is married to Gabriella (DiGiacinto) Caprio and he has two children, Ashley and Frank II.
[edit] References
1. http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/alltime.asp?intSID=13
2. http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/documents/fb8788.asp
3. Dan Shaughnessy, "Clemens' return is 10-K gold: He no-hits Harvard for six innings," The Boston Globe, April 5, 1987. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADEDE4B0B2695F&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
4. Amy Pesta and Marcia Grann O’Brien, “Candidate Frank Caprio is coming to your living room,” The Narragansett Times, June 16, 2006. http://www.zwire.com/site/News.cfm?BRD=1714&dept_id=73829&newsid=16804468&PAG=461&rfi=9
5. Stewart Schley, “Politics on Demand,” Broadcasting and Cable, May 1, 2006. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6329696.html?display=Special+Report
6. Yahoo Finance, Marketwire, "TV Worldwide Teams With Rhode Island Candidate to Launch Nation's First Campaign Internet TV Channel, October 4, 2006. http://nd.marketwire.com/news/showcache.do?itemid=6214106
7. Scott MacKay, “Caprio’s bid for treasurer to begin in high-tech style,” The Providence Journal, June 18, 2006. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/projo/results.html?QryTxt=Caprios+bid+for+treasurer
8. RI Future, www.rifuture.org
9. American Association of Political Consultants, Pollie Awards, Sonoma, CA, March 25, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Rhode Island Office of General Treasurer official state site
- Follow the Money - Frank T. Caprio 2006 campaign contributions
- Project Vote Smart - Senator Frank T. Caprio (RI) profile
- Caprio TV
- Caprio for General Treasurer official campaign site
| State Treasurers of the United States | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
AK: Bill Corbus (R)* |
HI: Georgina K. Kawamura (R) |
ME: David Lemoine (D) |
NJ: Bradley Abelow (D) |
SD: Vern Larson (R) |
| *No treasurer in this state; closest equivalent listed | ||||
