Frank Caprio wants to obtain the Governor’s office.

To get there, he’s asking ordinary Rhode Islanders to come forward with suggestions and ideas that will help catapult him into office, but improve the lives of all Rhode Islanders.

The move, Caprio said, doesn’t come without precedent.

In early 2007, Caprio met with Providence investor Russell Jeffrey, the founder of Providence Investment Management LLC.

Jeffrey, who specializes in mortgage-backed securities (MBS), warned Caprio, free of charge, that the state’s sub-prime mortgage holdings seemed risky. Jeffrey said that he had already removed all of his own investments out of what he considered the risky sub-prime mortgage market, and advised his clients to do the same. Jeffrey, who is not a paid adviser to the state, left Caprio with a list of questions to ask the state’s paid fiscal advisers regarding the risky investments.

The rest is history. In the latter half of that year, and throughout the next, those mortgage securities became all but worthless.

Caprio, however, took Jeffrey’s advice. By March of 2007, he had sold almost of all of the state’s sub-prime investments. Contacted yesterday, Caprio said the move saved state taxpayers, who are ultimately on the hook to fund the pension plan regardless of how the market fund performs, about $1 billion.

“These were not normal discussions people were having back at that time,” said Caprio, who pointed out that most financial experts were advising people to purchase more of what were, at that time, AAA rated investments.

Since the sub-prime market crashed, Caprio said he’s realized there could be untapped wells of knowledge out there.

“There are people in our own backyards that have their own good ideas,” said Caprio.

But Jeffrey is not a typical Rhode Islander. He’s an investment professional who had been in the business for two decades.

Nevertheless, Jeffrey said he thinks Caprio has a good strategy, and that there are scores of people with ideas that haven’t been tapped into.

“I think there are probably more experts in certain areas in Rhode Island than we may be aware of,” said Jeffrey, who has no connection to Caprio’s campaign.

“Unfortunately, we don’t seem to give each other enough credit.”

Jeffrey stressed that he doesn’t do any business with the state.

“I am not a client of the state. The state is not a client of mind,” said Jeffrey.

“I do pay a lot in taxes though, so in that respect, I guess I am a client.”

As part of Caprio’s advertising blitz for his well-publicized run for Governor, Caprio is asking Rhode Islanders for their ideas. Caprio’s radio, television, and Internet advertisements ask Rhode Islanders to visit his website, www.planforri.com in order to suggest policy ideas.

Caprio is poised to spend up to $100,000 per month. A spokesman said he most likely wouldn’t spend that much in the first month, which as of press time was still three days away.

Caprio said he’s happy with the scope of the feedback he’s received. As of yesterday, the website had received over 8,000 unique hits, 131 separate ideas, with “hundreds of comments” on those ideas.

Caprio said he plans to use some of the ideas he’s solicited as part of is platform to create jobs in the state, which ranks among the highest in the nation for unemployment at 12.9 percent.

Ed Valenti, the Chief Operating Officer from PriMedia, which handles all of Caprio’s media buying, said that anyone looking to reach their audience in this day and age needs to use the world wide web.

“Treasurer Caprio is on the cutting edge in realizing that to reach everybody, especially the younger demographic, the Internet, and mobile applications have to be part of the recipe for a successful reach and frequency multi-market media campaign,” said Valenti.

Valenti said he doesn’t remember another politician reaching out to his constituents to the degree Caprio has.

“I think that Caprio has a good idea of what he wants to do, but is intelligent enough to realize that there are good ideas from others out there as well. So why not use them?” Said Valenti.

Mike Mikus, Patrick Lynch’s campaign manager, said that the Lynch campaign would soon be using similar methods of advertising.

“We are going to use every tool at our disposal to run a 21st century campaign,” said Mikus.

“This campaign is about creating jobs, and the ability to create jobs and lead this state into an era of prosperity. When the voters look at all the candidates, they are going to see that Patrick has the best record and plan to create jobs for Rhode Islanders.”