So, You Think You Know Rhode Island?

Author Information
Bobby Oliveira is the Treasurer of the Quahogs United PAC and the creator of the Quahogs United Blog.  He has more than 40 years of campaign experience, more than 35 years of sales experience, including from 2007-2011 when he was Sales Director at the Newport Bay Club until he sold out the inventory, and 30 years of writing experience going back to his time as a newsman at WHTB Radio and moving on to become the head speechwriter to future State Senator and Democratic Chair Rep. Joan Menard.

Mr. Oliveira has campaigned in 38 states.  Most of this experience was garnered when he worked on Presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992.  He is a veteran of multiple New Hampshire Presidential Primaries.  Along the way, he has also served on teams that have been successful lobbying for laws and ordinances in 4 states.  Due to that experience, he is a go to for various forms of public records requests including APRAs, FOILs, and FOIAs.  When not doing that, he is often tasked to write radio commercials.  He has done that for candidates at the municipal, county, state, and Federal levels.

Most memorable of those experiences happened back in the mid-90’s.  Dr. Irving Fradkin, of Dollars for Scholars fame, asked Bobby to change the city of Fall River’s motto from “We’ll try” to “Scholarship City”.  Thanks to Bobby’s leadership, the City of Fall River’s City Council voted in the affirmative for the change.

His sales career started in real estate rentals.  From that, he had a 10 year career in floorcovering.  Back in 1999, he secured the contract for the floorcovering in the Pfizer labs in Groton, Connecticut.  In 2000, he was recruited by a timeshare firm and went on to have a 16 year career in timeshares and vacation clubs.  He still sells ads for his blog from time to time.  He has sold those products in 5 states.

While he has created political change and profit all over the country, he is most proud of his over 20 years clean and sober.  He regularly works with newcomers so they can find the same peace he has.  While he has a number of mental illnesses, he is able to manage 24 hours at a time.  As a result, he has been asked to speak on addiction issues in the same number of states he has campaigned in.

As this is being written, Bobby has recruited a lawyer to represent Rhode Island’s homeless camped out at the State House against an illegal eviction order the Governor brought forward.  So far the combination of legal resources Bobby has brought together has beaten the Governor twice in court.  Bobby hopes this will draw attention to the real services the homeless need especially regarding addiction and mental illness issues.