Lenny Cioe is looking for votes, knocking on doors in the Wanskuck section of Providence, when he makes his pitch to a voter named Erik Bou.
“So I’m running for state Senate District 4, registered nurse and Democrat,” Cioe said. “I’m running against Dominick Ruggerio — he’s been in office since Jimmy Carter was president, so I think it’s time for a change.”
Bou, a physical therapist, likes Cioe’s emphasis on increasing pay for teachers and boosting the reimbursement rate for health care for the needy. He pledges to vote for Cioe.
“I think we have similar values and similar goals we want to achieve, me being in the healthcare field,” Bou said. “I definitely think his goal of increasing the Medicaid funding — and I’m high, high on education — so I definitely think re-investing in our school systems and our teachers, so they stay and so they can educate the future, is what we really want.”
As a first-time candidate in 2020, Cioe came within range of staging a dramatic upset.
He got 45% of the Democratic primary vote against Ruggerio, who became president of the Rhode Island Senate in 2017.
If Cioe was to defeat Ruggerio in the election ending Tuesday, it would force the election of a new Senate president. Cioe, 63, said that would show how everyday people have the power to change the direction of the state.
“So I go door to door and they say, Lenny, ‘how are you going to change this?’ I say, ‘by you being a part of it.’ … and I think what’s happening in this race,” he said, “is I’m inspiring these people, me and my team and everybody I’m working with, inspiring them to actually believe that they can create the change that we need and we can make the government actually start working for them.”
Cioe is one of 24 Democratic primary candidates backed by the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, a progressive group that emerged in 2019.
The Co-op contends the Statehouse status quo is stacked against average Rhode Islanders, and that different priorities — including healthcare for all, quality education for all and affordable housing for all — are needed. How the Co-op would pay for all this remains unclear.
Like other Co-op supporters, Cioe says a good place to start is undoing a tax cut for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders signed into law more than 12 years ago by then-Governor Don Carcieri
“We have to create a fair tax system to start off with,” he said. “The one percent, we just need to make them pay their fair share and then that would generate a lot of money that we need for education.”
As it stands, even with under-performing public schools, education consumes the second-most money in the state budget each year, surpassed only by the amount spent on human service programs.
Regardless, Cioe contends Ruggerio has lost touch with his district centered in North Providence. Ruggerio counters by saying it’s Cioe who is out of step with what voters want.
“I think experience counts for something,” said Ruggerio, who has served in the legislature since 1981. “I think I have a great handle on the budget and I know the issues, I know what’s on people’s minds, I know what the community is thinking … Change for the sake of change is not always a good thing.”
Ruggerio, 73, is the retired administrator of the New England Laborers Labor Management Cooperative Trust. Ruggerio said Cioe’s strong showing in 2020 was his own fault, since he did not knock doors during the height of the pandemic.
In recent years, as progressives have won more seats in the
Senate, Ruggerio has backed legislation to fight climate change, and impose new restrictions on guns. He’s supported budgets phasing out the state car tax and offering a tax cut for some parents with children.
On a warm recent weeknight, Ruggerio sweated through his shirt as he knocked on doors in North Providence, including the home of voter Janice Carrazzo, accompanied by Sen. Hanna Gallo (D-Cranston), North Providence Town Council President Dino Autiello and campaign manager Joe Baxter.
“I know you well,” Carrazzo said as Ruggerio introduced himself. “We’re voting for you … I dropped off the ballots today, but good luck to you.”
Carrazzo is a firm supporter of Ruggerio.
“Known him for years,” she said. “He does good work. He’s for the people, common people.”
Carrazzo cites these issues in explaining her support for Ruggerio: “The dissolution of the car tax, for one. The gun control laws for two and the checks for people with young children.”
As the race between Ruggerio and Cioe comes down to the wire, the battlefield has changed since their 2020 matchup. Another candidate, Democrat Stephen Tocco, is also running. The precinct where Cioe got his highest percentage of votes was removed from the district through the redrawing of legislative lines that takes place every 10 years. Ruggerio says he took a hands-off approach to the process.
And the group backing Cioe, the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, has supporters and critics. The liberal magazine The Nation credits the Co-op with renewing electoral politics as a vehicle for transformational change. But the Co-op also faces a complaint to the state Board of Elections, raising questions about the group’s fundraising.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Follow him on Twitter @IanDon and sign up for email delivery of his weekly RI politics newsletter.
