A quarter of the members of the Rhode Island General Assembly are female. Five percent are African-American. Twenty-three percent are lawyers. But according to Darrell West, chair of the department of political science at Brown University, none of the above statistics is the legislature’s most distinguishing characteristic.
“The feature that stands out the most is its Democratic domination, which is really unusual in this day and age,” he said. “They are Democrats who have a high degree of electoral security. They don’t really face a lot of competition.”
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How does Rhode Island compare nationally?
“There are other states that are heavily Democratic, some swing to the other side,” said Brenda Erickson, senior research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, Colorado. “You have your extremes, but the majority of states are somewhere in the middle.”
Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, of Coventry, has spent the last eight years in public service, first as a Rhode Island state representative. Raptakis described himself as a very moderate, conservative Democrat.
“I think a two-party system would make things a little more interesting,” Raptakis said. “It all depends on the voters. The majority of Rhode Island voters are independent voters.”
West cited the downside of such an imbalance.
“The problem when you don’t have party competition is you lose oversight in the process,” he said. “You don’t have effective checks and balances.”
Rhode Island’s credit union crisis of the early 1990s, West noted, is a prime example of a worst-case scenario.
“That was a real lack of oversight as far as credit,” he said. “Banks were making risky loans, and nobody was watching the shop.”
According to Erickson, in a state such as Rhode Island where the majority of legislators belong to one party, factors that cross party lines play a larger role in decision-making.
“Sometimes if it’s strongly one caucus or another, then other things come into play: conservative/liberal, urban/rural, executive/legislative, race, gender,” she said. “All of those things may start to play a more prominent role. They may be deciding factors instead of party.”
West didn’t feel that was necessarily the case in the Ocean State.
“In Rhode Island the real political conflict is urban/suburban,” he said. “There are very different interests in urban and suburban communities. Education policy is where the battle is being fought now.”
Raptakis echoed West’s assessment, and expressing concern for the fair distribution of funds for education.
“Suburban communities are due for a lot of money in education,” he said.
West predicted future legislative tension, especially as we near 2002.
“There will be conflicts about redistricting after the 2000 Census,” he said.
A decision – approved by voters in 1994 – to cut the legislature by a third and raise the salaries of those who remain was set to take effect two years from now, but it now appears that the majority of lawmakers will vote to reverse the attempt.
“Incumbents would have to run against each other,” said West.
Only nine states have a full-time legislature; Rhode Island legislators are part-time.
“The majority of states have ‘citizen legislatures,'” Erickson said. “The degree to which they are varies from state to state.”
Raptakis is also the owner of Venus Pizza in Coventry, but said his interests as a business owner do not detract from the needs of his constituency.
“I’ve been a leader in health care issues; crime has been a major priority of mine for the past eight years,” he said.
There are pros and cons to a part-time legislature.
“You oftentimes get such diversity,” Erickson said. “The citizens represent a broad base of jobs and viewpoints. On the other hand, part-time legislators can’t concentrate strictly on issues.”
Erickson noted that Rhode Island is different – read “smaller” – than most states geographically, and that could be to the public’s advantage.
“Geographically – something interesting about Rhode Island – I would think that most of your legislators commute,” she said. “Unlike a state like Texas or Alaska where you can be hundreds of miles away from your district, your legislature probably has closer geographical contact with your constituencies.”
Raptakis represents what he described as a “diverse” section of Coventry and West Warwick.
“Now that I’m a senator, my district has changed,” he said. “I would say it’s a broad base. I have more of a mixed, middle class district.”
Overall, Raptakis doesn’t consider being part of the 85 percent Democratic majority to be a problem.
“All the issues we debate in the State House have been fair to all the communities in the state,” he said.
