AVELLA

CUMBERLAND — There is a Republican primary for an elected office in town. That’s news in itself.

“It’s a rare species, the Republican in Cumberland,” says Lester Hilton, a longtime resident and Republican who has been active in the party for more than four decades. And he’s only half kidding.

Newcomers Christine M. Avella, of 200 1602 Heroux Blvd., and Mark G. Dosdourian, of 26 Alton Ave., are facing off on Sept. 9 to represent the party in the race for the District 5 Town Council seat.

Their race marks the first Republican primary for a local office in over four decades.

The winner goes up against the winner of the Democratic primary, which pits incumbent Democrat Mia A. Ackerman against Theodore R. Vecchio Jr.

Ackerman bested Republican candidate Brandon S. Bell in 2006.

Avella, 55, is calling for greater “fiscal responsibility” in town.

She says the School Department budget is “out of whack” and that teachers’ contracts need to be reined in through greater oversight from the council. “You can’t always go for the Cadillac. Sometimes you have to go for the Kia.”

Avella is running as a Republican, she says, in order to ensure that voters have a choice in who they are voting for come November. If elected, she says she’ll hold the council accountable for its actions.

“For a very long time, we’ve had a mayor saying what we need to do and a council just following along. Everybody drinks the Kool-Aid. Someone needs to challenge them.”

An office services manager for Rhode Island Housing in Providence, Avella holds a master of science degree from National Graduate School in Falmouth, Mass., and a bachelor degree in sales and marketing from Johnson & Wales University in Providence.

Avella is a founding member of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence in Providence and a certified nonviolence trainer. She is an active member of the parish of St. Michael’s Church in Providence. She has three grown daughters and four grandchildren.

Dosdourian, 50, says his campaign calls for controlling town spending, fostering small business development and addressing water-quality issues in the northern section of town. His slogan is “a new voice on the Town Council.”

Dosdourian says that the council should fight for more oversight into School Department spending. If elected, he says he would push for the council to assist the School Committee in developing its budgets and negotiating union contracts based on the town’s revenue. “We can’t keep spending the way it is going,” he says.

Dosdourian calls small businesses the “backbone of development in town” and he says he would work to find ways to support them if elected.

Representing the district that covers Cumberland Hill, he says he would also push to resolve two chronic problems in the region: a foul odor coming from the sewer system around the Highland Corporate Park and rust-colored tap water caused by the aging town water system.

Dosdourian is the endorsed Republican candidate. He is secretary of the Cumberland Republican Town Committee, and a delegate to the GOP State Central Committee.

A project manager for a survey company based in town, he holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Rhode Island.

He is a member of the Arnold Mills Parade Committee, a volunteer for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Walk, and a communicant of St. Vartanantz Armenian Church in Providence.

Dosdourian is married to the former Deborah-Jane Gray, a purchasing officer at Anvil International Inc. in North Kingstown.

Republican Town Committee Chair Kathleen Dennen says the party supported the idea of the two candidates squaring off in a primary, if only to show that the party was still active.

“Our candidates never get the exposure that Democratic candidates get. Holding a primary was something that was good for us to work on.”

According to the town, there are 2,451 registered Republicans in Cumberland — 350 reside in District 5.

In the days when Hilton served as Republican Town Committee chair, beginning in 1968, the party had more of a presence on the local political scene, regularly fielding candidates for Town Council, the General Assembly and even the mayor’s office.

Many of them even won.

The party has enjoyed less success locally in recent years, to say the least.

State Rep. Richard W. Singleton has represented District 52 since 2004. But he defected from the party this year and is not running for reelection.

A Republican has not been elected to the council since the 1970s, according to Hilton, when as many as three served, although not at one time. And in all those years, there has never been a Republican mayor.

pmarcelo@projo.com