Debate about legalizing recreational marijuana and raising taxes on affluent Rhode Islanders – and potential clashes between progressive insurgents and establishment Democrats – will punctuate the General Assembly’s 2021 session, as lawmakers once again facing the task of curbing a large budget deficit.
It begins Tuesday afternoon, as lawmakers gather in unconventional settings due to the ongoing pandemic: the House at Veterans Memorial Auditorium and the Senate at Rhode Island College.
The first House session, starting at 2 p.m., will be highlighted by the expected election of Joe Shekarchi (D-Warwick) as House speaker. He assembled the necessary support during a November caucus and will succeed Nicholas Mattiello, who lost his re-election campaign for state representative in Cranston.
The House will not meet for the rest of the week after Tuesday, so that it can organize committees and leadership assignments. Ray Simone, RI chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, is considered a top prospect to be chief of staff for Shekarchi, while Superior Court Clerk Henry Kinch is seen as a front runner to lead the Joint Committee on Legislative Services, the hiring and spending arm of the legislature.
Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, who ascended to that office in 2017, is poised to win another term as the leader of that chamber.
In the Senate (which convenes at 4 p.m.), half of the 38 members will be women – the highest percentage ever. Both chambers will include more lawmakers of color.
In the Senate, the number of Black and Latino lawmakers has climbed from three to five. In the House, the number has increased from 12 to 16.
As usual, Democrats will maintain a lopsided majority. The 75-member House will include 10 Republicans, a net increase of one, while the 38-member Senate will hold constant with five Republicans.
The election of more progressive lawmakers, some of whom say they will not vote for Shekarchi or Ruggerio for their leadership posts, represents a potentially bigger change to the dynamic in the legislature.
Ruggerio’s leadership has indicated its support for some progressive priorities, including legalizing recreational marijuana and considering others, such as raising taxes on Rhode Islanders who earn above a certain income level.
Some lawmakers, particularly women, are pleased by Shekarchi’s rise after Mattiello’s sometimes-brusque manner during six years as speaker.
But Shekarchi angered some progressives with remarks during an appearance on 10 News Conference, suggesting that legislative culture “has a way of moderating everybody.”
“[W]hat he means is that representatives face enormous pressure from the good old boys’ club to get in line, along with threats of political consequences if they refuse,” fired back Rep-elect Brianna Henries (D-East Providence), with an op-ed on the progressive news site Uprise RI.
Henries said she will abstain rather than voting for Shekarchi for speaker because she views him as Mattiello’s right-hand man.
“I know that legislating is hard work and I look forward to learning from my experienced colleagues,” Henries wrote, “but I also refuse to answer to leadership. I was elected by my constituents to challenge insider politics, not to join it. My life experiences allow me to create solutions from a perspective that’s altogether different from the status quo and the echo chamber they live in.”
With Gov. Raimondo set to unveil her latest budget proposal in March – two months later than usual, due to the pandemic – both the governor and lawmakers will offer their approaches for wiping out a deficit expected to top $400 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1. (Speculation continues, meanwhile, about whether Raimondo will be named by President-elect Joe Biden as his nominee to be Commerce secretary.)
The traditional niceties of opening day at the legislature, long on introductions and socializing with family members, will be somewhat different this year due to the demands of social distancing. The impact of COVID-19 will be felt for months to come, with the usual conversations in Statehouse corridors between lawmakers, lobbyists, citizens and reporters being replaced by something new.
Full House and Senate sessions will not be open to the public, although they will be streamed on the legislature’s web site and televised on Cap TV.
Senate spokesman Greg Pare said the public will be able to testify via video during Senate committee meetings, and that those meetings will be held virtually.
House spokesman Larry Berman said the details are yet to be finalized, but that plans are for the public to be able to testify via video as House committees are held with a mix of remote and in-person attendance by lawmakers.
In the run-up to the start of the legislative session, two progressive women lawmakers, Sen. Gayle Goldin (D-Providence) and Rep. Liana Cassar (D-Barrington) who last year announced campaigns for the top role in their respective chambers, said they will not compete for them on opening day.
“It is now up to the Senate as a whole, and to Rhode Island voters, to hold leadership accountable to the promises they have made,” Goldin said in a recent statement. “In the meantime, I will continue to advocate for policies that strengthen our economy, our health care system and our safety net for all Rhode Island families.”
Cassar said she’s ending her campaign for speaker, in part because of what she called a flawed process.
“The current selection process for House Speaker is not an election in which the candidates earn the votes of their colleagues through the merits of their plans to lead the Chamber to uphold the public’s interest,” she said, “but is a non-competitive, confirmatory ritual of a long-standing tradition that our current General Assembly has inherited.”
Ian Donnis covers politics for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Sign up here for his weekly RI politics newsletter.
