Gubernatorial candidates from both sides of the aisle are criticizing Cranston Mayor Allan Fung after a WPRI-12 investigation discovered he wound up paying a Cranston developer no rent for his campaign headquarters, but GOP Challenger Patricia Morgan yesterday made comments that some are calling racist when she told WPRO’s Dan Yorke that Fung was digging for an excuse for his rent-free scandal so much he’d soon “be in China.”
“He’s spinning this so fast and digging so deep for rationalization that he’s going to be in China soon,” Morgan told Yorke. When Yorke pressed Morgan for clarification, Morgan said “it wasn’t intended to be an ethnic anything, but he is digging really really deep to get a rationalization on this.
Fung’s wife, Barbara Ann Fenton, released a written statement in response:
When Allan becomes Governor, he\’ll be the first Chinese Republican Governor in the history of the United States & the first Asian American and racial minority Governor in the history of Rhode Island, and I\’ll be so proud of him shattering all of those glass ceilings.
But, in true to Allan form, he\’s going to be sure that he\’s elected Governor of Rhode Island because he\’s going to be the best guy for the job, and just also happen to be the first all of the above. And on the day he\’s inaugurated, he\’ll be a role model not just for every Asian American looking to be the first in their family to enter politics, not just for every kid who grew up in a cramped immigrant home in South Providence, and not just for every kid who went to a state school and were told that they could never be as good as those kids from the Ivy-ies. He\’ll be a role model for every single person in Rhode Island, in the way that he leads with honesty, self-realization, and complete devotion to this amazing state we all call home.
It\’s hard to bat 1000 in baseball, but as his record in Cranston shows, he comes pretty darn close.
Stupid comments by others speak more to their insecurities. If you need to stoop to these, you clearly have no business running for any leadership post in Rhode Island.”
Listen to the full conversation between Morgan and Yorke below:
Fung had addressed the rent controversy earlier that afternoon with Yorke. Listen to that conversation below:
