Man in the middle (continued)

WHILE ATTENDING PROVIDENCE COLLEGE, Duffy would sometimes open at 6:30 a.m. the small working men’s bar owned by his father in Pawtucket, watching as factory workers would come in to have a couple of shots and a few beers. "I said to one of them," he recalls, " ‘How can you do that?’ He said, ‘Son, if you go to the mill like I do and do this for eight hours — give me another drink.’ " Such episodes steeled Duffy’s resolve to make a life beyond the confines of his hometown.

Attending St. Leo’s and St. Raphael Academy, Duffy set his sights on becoming a reporter, and he worked through high school as a summer replacement at the Times of Pawtucket. Although he landed a job as a Journal reporter during his senior year at Providence College, the weekly salary of $100 was a little underwhelming when he emerged from a two-year hitch in the Army with one child and another on the way. After working public relations jobs with General Electric and PC, he seemed to find his métier at FitzGerald-Toole, a PR firm that represented John H. Chafee during his tenure as Rhode Island’s governor in the ’60s.

Working with Republican Herb DeSimone, who won an uphill battle to become attorney general, Chafee, and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Duffy traveled extensively in the US and elsewhere. "You can’t understand what a confidence builder that is, with the responsibility that you have at such a young age," he recalls. He was also at Rockefeller’s side at the National Press Club in Washington in 1968 when word came that Robert Kennedy had been shot. "That changed American politics," Duffy says. "That’s when the Secret Service was assigned to candidates."

Although he was raised in a household where John F. Kennedy was a revered figure, Duffy’s exposure to Chafee and Rockefeller, he says, made it "easy for me to become moderate. I truly believe that I listen to both sides, and I actually enjoy that. I learn a lot from my daughter [Jennifer], who is a political analyst [for the Cook Political Report in Washington, DC], who has to be non-partisan. In Rhode Island, it’s a very comfortable place to be."

When Democrat Philip Noel supplanted Frank Licht as governor in the early 70s, Duffy, having commuted for two years to Washington, decided to stay with his family in Rhode Island, although he found himself out of work and on the unemployment line. Laughing, he remembers having his file reviewed by a Democratic state employment counselor, "and the guy said, ‘Your last job was — what, DeSimone? No shot, kid.’ "

Looking for a job that would pay something similar to what he was earning in the nation’s capital, Duffy didn’t find much. Armed with an equity loan, he launched his PR firm in 1973 and was later joined by Joseph Shanley, recalled by Duffy as "the Charlie Bakst of his day." He worked seven days a week for six months, the firm earned a profit in its first year, although he continued to toil six days a week for 15 years, explaining, "There’s nothing like fear to motivate you."

Duffy’s advertising claims to fame include selling Old Stone Bank on a successful Flintstones-themed campaign. It was in the course of working with the bank that he met Donald L. Carcieri. The two men renewed their acquaintance when the future governor returned from working for Catholic Relief Services in Jamaica to take a job with Cookson. Duffy, who has since remarried, to Heidi Kirk, lost his first wife, Sheila, to cancer in the mid-’90s. (That the governor’s wife, Sue, survived a brush with cancer makes for something of a shared experience between the two men.) By the early part of 2002, Carcieri asked Duffy to have breakfast with him, told him of his plans to run for governor, and asked if he would help.

Although the rookie candidate was consistently on-message while easily outpacing former general treasurer Jim Bennett in the Republican primary, the victory probably owed as much, if not more, to Carcieri’s self-confidence and seemingly intuitive grasp of political communication.

For his part, Duffy denies being a member of Carcieri’s inner circle, the governor’s earlier description of him as one of a handful of trusted advisers notwithstanding. "During the campaign, yes," but his earlier role, Duffy says, has now been eclipsed by such individuals as James Rosati, chairman of the Rhode Island Airport Commission; John Harpootian, first vice chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party; Stephen J. Carlotti, a partner in Hinckley, Allen & Snyder; lawyer Alan Gelfuso; retired Old Stone banker John Treat; and two staffers, director of municipal affairs and appointments Deborah Smith and chief of staff Ken McKay. "Don is really his own voice," Duffy adds. "He has a lot of confidence in himself, and I would say that if there’s a principal adviser, it’s his wife. They are a unique partnership in life, and they share everything."

Some Democrats say the governor has done little to adopt Duffy’s consensus-building style, preferring instead to remain at loggerheads with the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Based on Carcieri’s record, "I’d like to think he [Duffy] hasn’t been influential," says Bill Lynch, chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party. "I’d like to think he’d be able to have much more influence on convincing the governor he should be working with people, negotiating with people, rather than just relying on political sound bites and attack rhetoric, which is what this governor has done." (Carcieri denies having a disinclination to work with legislative leaders, but then again, he did little to cultivate ties by backing Representative John DeSimone’s unsuccessful bid to topple House Speaker William P. Murphy.)

The bad news for Democrats is that it might not make any difference. With favorability ratings of 60 percent and 63 percent in the last two polls conducted by Brown University political scientist Darrell West, Carcieri may prove unbeatable in 2006 — regardless of whether he heeds Dave Duffy’s advice.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com