In RI's other House race, Cicilline banks on momentum, Waters runs as an everyman

CUMBERLAND – Rep. David Cicilline entered the function room at Cumberland Manor as if this routine stop on his campaign for reelection were more like a family reunion.

He greeted people at the dinner with handshakes and backslaps, joked about his graying hair, tried out some rudimentary Spanish with a group at one table and tied on a personalized apron to serve plates of shepherd’s pie before sitting down to eat.

"Be careful, it’s very hot,” he warned his older tablemates.

Many of the faces in the room were familiar to him. By Cicilline’s count, it was the eighth time he’d held an event like this in the low-income apartment complex that rises over a bend in the Blackstone River. After canceling the previous two years because of the pandemic, he appeared to be genuinely enjoying himself.

And why wouldn’t he? The room was full of supporters like Richard Conforti, a commissioner with the Cumberland Housing Authority who said he plans to vote for the six-term Democratic incumbent on Nov. 8.

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“He’s been in long enough that he knows the ins and outs of Congress,” Conforti said. “It doesn’t matter who’s running against him.”

That person is Allen Waters, a 66-year-old Republican in his fourth bid for public office. Two of those attempts were in Massachusetts and both were short-lived, the first in 2017 as an independent against Sen. Elizabeth Warren and two years later against Sen. Edward Markey.

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After his mother died in the fall of 2019, Waters moved back into the house where he grew up in the West End of Providence. He lives there now with his youngest son, a sophomore at La Salle Academy, while his wife remains in Mashpee, Massachusetts.

Not long after returning to Rhode Island, Waters launched a campaign for the Senate seat held by Democrat Jack Reed, but he lost by a big margin. Still, Waters sees the bright side, saying he was able to get 33% of the vote despite having little name recognition.

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“Obviously these are big mountains to climb, but they heard my footsteps,” he said while talking in his kitchen.

Waters believes the Democratic Party has lost touch with Americans, more specifically with Black men like him. He says the party has “marginalized and feminized Black men.” He’s a big admirer of Malcolm X’s “Ballot or the Bullet” speech, in which the civil rights leader argued that Black people could be the swing vote to push for systemic change.

He’s not so enamored of the GOP either, but he’s pragmatic about the need for major-party support to run a campaign. He says he won’t simply toe the party line if elected. On abortion, while he supported the repeal of Roe v. Wade, he doesn’t support a national ban.

He rails against critical race theory and what he describes as the rise of Marxism, but he says he’s not a MAGA Republican. He voted for Barack Obama twice and even though he did the same for Donald Trump, he says the first time had more to do with his lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton.

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As to why he thinks he’s a better candidate than Cicilline, Waters points to his life experience as a father of five who understands middle-class struggles. A retired financial adviser, Waters puts in time as a limo driver to pay the bills. He says he wants to cut taxes and reduce the size of government as a way of reining in the costs borne by average Americans.

“I’ve got to hustle to keep the lights on,” Waters said. “I’m one of the people who I want to vote for me.”

Cicilline has gradually gained profile, responsibility in the House

Cicilline, too, lists inflation as a priority. He sees the problem as having more to do with energy, and in part what he and other Democrats say is price-gouging by fossil fuel companies.

“Right now, dealing with the high cost of gas and food is the number-one issue,” he said.

The 61-year-old former public defender and two-term mayor of Providence has gradually taken on a higher profile in Washington since entering Congress in 2011. He was a manager in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump and also chaired the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, a senior position in party leadership in the House.

He’s also gotten attention for spearheading antitrust efforts to rein in big tech companies such as Amazon and Facebook, and for speaking out on gun control. Over an hourlong interview in Providence, he went through a list of legislation that he supported and that won passage, such as the COVID relief package and the infrastructure bill that have allocated billions of dollars to Rhode Island.

Cicilline says he’s learned over the past dozen years how Congress works and how to effectively represent Rhode Islanders’ interests.

“I take the work seriously and I get stuff done,” he said.

Cicilline’s first race for the House was his closest. His share of the vote has gone up in each subsequent election. In 2020, with no Republican in the race, he took home 71% of the vote, beating his closest challenger, independent Frederick Wysocki, by 55 points.

He’s expected to win handily again this year. The Cook Political Report rates the seat solidly Democrat.

In the district next door, Fung and Magaziner are neck-and-neck

Cicilline’s bid for reelection stands in stark contrast to the other congressional race in Rhode Island – a nail-biter in the 2nd Congressional District between Democrat Seth Magaziner and Republican Allan Fung to take the seat being vacated by longtime Democratic incumbent Jim Langevin.

Judging by past results, if Langevin had chosen to run, he would have been a lock for a 12th term. Cicilline said he had no advance knowledge of his colleague’s decision; Langevin called him the morning of the announcement.

State legislators redrew district lines last winter, but they adopted no major changes in the House districts. Cicilline said he was never asked if we would have supported giving up a slice of his district to shore up Democrats’ chances in the other district.

“It would have been hard to justify a major redrawing,” he said.

Before serving dinner at Cumberland Manor, Cicilline told the mostly elderly crowd of his support for bigger cost-of-living increases in Social Security and for provisions in recently passed legislation to reduce prescription-drug costs.

“He’s a good man,” Pauline Charpentier said after he spoke. “He does a lot for the seniors.”

Like a half-dozen other people at the dinner, she couldn’t name Cicilline’s opponent in the race.

Cicilline has little to say about Waters. He’s met him only once.

“I’m just focused on my work and my record,” he said.

When told about the incumbent's reticence, Waters chuckled. He knows his chances of pulling off a win are low, but he’s still hopeful.

“As long as you’re on the court," he said, "there’s always a chance you can hit a buzzer-beater."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Cicilline runs on record, Waters as everyman in Congress District 1