This past Saturday, the Rhode Island Republican Assembly held its endorsement convention for statewide candidates. Candidates were allowed to make a short statement, then took questions from the audience. As always, RI-RA members asked direct and pointed questions of the candidates.
Mark Zaccaria spoke to the convention about his campaign for Congress in Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District, and received the endorsement made later in the day.
Opening statement:

“I was born and raised as an American by proud Americans. My parents fought the Second World War and taught me to have those kinds of values…I began my service to my country in uniform, like many of the rest of us in this room, and what I learned there was that the ideals I had been taught were worth my life, if it came to that…” (Audio: 1 min 6 sec)
“…we have each gone out there and participated in the raising of our kids and we have worked together to use our self-sufficiency and our self-reliance to make a life here in America. Today, that possibility is the thing that is most under threat.” (Audio: 0 min 48 sec)
“…but while many have been asleep, the forces that are always nibbling away and trying to get something for nothing have nibbled and gotten fat, and we are way down the wrong path…So I am asking you here today, for us to get together, so that we can take back our government…” (Audio: 1 min 54 sec)

Audience Question: Is there any company in America that’s too big to fail?
Answer: “Absolutely not. The thing we have to watch out for is that America is not too big to fail, so we’ve got to manage it, if we want it to be there for our children and our grandchildren.” (Audio: 0 min 10 sec)
Audience Question: What’s your position on gay marriage and don’t-ask-don’t-tell?
Answer: “My opinion is that marriage is a sacrament, and it should be conferred by ordained clergy. The job of government is to manage civil/judicial systems so that contracts can be enforced…” (Audio: 0 min 34 sec)
Answer: “As for gays in the military, it’s a much more complicated situation. The fact of the matter is that, in all of our professional lives, we’ve always had to work side-by-side with people who under other circumstances, we might be sexually attracted to, and we all do it because we’re professionals, and you don’t have a lot of problems with that. What you do have problems with is that the military is a large, integrated small-town that goes all over the world…” (Audio: 1 min 22 sec)
Audience Question: Would you support legislation to audit the Federal Reserve?
Answer: “Absolutely yes. My fear with that is that the Fed, being a private organization that has no responsibility to maintain bookkeeping standards as we might understand elsewhere, you can audit them all you want, but you won’t find anything….My problem with the Fed is that allows the kind elasticity of money that allows weak politicians to have some anytime they want and to defer the day of reckoning…” (Audio: 0 min 58 sec)
Audience Question: What kind of proposals would you support to protect Americans from the impending disaster of Obamacare?
Answer: “That’s pretty easy. Repeal it. Get rid of it. It is not care in any way, shape or form, it’s just another layer of overhead being put on an already strained business model…” (Audio: 0 min 29 sec)
Audience Question: What’s your position on illegal immigration?
Answer: “Illegal immigration is pretty simple, it’s right in the title. It’s illegal. Certain things that are said in Washington these days go right up my left nostril, and one of them is that we have to have a comprehensive review of our immigration laws. No we don’t. We have to enforce the darn things…” (Audio: 0 min 59 sec)