There are many reasons, but I will offer my perspective. RI is a tiny state founded on a legacy of questioning authority. During and following the colonial era, it grew into a major manufacturing and shipping center, which created a massive wealth gap between the people who owned the factories and ships and the people who worked in them. Since colonial states embraced governance from the bottom up, ie villages that grew into towns then into cities, the governance structures are excessive and redundant. That's why we have 39 cities and towns, 39 feifdoms with tons of public employees. Then came all the mythos around the Italian mob and their control of several actives in the state, including organized labor, while honest Italians made massive economic and political gains in this state over the second half of the last century. Add to this waves of immigrants that arrived to work in jobs that mostly disappeared two decades ago thanks to automation, globalization and federal environmental reforms.

This adds up to an older, mostly working class, mostly not college educated general population that is cynical, distrusting and prone to chalk everything (including good old fashioned incompetence) up to corruption. That same demographic will, ironically, tell you that one of the most corrupt politicians in the history of this state, Cianci, was exceedingly effective. This is Rhode Island.