Candidates for R.I. lieutenant governor square off in debate

Sept. 08--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor expressed different visions for the office during a recorded debate at The Providence Journal on Friday afternoon.

Incumbent Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee, 67, said he has used the position to support small businesses and help energy ratepayers save money. The lieutenant governor and governor should run as a team to strengthen the executive branch, he said.

J. Aaron Regunberg, 28, a state representative from Providence, said he sees the office of the lieutenant governor as a watchdog and public advocate, who is constitutionally separate from the governor.

"You need someone in that office that's willing to push the administration to step up on issues," Regunberg said.

McKee argued that as a former mayor of Cumberland who also has business and nonprofit experience, he would be more qualified than his opponent to serve as governor if called upon. Lieutenant governors are the second in command in the state and are next in line to take the governor's place if he or she leaves the office.

"I'm more than qualified to become governor," McKee said.

But Regunberg, who does not have a traditional full-time job, defended his background. He is the founder and executive director of the Providence Student Union and has led the fight in the General Assembly to pass legislation around sick leave and pay raises for tipped workers, he said.

"When I stack up that record of accomplishment of bringing people together to win real change, often over some very powerful entrenched interests who did everything they could to fight against it, that's a record that stacks up to Dan McKee's any day of the week," he said.

McKee and Regunberg disagreed on a few issues, including universal single-payer health care.

McKee said the system isn't feasible for the state and said universal health care should be taken up at the federal level. He cited the example of Vermont, which three years ago had its plans for a single-payer health-care system derailed because of exorbitant costs.

"You're not going to be able to make this happen in the state of Rhode Island and still afford to live in the state of Rhode Island," he said.

But Regunberg said he wants to bring single-payer health care to the state and see legislation passed that would eliminate waste and inefficiency in for-profit health-care corporations.

Responding to McKee's comments on health care, Regunberg said, "To criticize when people are coming together to fight for Rhode Island families, to stand with the status quo, to not offer any actual solutions to a real problem that families are going through that I hear every single day, that's not leadership."

The candidates also clashed when asked what they would have liked to see the legislature accomplish this past session.

Regunberg said the General Assembly should have taken more steps to protect women's rights, such as codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade at the state level.

"At a moment when women's rights have been under attack like never before from the Trump administration, from the Republican Congress, it was an absolute failure across the board this year," he said.

McKee said he would like to see state legislators making more of an effort to help municipalities. After the Pawtucket Red Sox decided to move to a new stadium planned for Worcester, McKee said attention and resources must be directed to Pawtucket because, "that loss that's going to happen there, both economically and culturally, when the PawSox leave is a hole that we need to make sure we fill."

-- mlist@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7121

On Twitter: @madeleine_list

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