Dorinne Albright is running for State Representative in Rhode Island’s 14th District (Cranston), which is currently represented by Senate Representative Charlene Lima. Anchor Rising recently had the opportunity to interview Ms. Albright on the why she is running and what she thinks of her opponent’s recent performance in office…
Anchor Rising: What’s motivating your run for office?
Dorinne Albright: I think that everyone needs a choice when they go to the polls. Charlene Lima ran unopposed last time. She’s run unopposed a few times in the past. It’s not a real election unless people have a choice. Whether I win or lose, at least I’m on there for the people that don’t want to vote for her.
AR: What issues are most important to you?
DA: My biggest concern is taxes. I am a realtor and I see it in my business every day. People are losing their homes because they can’t afford the taxes. Our legislators are wasting a lot of our money. They voted to unionize the daycare providers, which is basically making them state employees — let’s pay for their benefits; let’s give them everything they want!
Daycare providers are independent contractors. As a realtor, I am an independent contractor. I’m not going to tell anyone they need need to pay for my health insurance and guarantee how much money I make. It was a risk I took when I decided to go into business for myself. The daycare workers need to run their businesses well and not rely on the taxpayers to support them.
AR: Your opponent, Charlene Lima, has been the House of Representative point-person on eminent domain reform. Any thoughts on this issue?
DA: Jim Davey had also proposed an eminent domain bill?
AR: …his was much better…
DA: …Yes! But hers was the one that started getting some action, because she is one of the Speaker’s friends. As I understand it, it was her refusal to compromise on the bill that prevented its passage.
The realtors I know were really unhappy with what happened. They were pleased she was going to support it and that she was putting this forward to prevent people from losing their homes to private businesses. But when it came time to make compromises to get the bill to pass, it was her pride, her saying it’s my way or nothing, that stopped action on the bill. So we got nothing. Sometimes you have to make compromises to get things done.
AR: Is there anything else you think people should know about your opponent?
DA: I think she has been a little duplicitous with a casino vote. She was quoted in the Journal as saying that Harrah’s isn’t going to be able to come in to do anything they want, because they would just get somebody else to do it instead. But after saying that, she turned around and voted against competitive bidding and she voted against the bill that would have prevented her as a legislator from working there and personally gaining from a casino. That’s wrong.
I think it was 44-25 when they took the vote on the personal gain bill. We have very few people at the State House who are willing to stand up and say I want to do best for Rhode Islanders, and not myself. We need to start getting the people who are just looking out for themselves out of office.
AR: Last question. Running as a Republican isn’t the easiest path to take into politics in Rhode Island. Why run as a Republican, and what does being a Republican mean to you?
DA: The biggest thing to me about being a Republican is the fiscal responsibility. We need to stop taking money out of taxpayers pockets, taking money away from people that are working hard to earn it and trying to get by, and saying let’s give it to all these other programs and things we can’t afford to be supporting. It’s great to want to help people, but when you are hurting some people to help others, there comes a point where you just have to stop. We’re driving businesses out of the state because we’ve got people involved with government saying they don’t want anyone to be running a successful business and making money. But it’s businesses that make money that provide jobs, that provide benefits to their employees and that build up our economy. We need to be working with them, not against them!