CD1 candidate Sandra Cano lays out her case for your vote in RI’s election
CD1 candidate Sandra Cano lays out her case for your vote in RI’s special election
Kris Craig, The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE – Pawtucket Sen. Sandra Cano has withdrawn her name from the ballot – and resigned her Senate seat – to take a new, undisclosed job, long rumored to be a top spot in the New England arm of the Small Business Administration.
In a letter to the Rhode Island secretary of state – and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio – she said: “I write today with a mix of joy and sadness: joy at the opportunity to serve in a new capacity in a field about which I have long been passionate, and sadness that pursuing this opportunity requires my departure from the Senate.
“I will have more to announce about my future endeavors in the coming weeks,” but “today I must resign from the Rhode Island Senate effective immediately and withdraw my candidacy for Senate District 8.”
Cano – who was born in Medellin, Colombia, and moved to the United States with her family in 2000 – has doubled as a state senator and the “commerce director” for the City of Pawtucket, a title she held on to through a maternity leave and a months-long congressional run last year.
“Only in these great United States of America could my personal story even exist,” she said in her resignation letter. “I remain awestruck that a refugee who fled guerilla violence in Colombia and arrived in our country not knowing the language could have such tremendous opportunities. … In this land of opportunity, there is no limit to what one can achieve with hard work and dedication. I have lived my American Dream, and I look forward to helping others achieve theirs.”
Cano made a name for herself outside her home city when she ran for an open congressional seat in 2023 and placed third among the 12 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot, ahead of the sitting lieutenant governor.
The latest pieces in her story began to fall into place late in the day on Thursday, when she gave the secretary of state the required paperwork to remove her name from the November ballot, and the Democratic Party scrambled behind the scenes to name a ballot replacement before the time allowed to do so goes by on Friday.
One rumored candidate is Lori Urso, a $128,000 deputy chief of staff in the office of Cano’s fiancé, state General Treasurer James Diossa.
Cano’s rise in RI politics
In an end-of-year interview last year, Cano said running for Congress “was very eye-opening … in that in every community there’s different priorities, like housing in the urban community. But then if you go to the East Bay, environment was the number-one priority. But one thing I know was a common denominator throughout the whole day was really education.”
“And I think that that is where my heart is going to lead me in 2024,” said Cano, who has chaired the Senate Education Committee.
Prior to winning a Senate seat, Cano served on the Pawtucket City Council from 2014 to 2018 and on the Pawtucket School Committee from 2012 to 2014.
As the director of commerce for Pawtucket, “she is responsible for working with the City’s business community, with a particular focus on collaborating and providing assistance to local small businesses,” according to her online legislative biography. She was previously the assistant vice president of community development at Navigant Credit Union.
In January 2023, she and Diossa announced the birth of their second child, Alessandro James.
Without identifying her new job, Cano wrote: “Much of my focus during my time in the Senate has been in the support of the small businesses trying to establish and grow in our communities.
“I was proud to advocate strongly on behalf of minority-owned businesses. Among the legislation I am most proud of is the new law instituting a financial literacy requirement in schools, which I worked on in collaboration with then-Treasurer Seth Magaziner. This important initiative will ensure Rhode Island students are better equipped to understand the financial complexities of today’s society.”
Cano’s new job has not yet been confirmed. A top SBA job had been open since the retirement at the end of last year of the U.S. Small Business Administration director for Rhode Island, Mark S. Hayward, after 30 years with the agency. His replacement, Robert Piechota, was named in August.
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Publish date : 2024-09-12 10:31:00
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