RI GOP candidates for CD1 take center stage in dueling interviews

PROVIDENCE − With a few notable exceptions, the two Republican rivals for Rhode Island's open congressional seat – Gerry Leonard and Terri Flynn – did not stray far from national party lines during back-to-back interviews Thursday that are slated for airing on The Public's Radio on Friday.

One exception?

When asked whether he would support a national abortion ban, Leonard, the Marine veteran who is the state GOP's endorsed candidate in the two-person Republican primary contest, said it's a states' issue and should remain so.

Flynn, a former Middletown councilwoman, said she could not answer questions about what she would have done had she been in Congress at historic moments – such as the Trump impeachment vote – without more information.

The question: "The man you're hoping to replace in Congress, David Cicilline, was an impeachment manager in the Donald Trump impeachment. If you were a member of Congress back then, how would you have voted on the impeachment and why?"

Leonard said he would have voted no but solely because the Republicans Party leaders who wanted to be on the investigating committee were not put on it: "I don't think that was fair."

The answer from Flynn, a former Middletown town councilwoman: " I think it would come down to facts and law. I'm not sure that I would know the hundreds or thousands of pages of that information to make that decision."

Question: "Did you have any thoughts of how the president had behaved and whether he should be impeached or not ... Just your gut feeling?

"Just from what I would read in the newspaper or hear on the news, I wouldn't," she said. "No offense to you who are in the news, but you have to look at the source and know that we're at the bottom of the food chain for information, the general public, and we are never going to find out the whole story."

Flynn had a similar answer when asked if she would have joined the 130 House Republicans who refused to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election amid unproven allegations of widespread fraud.

"I think there's two sides, isn't there? Still two sides still going on," she said. "And so again, I'm not going to make a judgment or an opinion because I don't have that binder that has all the information."

Leonard said "Joe Biden is our duly elected president ... President Trump's attorney general said the same thing. Vice President Pence said the same thing."

Neither candidate was keen on removing taxpayers earning more than $400,000 a year from the benefits of the Trump tax cuts when the package expires in 2025, although neither said a clear no.

And neither was all in on massive federal investments in offshore wind as an alternative power source for electricity.

Leonard noted that wind farms only work when the wind is blowing. He called for "a balance" that potentially includes more nuclear power and said he would not give up on the "reliables."

"I think we all, both sides of the aisle, are concerned about the environment. We want clean drinking water. We don't want to see our houses flooded, but I think we need a balanced approach to our national energy strategy. I don't think you discount the reliables ... and invest completely in the renewables."

"We could get some more money into our economy by opening up, quite frankly, some of our other natural resources in our country," he said.

Flynn voiced concerns about the technology and cost of wind power.

The question: "The administration is investing a lot of money in incentivizing, helping the offshore wind industry build turbines and wind farms, including right off the Rhode Island shore. Do you support these investments, or should we scale back?"

Flynn's answer: "Well, there's no question that there are some complications with the new energy technology. I think it's pretty common knowledge that the wind turbine blades ... don't decay. There's no way to get rid of them. They do chip, and so there's debris spread from them. And a lot of the wind turbine projects are being abandoned because the numbers that were negotiated in an economy of a few years ago don't work anymore in the current economy."

"That being said, we do have greenhouse-gas emissions that are warming our oceans, and we need good energy policy that's balanced," she said. But "the question was: would you continue to invest in that particular energy resource? I don't think that the numbers support it at this point in time."

Flynn said she'd need more information before deciding whether to raise the eligibility age for Medicare to 67 and for Social Security to 70 and then indexing benefits to life expectancy, as supported by many in Congress.

In response to the same question, Leonard said he would not support breaking "promises that were made to American people,'' and he thinks "we can help both Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security by improving our economy."

Primary day is Sept. 5, with early voting already underway.

Voter Guide for RI's Special Election: 2023 Congressional District 1

In lieu of a debate, the two Republicans agreed to be interviewed on camera for broadcast on The Public's Radio at 7:30 p.m. Friday on the Providence Journal's website and broadcast by RI PBS.

The interviews were conducted by Patrick Anderson, a political reporter for The Providence Journal, and Ian Donnis, a political reporter for The Public's Radio.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Special Election: CD1 Republican candidates take center stage