By Sam Wroblewski WPRO.com
Republican challenger for Attorney General, Dawson Hodgson, says incumbent-Democrat Peter Kilmartin violated the code of ethics by awarding legal contracts to a member of the General Assembly.
Hodgson alleges Attorney General Kilmartin awarded $47,000 in legal work to State Senator William Conley in 2013, and gave an additional $21,000 in payments to his son this year.
“In terms of the part of the code he is violating, it is the same as the beach contract,” said Hodgson referencing an ethics violation made by then-Democratic Chair David Caprio.
“But it is actually far worse because the Attorney General, unlike the Department of Administration, is charged with enforcing the Ethics Code by state statute,” continued Hodgson.
The regulation in question states that no member of the General Assembly can accept state employment including contract or consulting work.
“This is a classic case of insiders having access to work that ordinary people don’t, it’s a story Rhode Islanders are familiar with and I think they are ready for a new type of leadership in the state,” said Hodgson.
In a statement, Kilmartin responded to Hodgson saying in part:
“Mr. Hodgson’s attempts to compare the outstanding work by Mr. Conley to the ongoing investigation of beach concession contracts is unfortunate. Unfortunately, the political season sometimes results in personal attacks such as this that gather attention when made, but have no legal basis. In the event that Mr. Hodgson feels that a law was broken by the Attorney General, by Mr. Conley or by anyone else, he presumably knows that he has the opportunity to file a complaint as he deems warranted.”
Kilmartin goes on to say that Conley worked as conflict counsel at an hourly rate to represent the State of Rhode Island, and such is exempt from a contractual violation.
Hodgson said Kilmartin should form an independent council to review the case and self-report the violation to the Ethics Commission.
