The State of Disclosure: A conversation with Rhode Island’s top campaign finance officials

Miguel Nuñez and Rick Thornton are the executive director and campaign finance director at the Rhode Island Board of Elections, respectively. Together, they regulate the campaign process and administer campaign finance laws across the state. Nuñez and Thornton work closely with the seven-member Board of Elections to ensure transparency around who is influencing elections at both the local and state level. “I believe our campaign finance system here in Rhode Island is pretty robust,” Thornton said. “We work very hard to make sure that candidates, committees and political action committees are compliant with the campaign finance laws, rules and regulations.” Both Nuñez and Thornton have deep ties to the state, with Nuñez graduating from the University of Rhode Island and Thornton graduating from Rhode Island College. Prior to going to work for the Board of Elections, Nunez worked for representatives at both the municipal and congressional level, while Thornton has a background in auditing. These experiences have shaped their meticulous approach to campaign finance work today. Just a couple of months ahead of the midterms, Nunez and Thornton took some time to speak with OpenSecrets about Rhode Island’s campaign finance system, including their efforts to strengthen campaign finance laws and increase transparency around influences at the state level. Republish this article We encourage you to republish our content. Please review our republication policy for guidelines. Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2022 midterm fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.