SEPTEMBER 15, 2006 Providnce Journal REPRESENTATIVE RACE DRAWS A LARGE CAST

Representative race draws a large cast

Four Democrats and two Republicans are vying to become party nominees at the primaries on Tuesday in the race to succeed retiring state Rep. Philip Travis.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 15, 2006

BY MICHAEL P. McKINNEY
Journal Staff Writer

It features a Republican who's played a legislator on a cable TV drama. And a Democrat who, turning 21 this year, invited the press to a birthday party turned campaign event.

In the race to succeed retiring state Rep. Philip Travis, a colorful conservative Democrat in Massachusetts' 4th Bristol District, the cast of contenders is, well, colorful. It's a cast of four Democrats and two Republicans, to be winnowed to party nominees at Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday.

Then the battle will begin for the Nov. 7 election.

Republican Steven Howitt, a former Seekonk selectman, got a brief cameo as a legislator on Showtime's Brotherhood series set in Providence. Swansea Democrat Nicholas Bernier invited reporters to chew on food and issues at his campaign event/birthday.

And another Swansea Democrat, Robert Marquis, has spent years as water district superintendent garnering support and money to solve the town's water woes with something called a desalinization plant.

There's Democrat John Whelan, a Seekonk selectman who speaks of growing up in a low-income household where going to a movie was a luxury. Steven D'Amico, Seekonk Democrat, as an activist organized Providence neighborhoods to press issues, such as successful creation of the Rhode Island Housing Court. And Brian D. Langevin, Seekonk Republican, led the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Republicans and, at 22, joins this contest's youth brigade.

The race has been overshadowed by the fiery Bristol County district attorney contest, yet the 4th District has the largest array of state-office competitors in the region at a decisive moment.

For the first time in 24 years, there is no Travis, who retired after 12 uninterrupted terms.

Just ask Howitt, who lost by 5,000 votes to Travis in 2004. Now he and his competitors see a clearer path in a district that takes in Seekonk and Rehoboth, three Swansea precincts and one Norton precinct.

IN THIS RACE differences besides issues may play a role: who has a family and a mortgage, who can devote more time. And, it seems, birthdays.

"I'm not a kid anymore. ... I have a family. I know what it is to own a home. I know what it is to pay taxes," said Whelan, 36. "I think I can relate to the common family, to the average family, in the sense that, one, I know what it is to be on a fixed income."

Marquis was blunter.

"Mr. Bernier has no real life experience," he said. "It's not that I'm going to be critical of him because of that fact, but we are intending to send a representative to the State House and experience is a major component."

But Bernier, rather than play down his youth, said it offers a clear advantage to constituents if he is elected. Bernier isn't married, doesn't have children, and says he can devote all his time to representing the district without the other obligations that would eat up his opponents' time from the get-go.

"You need someone with energy. ... You have to dedicate yourself; it's not a 9-to-5 job. I'm offering to be a young professional for my district," said Bernier.

NOW LISTEN in on the Republicans.

"I'm the only business owner of the group, so I think that is an advantage because I know how that works," said Howitt. "I pay real estate taxes," he added, and noted he owns a house while his opponent in the primary doesn't.

Langevin, like Bernier, isn't fazed by the age-and-experience criticism. "I don't have a family yet. I'm not in a serious career that I'd have to leave or split time with," he said. "Now is the perfect time, if elected, to go to the State House and dedicate my full time and energy to doing a good job."

Whelan, whose family has lived in Seekonk for generations, is married with children and in his second term as a selectman. He graduated from Seekonk High in 1988 and then from UMass Dartmouth.

Marquis is a first-term Swansea selectman who has been water district superintendent for many years.

D'Amico is a sales account executive with the Allied Group who for years worked as an organizer in Providence and Boston on neighborhood and other issues.

Bernier served on the Swansea Charter Commission, has finished his coursework at Boston College but is taking more classes, and volunteered on several campaigns.

Howitt, a third-generation Seekonk resident who has been married 16 years and runs an excavation company started by his father, served on the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen. Howitt chose not to run again for selectman last year.

Langevin works at Carnegie Abbey in Portsmouth and said he, too, has assisted on several campaigns. His father has been a Pawtucket firefighter for 20-plus years. He received a phone call in his senior year at UMass from a local Republican, thought it over, and decided to run.

Asked for their top issues, the candidates generally focused on wallet concerns. Most put more state aid to the district at the top of their lists, but differ on how to do it.

D'Amico said lawmakers should close loopholes that let some corporations avoid paying certain taxes that could otherwise provide a source of revenue to towns.

Utility lines owned by an electric company are taxed, for instance, but lines owned by a telephone company are not, D'Amico said. He estimated changing that exception would infuse tens of millions of dollars into the state-aid pot "that we could be using to educate our kids."

And D'Amico said making state government more accountable to the people is another key issue. As an organizer, helping to rally people on issues, he said, "That's something I have worked for my entire life."

Marquis takes a different approach: commit greater aid to the towns by ensuring more of the state's lottery receipts go back to communities.

"LOTTERY RECEIPTS need to be committed solely for cities and towns for property tax relief," said Marquis.

Bernier said the legislature must set minimum aid obligations to the communities so the numbers don't fluctuate downward because of influential State House horse trading.

Whelan questions a formula in which towns in the district get so little back for their sales tax revenue while a next-door neighbor such as Attleboro gets significantly more. He said the state's main aid to communities, known as Chapter 70, is being dramatically cut back each year -- and the district's legislator must reverse that.

Republican Howitt said the formula for distributing lottery money to towns is wrong, but the reality is a "number of strong communities," in terms of legislative power, like it the way it is. So Howitt supports allowing slot machines at horse tracks, revenue that could go into a fund to help communities with education expenses.

"A lot of people say, 'state aid,' but they don't come up with ideas" for how to improve it, said Howitt. "This is an idea."

Langevin, Howitt's opponent in the GOP primary, supports reforming the way lottery money is doled out to the towns but also argues that several failed tax-limit overrides in the district showed that town officials must do better to "live within their means." He also questioned politicians who urge increases in the Chapter 70 state aid as a solution because he believes that just means increasing a different tax to do it.

Whelan wants the legislature to give towns the option to have a 1-percent tax on restaurant meals to provide new revenue, particularly in Seekonk with its busy Route 6 strip. Whelan said many restaurant goers come from Rhode Island -- where there is already a higher meals tax. Eating out is a choice, so if someone doesn't want to pay the tax, they don't have to go to a restaurant, he said.

"IF YOU ARE willing to pay $50 for a meal, what's two quarters?" said Whelan. "What that could mean to the communities is literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. ... Let [the towns] decide."

Marquis, the Swansea Water District superintendent, wants an existing state revolving fund, which receives federal money, opened to private citizens "to relieve some of the burden of the cost for replacing those wastewater systems." He said residents struggle with wastewater disposal repairs that tally to $45,000 or more per household.

Marquis said the state needs an energy policy, using in-state colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to develop technology to convert cars and trucks to a cheaper system with better fuel economy.

Marquis cast himself, particularly on social issues, as an heir to Travis, who, as a Democrat opposed to same-sex marriage, bucked Washington talk-show stereotypes of Massachusetts. In 2004, the state became the only one to allow gay couples to marry, under a state Supreme Judicial Court ruling.

"I support traditional family values. As a state legislator, I can't endorse alternative lifestyles," said Marquis. He added that he supports Massachusetts voters getting to decide the issue at a referendum, rather than having legislators impose a decision.

Bernier said while Travis drew headlines for opposing gay marriage, Bernier said he doesn't see himself focusing on such social issues.

Langevin described himself as "socially moderate to socially conservative" and does not support gay marriage.