As a city councilor weighed a decisive vote on rent control in Providence this winter, landlords filled her campaign account with political donations like never before. When it came time to vote, they got their wish.
After supporting rent control during her 2022 election campaign, City Councilor Ana Vargas voted twice in April against a proposed city ordinance limiting rent increases in most Providence apartments.
Her shift on the issue left supporters one vote shy of a supermajority that could override Mayor Brett Smiley’s recent veto of the Providence Rent Stabilization Act.
As the ordinance moved through the council this winter, Vargas took in the largest fundraising haul of her political career: $16,070. At least 78% of those funds came from landlords, property managers, real estate investors and their lobbyists, according to an Ocean State Media analysis of her latest quarterly campaign finance report.
Prior to the rent control debate, Vargas had been one of the city council’s least prolific fundraisers, raising an average of $873 per quarter. She began 2026 with just $426 in her campaign account, and received only two campaign contributions all of last year.
Vargas has not spoken publicly about when or why she switched positions on rent control. She was the only member of the 15-person city council who did not deliver a speech before casting her votes.
Vargas declined to give an interview and did not respond to additional requests for comment.
Known as a quiet voice on the council, Vargas is now a key figure in the battle defining Providence politics this year, and her latest campaign finance disclosures have raised concerns from a longstanding government watchdog group about the real estate industry’s influence over her votes.
“She didn’t have a lot of money in her campaign account, and then right before this super controversial vote that she was vacillating on, she raked in a lot of money from one side and then ultimately voted with that side,” said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “That doesn’t tell a great story about how a democracy is supposed to work.”
Vargas’ surge in donations began with a fundraiser she held on March 6 with fellow city councilor John Goncalves, who both sides of the rent control debate eyed as a potential supporter. Goncalves has received over $50,000 of campaign contributions since the year began.
Their joint fundraiser took place at Captain Seaweed’s, a bar in Goncalves’ ward on Providence’s East Side, on the opposite side of the city from the more working-class and predominantly Latino neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Olneyville that Vargas represents.
Members of a landlord advocacy group, the RI Coalition of Housing Providers, attended the fundraiser. Vargas reported 22 new donations directly from landlords after the event.
Vargas and Goncalves both voted against the ordinance a month later.
“I do believe that Vargas’ vote and, to be frank, probably also John Goncalves’ vote were influenced by these recent donations,” said Siraj Sindhu, executive director of Reclaim RI, a progressive group supporting rent stabilization.
Goncalves said he has received over 2,100 contributions since his first run for the city council in 2020, and that real estate professionals have donated less to him than other groups like retirees, academics, lawyers, and healthcare workers.
He denied that he sought to influence Vargas’ vote by connecting her to landlords and property managers who’d previously given to his campaigns.
“I don’t have any power over who comes to fundraisers,” said Goncalves, who supported Vargas’ fundraising in past years as well.
Campaign contributions in moments like this are typical and legal under U.S. campaign finance laws, which protect the right to donate to political campaigns as a form of free speech.
In Rhode Island, candidates file quarterly campaign finance reports disclosing information about their donors, including their name, their place of employment, and the amount they give, which is capped at $2,000 annually per candidate.
Marion, a leading government accountability expert in Rhode Island, said the state ethics code for elected officials exempts campaign donations from its rules about financial conflicts of interest.
“Regulators are very limited in the tools they can use to prevent campaign donations from influencing public officials,” Marion said. “Really, at the end of the day, it’s up to voters to make conclusions about whether or not their elected official made a decision in their best interests or in the interest of the donors.”
Heading into municipal elections this fall, Vargas, a Democrat, has not yet drawn an opponent in her ward. She won her seat in 2022 after a contested primary that drew under 1,000 voters.
Her position on the Providence Rent Stabilization Act may face another test soon, as the council faces a May 17 deadline to vote on overriding the mayor’s veto.
