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WHEN THE RHODE ISLAND subscribers to the Herald opened their front doors that rainy and windy Sunday morning to pick up their papers, which were encased in a double plastic wrapper to keep them dry, they found two significant election items.

The first was a headline above the Herald masthead, in the space normally reserved for late Saturday night sports results. It declared in bold two-inch letters, “FIORE HOSPITALIZED, PULLS OUT OF RACE.” It referred the reader to a story on page nine of Section A. There, Jenna Richardson wrote about the late night press conference that took place in an auditorium of the Rhode Island Hospital. She described the scene in which Fiore’s campaign manager, Cyril Berman, was surrounded by the candidate’s wife and other campaign leaders. In a voice cracking with emotion, he told the assembled members of the media that Fiore instructed him from his bed in the intensive care unit to withdraw his name from the contest for governor.

Berman informed the group that Fiore complained of various ailments, including chest and stomach pains, headaches and nausea on a number of occasions within the past month. He brushed them off initially as merely signs of the stressful campaigning he was doing. The pain became intense in the past several days, however, and the candidate was concerned that the diagnosis of any serious illness would impede his ability to take on the strenuous tasks of the governorship. In those circumstances, Fiore thought he owed it to the citizens of the State to bow out of the race at this point instead of waiting another day or two and chancing some chaos in the election on the part of those who didn’t know his status.

“Berman assured everyone,” she wrote, “that Fiore’s personal physician, Dr. J. Carlo Chiarenza, was heading up the team of doctors who were examining him. They were studying the results of various tests, along with X-rays and magnetic resonant imaging photographs taken that day, and discussing other tests they thought would be helpful in reaching a diagnosis.” Berman was uncertain, he said, as to when Chiarenza would be able to make himself available to reporters.

Several media representatives posed the question, in different ways, as to whether Fiore’s decision was too hasty in light of the fact that his doctor wasn’t able to pinpoint the cause of his painful symptoms. In response to each, Berman patiently stated that Fiore wanted desperately to lead Rhode Island out of its long economic slump, but couldn’t abide the possibility that he would be elected and then be unable to properly serve.

“‘Let me sum it up this way,’ Berman said. ‘Fiore understands that the people are being asked to choose between Singer and him, not the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who would move up to the State’s highest office if Fiore wins the election and is then forced to resign because of his health.’”

Richardson concluded her story by focusing on the double set of bizarre events. “The first one took Richie Cardella out of the race during the primary campaign when he had a fairly significant lead. The second has now given the election to Bruce Singer by default, even though the most recent polls showed the two candidates for governor to be running neck and neck. This has certainly been an election to remember.”

The other major piece of election coverage was on the editorial page. A short note, signed by the publisher, informed the Herald ’s readers that although Doug Fiore was no longer a candidate for election, the paper’s senior editors still saw fit to run the endorsement of him that was approved just two days earlier. He noted that the decision was reached after an extensive examination of the positions advanced by Singer and Fiore throughout the campaign.

The publisher wrote that in the Herald ’s view, “the issue of state-sponsored and administered gaming casinos, fiercely opposed by Fiore, is of overriding importance to the State of Rhode Island. We encourage those who are against such legislation to send a message to the State’s lawmakers by pulling the Fiore lever when you vote.”

The endorsement itself ran just below the publisher’s communication.