HIGGINS

CUMBERLAND — The Democratic primary for the two at-large Town Council seats pits the incumbent council president, an incumbent council member, and a newcomer who is a fixture at local public meetings.

James T. Higgins, of 25 Rhode Island Ave., has served as council president for the past two years and is seeking his third term. He is a former School Committee chair and the party’s endorsed candidate.

Bruce A. Lemois, of 60 Mohawk St., is chair of the town Board of Licensing. He is seeking his second term and is the party’s other endorsed candidate.

James N. McLaughlin, of 15 Garden St., is a retired auto mechanic. He ran unsuccessfully for an at-large School Committee seat in 2006.

For the two incumbents, the town has been moving in the right direction under their watch and they promise to stay the course. McLaughlin calls for drastic change: “The town is going to hell in a hand basket.”

The two highest vote getters in the Sept. 9 primary will essentially earn a spot on the council. There is no Republican challenger. In the 2006 election, Higgins garnered 3,906 votes, or 39.4 percent, and Lemois received 3,379 votes, or 34.1 percent.

Incumbent council member Charles D. Wilk finished third.

Higgins argued that in these tough economic times, the town needs experienced hands at the wheel. He hopes that the current composition of the council (less Vice Chair Jeffrey Mutter, who is not seeking reelection) remains intact.

“There is a learning curve to this job,” he said. “This is a good group on the council. Each person has found their niche. We all understand the pressure we are under.”

Higgins said that during the last two years the council has adopted policies that provide the public with more opportunities to participate in town government, including opening public comment at meetings to all agenda items, not just items up for public hearing.

The advent of streaming video to the town’s Web site also allows citizens who cannot attend meetings at Town Hall to view them live online.

He says that if reelected, he would look for “smart growth” economic development opportunities –– such as the largely federally financed Broad Street redevelopment plan and the expansion of CVS/Caremark’s headquarters at Highland Corporate Park –– that ease the tax burden on residents. He would also step up the town’s efforts in getting a greater share of state aid for schools.

Higgins, 49, is a self-employed lawyer. He served on the School Committee from 1997 to 2004. He chaired the committee from 1998 to 2004. A graduate of Providence College, Higgins attended the former University of Bridgeport School of Law (today the Quinnipiac University School of Law).

He is a trustee of the Boys & Girls Club of Cumberland and Lincoln, and is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Democratic Town Committee. He has a 20-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.

Lemois says his campaign theme is “continued success.”

Like Higgins, he made the case for experience on the council.

Teamwork and communication has allowed the council to be “by far, the most productive that the town has seen in many, many years,” Lemois said.

Both he and Higgins noted that this year the town finance subcommittee conducted, for the first time, a number of budget hearings explicitly on the school budget so that school officials, parents, and council members could discuss ways to improve education in the district.

“We opened lines of communication like they have never been opened before,” said Lemois. “Next year will be an even tougher budget year than this year. There is a higher level of indebtedness coming in May 2009” due to school debt payments, he said.

“It’s going to take continued success in dealing with the School Department and the state. Certainly the groundwork has been laid.”

Lemois, 47, is an operations manager at ASI Inc., of East Providence. He holds a certificate in distribution from Northeastern University in Boston. He is a parishioner at the South Attleboro Assembly of God Church and a past president of the Berkeley Fire District.

He and his wife, Maria, have three children.

McLaughlin, who is a vocal fixture at council and School Committee meetings, says that the current administration is not focused on the town public school system. He points to Mayor Daniel J. McKee’s proposed mayoral academy, which would serve as a charter school for five Blackstone Valley communities.

“We need to correct the existing problem in our schools,” he said. “We don’t need to go off supporting three or four other communities.”

If elected, McLaughlin would like to “continue to bridge the relationship between the council and the School Committee.” He says he would like the council to take a greater role in monitoring the district’s finances and take a close look at its statewide test scores.

Another issue for McLaughlin is what he sees as overdevelopment in town. He is a calling for a moratorium on the issuance of building permits, which allow for the construction or improvement of new or existing dwellings.

“Our infrastructure and natural resources are being exhausted,” he says. “The brakes need to be put on development.”

Other issues McLaughlin is campaigning on are the protection of open space, pushing for a merger of the town fire districts (a measure that was approved by voters in a nonbinding ballot question in 2000), and researching whether it is more beneficial to switch to a synchronized tax schedule. Cumberland is currently one of the few remaining towns on a non-synchronized tax schedule.

McLaughlin, 64, served in the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War and is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is certified in automotive and auto body repair.

A grand knight of the Knights of Columbus, he has been a resident of town for nearly 40 years. He and his wife, Jill, have three sons, a daughter, and two grandchildren.

pmarcelo@projo.com