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.
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[edit] 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. He attended public schools in Narragansett, Rhode Island, graduating 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.
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. .
[edit] Public Service
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. In 1990, while still attending law school, Caprio was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives 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 13 years servering the Rhode Island Senate, 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, 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. 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 as chair of the Senate Commerce, Housing, and Municipal Government Committee.
[edit] General Treasurer of Rhode Island
On November 7, 2006, Caprio, who had been endorsed by the Democratic Party, was elected General Treasurer of Rhode Island with 73% of the vote. He won more votes than any statewide candidate on the Rhode Island ballot in 2006.[citation needed]
Caprio 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.” [4]
Caprio was the first political candidate in the United States to use On-Demand Television in a campaign.[5] 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.[6] Both the website and his television ads garnered awards.[7][8]
[edit] Personal life
Caprio is married to Gabriella (DiGiacinto) Caprio and he has two children, Ashley and Frank II.
[edit] References
- ^ Ivy League Baseball
- ^ Ivy League Sports
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Stewart Schley, “Politics on Demand,” Broadcasting and Cable, May 1, 2006. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6329696.html?display=Special+Report
- ^ 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
- ^ RI Future, www.rifuture.org
- ^ American Association of Political Consultants, Pollie Awards, Sonoma, CA, March 25, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Caprio TV
- Caprio for General Treasurer official campaign site
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