John Robitaille was the Republican party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 nominee in the 2010 election for governor of Rhode Island, which he lost to independent candidate Lincoln Chafee

Lincoln Chafee

Lincoln Davenport Chafee is an American politician who has been the 74th Governor of Rhode Island since January 2011. Prior to his election as governor, Chafee served in the United States Senate as a Republican from 1999 until losing his Senate re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon...

 on November 2, 2010.

Background

Robitaille graduated from North Attleboro High School in 1966 and from Providence College

Providence College

Providence College is a private, coeducational, Catholic university located about two miles west of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, United States, the state's capital city. With a 2010–2011 enrollment of 3,850 undergraduate students and 735 graduate students, the College specializes in academic...

 in 1970 with a Bachelor of Sciences in Business Management. At Providence Robitaille was a member of the ROTC, and Pershing Rifles

Pershing Rifles

The Pershing Rifles is a military fraternal organization for college-level students, founded by then 2nd Lieutenant John J. Pershing in 1894 as a drill unit at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln...

. He continued his education at the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 from 1974-1976 with a Masters of Sciences in Human Resource Management.

John Robitaille was born in 1948 in Central Falls and was the second of the three children of Roland and Alice Robitaille. They were Catholics who traced their ancestry back to French Canada. The Robitaille family moved to North Attleboro when John was six years old.

Personal life

Robitaille lives in Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,389 at the 2010 U.S. Census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water. Most of its land area lies on Aquidneck...

 with his second wife Lynda. He has three children from his first marriage and five grandchildren.

Military service

Robitaille served the United States Army as an officer from 1970-1976. He was recognized for distinguished performance as the most outstanding second lieutenant commissioned in the US Army through the ROTC program nationally. He was a paratrooper where he served in Germany with the First Armored Division and later with Headquarters Special Forces Command at Ft. Bragg where he was promoted to the rank of captain.

Private sector

After his armed service, Robitaille worked in the realm of labor and employee relations. From 1976-1981 Robitaille worked as an Employee Relations Manager for Frito Lay. Next, from 1981-1986 he worked as an Area Manager in Labor Relations for Continental Can Company. After, from 1985 to 1987, Robitaille worked for in the public relations and communications industry as the General Manager for Total Communications. In April 1987, Robitaille founded his own small business. He was the President and CEO of Perspective Communications Group in Middletown, Rhode Island.
In 2008 Robitaille left the company to work for Rhode Island governor, Donald Carcieri where he served as his Senior Advisor of Communcations.

Gubernatorial candidacy

Robitaille first became involved in Rhode Island electoral politics in 2006 when he ran for State Representative but lost by four votes to Amy Rice (D-RI). In December 2009, Robitaille announced his decision to run for Rhode Island governor as a Republican. He has since resigned his position as Senior Advisor of Communications for Governor Carcieri in order to campaign full time.
Again he was involved in another close race. Robitaille moved from consistently placing in third place in pre-election polls to an election night where at moments during the count he was the high vote getter. According to the state of RI the results in the race for governor, with 100% of the precincts reporting, were Lincoln Chafee

Lincoln Chafee

Lincoln Davenport Chafee is an American politician who has been the 74th Governor of Rhode Island since January 2011. Prior to his election as governor, Chafee served in the United States Senate as a Republican from 1999 until losing his Senate re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon...

 (Independent) with 123,398 votes (36.1%), Robitaille (Republican) with 114,761 votes (33.6%), Frank Caprio (Democrat) with 78,776 votes (23.0%), Kenneth Block (Moderate) with 22,116 votes (6.5%), Joseph Lusi (Independent) with 1087 votes (0.3%), Todd Giroux (Independent) with 880 votes (0.3%), and Ronald Algieri (Independent) with 792 votes (0.2%).