Focus, go slow, go small to start off, learn the rules.
That was the advice offered by state Rep. Tina Spears (D-Charlestown) — who joined the Rhode Island House of Representatives as a freshman in 2023 — as she helped orient a group of recently elected state reps.
Spears recounted how she thought she would know what she was doing when she joined the House, since she had worked before as a state Senate staffer and visited the Statehouse as an advocate. Boy, was she wrong.
With the heightened profile of a state rep, “You’re going to get asked a lot to participate in everything,” Spears said. Lobbyists, special interest groups and advocates will call them. The new lawmakers will spend time away from their families due to nocturnal committee meetings and the mad rush of legislation at the end of session.
“It will be like drinking from a firehose for things you don’t know,” Spears said, during a morning orientation season in the House chamber on “the freshman experience.”
Her audience was four of the six new state reps elected in November: Richard Fascia, a Johnston Republican, Earl Read III, a Democrat from Coventry, Chris Paplauskas, a Cranston Republican, and Jenni Furtado, an East Providence Democrat, the first Peruvian-American in the legislature. The two other GOP newcomers, Marie Hopkins of Warwick and Paul Santucci of Glocester, missed the early session due to work commitments.
The orientation is held every two years to familiarize new lawmakers with the people and culture of the Statehouse.
The new General Assembly session will start Jan. 7, as lawmakers confront a tougher fiscal climate and a deficit approaching $300 million for the next fiscal year.
The state Senate plans its orientation for Dec. 12.
The orientation included remarks from Speaker Joe Shekarchi and other House leaders, an introduction to different department directors at the Statehouse, an explanation of the legislative process, lunch, a breakdown of the budget process and more.
Fascia, 68, succeeds Rep. Edward Cardillo, a conservative Democrat from Johnston, elevating the number of Republicans in the House from nine to 10.
Progressive Democrat Kelsey Coletta, whose father is House Floor Manager Jay Edwards (D-Tiverton) beat Cardillo in a September primary, but Fascina outpaced Coletta by nine points in the November general election.
Fascia, a former Providence police officer who works as a human resources manager for a security company, said he ran for the House because he wanted to represent the “closet conservatives” of Johnston. (Once a Democratic bastion, Johnston has repeatedly backed Donald Trump for president.)
Asked about his priorities, Fascia said, “First thing I need to do is I need to shake the hand of every legislator in this room, because first and foremost, you need to build relationships. And once that happens, I’ll be able to get a better bead on where I want to bring my points of view for the people of Johnston and Cranston.”
Henry Kinch, director of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services, the hiring and spending arm of the legislature, was among those speaking to the new reps.
He urged them to rely on their administrative assistants and to not be bashful about asking for help, since different department directors are near the House floor during the sessions that usually run three days a week from January into June.
“We believe in the lively experiment,” Kinch said, citing the phrase associated with Roger Wiliams. “We think the experiment should continue.”
