Three Democrats make the case for becoming RI's lieutenant governor
PROVIDENCE — The three women running for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary agree on a lot.
From the need for more housing and stricter gun control to enshrining the right to a public education into the Constitution, Sen. Cynthia Mendes, Rep. Deborah Ruggiero and Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos agree on the broad strokes.
All three largely see the bully pulpit as one of the most effective ways to use the office, which has little intrinsic power.
The race, independent of the governor, has two women of color, Matos and Mendes, running together with their white gubernatorial counterparts, Gov. Dan McKee for Matos and Matt Brown for Mendes, while Ruggiero is running alone.
What are the responsibilities of RI's lieutenant governor?
The lieutenant governor does not have many constitutional duties.
The lieutenant governor chairs four boards: the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the Alzheimer's State Plan Executive Board, the Emergency Management Advisory Council and the Small Business Advocacy Council.
The office's most important role came to the fore in March 2021, when Gov. Gina Raimondo resigned after being confirmed by the Senate as U.S. commerce secretary and McKee was sworn in to replace her.
But before Raimondo departed, the last time a lieutenant governor was needed to step in was 1950, when John O. Pastore resigned to become a member of the U.S. Senate, and the lieutenant governor, John S. McKiernan, took over for the final few weeks until newly elected Dennis Roberts took office.
Mendes: Running on a progressive agenda
On a warm Saturday, Mendes, 42, of East Providence, met with six other candidates, part of the slate proposed by the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, at Fargnoli Park in Providence's Elmhurst neighborhood.
"We can give away our last dollar, volunteer our last hour and not make a dent in the human suffering that we see around us because the leaders of this state continue to give tax breaks to the wealthiest, turn their eye on the climate crisis on our doorstop and ignore the needs of working families in Rhode Island," she said to the group of candidates and volunteers, before driving a mile away to canvass in Providence City Council Ward 14 candidate Andrew Poyant's territory.
Mendes, who used to work in health care, was elected to the Senate in 2020, beating incumbent William Conley Jr. in the primary. She now works as a project manager at Renew New England Alliance, a progressive umbrella group that has close ties to the Co-op.
While Mendes and Matos are running with their gubernatorial counterparts, the positions are still independently elected, even if the candidates campaign together.
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McKee and Matos both won the state Democratic party's endorsement for their respective races, with Matos picking up 83 of 162 votes. Mendes received 12 votes, 56 delegates voted for no endorsement and 11 abstained. Ruggiero did not seek the party endorsement.
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During a debate hosted by WPRI-TV, Matos and Mendes said they both support ending the independent election of lieutenant governor and allowing gubernatorial candidates to choose a running mate, as happens in the race for president and vice president.
Ruggiero said she isn't opposed to ending independent lieutenant governor elections, if that's what the voters want.
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As Poyant walked ahead, he told Mendes the names, ages and apartment numbers of the prospective voters, along with what had happened the last time he knocked on their door.
Poyant's and Mendes' flyers, along with those of the 30 other candidates running on the Cooperative slate, carry most of the same messages on the same platform, although Mendes and Brown are absent from the Cooperative's website, which focuses on local races.
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Mendes is the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother who was brought to New Bedford, Massachusetts, when she was 7 and a Cape Verdean father. Neither parent spoke their mother tongue at home, as her father didn't know Spanish and her mother didn't know creole. When Mendes and Poyant knocked on the door of a Spanish speaker, Poyant used his rusty Spanish skills, stumbling over the term for lieutenant governor.
When Poyant tries to speak Spanish, as a white man, it's seen as endearing, she said. But Mendes, a woman of color with a mother from Puerto Rico, said she is sometimes criticized for not being fluent in Spanish, even though she did not grow up with the language at home.
When they knocked on the door of an apartment above a convenience store, Mendes listened to a woman who was troubled by her child's experience in Rhode Island schools. A mother herself, Mendes said there are solutions, evidenced by neighboring Massachusetts fully funding all of its schools.
Mendes cited the initiative to push for a constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to an education, which failed during the last legislative session. Ruggiero and Matos have said they also support the amendment.
Matos: Backing Tidewater Landing, addressing constituent concerns
On a recent Tuesday, Matos, 48, of Providence, split her time into chunks: official meetings in her State House office, then off to the site of the new Tidewater Landing soccer stadium, housing and retail development on the banks of the Seekonk River in Pawtucket.
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While construction crews worked to remediate the brownfield that will become the new soccer pitch, Matos met with Mayor Donald Grebien in advance of the groundbreaking ceremony.
State officials should have done more to keep the PawSox from leaving for Worcester, Matos said, and McCoy Stadium could be torn down and turned into a high school.
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A week later, when developer Fortuitous Partners handed out hard hats and safety vests for the groundbreaking, Matos and McKee both took to the podium to praise the project, which the governor facilitated with his tie-breaking vote to provide $36 million in public funding for the project.
While Matos supports Tidewater Landing, as does her running mate, McKee, Mendes takes the opposite view, calling it a handout to developers and pointing out that the state bond, originally slated to help pay for housing, will now pay for the stadium instead.
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Matos' journey to the lieutenant governor's office started when her family came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1994 and soon moved to Providence's Olneyville neighborhood from New York City.
Before McKee appointed her lieutenant governor in 2021, Matos was the term-limited president of the fractious Providence City Council, with a war chest of $223,027 in early 2021 that was bigger than that of any other potential 2022 candidates for Providence mayor.
After leaving the Tidewater site, Matos, driven by her campaign manager, headed to the East Providence Senior Center during lunch time.
East Providence Mayor Roberto DaSilva got there first, talking to the residents over lunch and as they prepared for bingo.
They shouldn't be forced to move out of their homes, or out of their communities, as rents and property taxes keep going up, Matos said.
"The priority for us is that senior services are not being cut," she said, before going table to table, asking if anyone had specific concerns.
Ann Sousa told Matos about her efforts to get the apartment complex she lives at to add another handicapped parking space. Armand Guertin said there needs to be more senior housing.
"She was very helpful," Sousa said.
Ruggiero: Services for older Rhode Islanders a priority
On an overcast Monday, Ruggiero and Rep. Brandon Potter, who represents District 16 in Cranston, turned to their phones to find the doors of the voters most likely to vote in the primary.
Potter was very familiar with the neighborhood, as he had knocked on doors time and time again during his first race for his seat in 2020, when he ousted an incumbent Democrat in the primary. A former member of the Cooperative, Potter was kicked out after he voted for K. Joseph Shekarchi as speaker of the House in 2021.
Ruggiero, dressed in teal running shoes and matching green tennis skirt (with lots of pockets), introduced herself to voters who were mostly familiar with Potter, and mostly unfamiliar with the lieutenant governor's race.
"I love it. It matches your shoes," the first voter they talked to told Ruggiero, referring to her skirt, before Ruggiero could start in on her pitch for lieutenant governor.
Most of the people Potter and Ruggiero talked to had many of the same concerns, about services for those over age 65. As the chair of the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the lieutenant governor can push policy on that front.
Ruggiero, 64, of Jamestown, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2008. She is president of DR Communications Group, an advertising and marketing company, and the creator and host of “Amazing Women RI,” a radio show that interviews "R.I. women who make a difference."
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She said that looking out for the state's older residents has been the focus of much of her work during her 14 years in the House, like sponsoring "circuit breaker" legislation that lowers the property tax owed by homeowners 65 and older making less than $30,000 a year.
She is known in the legislature for her efforts on renewable energy, gun safety and broadband-access.
At the next door they knocked on, Potter and Ruggiero were in luck. Florence Davis, who already knew Potter, said afterward that she wants to research the lieutenant governor's race.
Education about that race, and the lieutenant governor's role in state government, is most of what canvassing is about for Ruggiero.
Issues concerning the older population are top of mind for Ruggiero, who said she supports programs to help people age in place, including a program to fund house modifications to make them more accessible.
As Ruggiero walked through Cranston, following Potter's leads, she said she sees herself as an experienced politician, someone who can act as the bridge between the governor's office and the legislature.
"I want to be a benefit to an administration, regardless of who it is," she said.
Housing a major issue for all three candidates
One of the issues that gets the most attention from the candidates, even if there isn't a lot of statutory power in the lieutenant governor's office to effect change, is housing.
Senior housing, affordable housing, posh housing, multifamily housing — all kinds of housing were on the tips of the three candidates' tongues.
Single-family house prices are up 46% since the pandemic started, and they continue to rise, according to data from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
The median rent price is $2,200, up nearly 24% since June 2021, according to data from Realtor.com.
A single person or family would need to make at least $88,000 a year to spend no more than 30% of their gross income on rent, not including utilities.
Making it possible to age in place is top of mind for Matos, whose 98-year-old grandmother lives in a two-family apartment, with her daughter living in the other apartment, allowing her to remain in her home.
Guertin, at the East Providence Senior Center, said he's been able to stay in his home at 84 by owning a multifamily house that allows his daughter to live in the same building.
"I go through different communities, and I find there are affordable-housing needs at all levels," Matos said.
Her accomplishments come back to what she did with McKee, including the $250 million for housing included in the last budget.
Mendes sees a number of possible solutions, but instead of just adding money to the affordable-housing cause while prices rise beyond the reach of all but the highest income levels, she also supports a more structural change: a ban on single-family zoning.
In the last legislative session, Rep. Brianna Henries, D-East Providence, proposed just that, drawing a fierce backlash. The bill was held for further study.
Mendes said she also wants rent control in the state.
Ruggiero said she would push to get more money for housing into a governor's budget, and cited the example of a $10-million allotment in the 2022 budget to cover construction costs for local housing authorities to build mixed-income buildings.
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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI lieutenant governor candidates: Here are the democrats running
