Kenneth A. Capalbo, shown at his home, in Wakefield, says he wants to draw attention to defects in U.S. foreign policy.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — You won’t see any billboards for independent Kenneth A. Capalbo’s campaign to replace Democrat Patrick Kennedy as U.S. representative from Rhode Island’s 1st Representative District, which includes the northern and eastern regions of the state.

The 63-year-old Capalbo, a retired corrections officer, is spending virtually no money on his bid. He has few scheduled appearances and no pamphlets, no Web site, no corps of volunteers. He doesn’t even live in the 1st District. It is a long-shot candidacy, to be sure.

Never elected to any office, Capalbo hopes to bring attention to America’s foreign policy, which he has opposed for years.

Sitting in the living room of his home one day recently, Capalbo outlined his points of view. He criticizes the war in Iraq and other conflicts. “It’s more than just this war,” he said. “It’s the last war, the next one, the one after that and the one after that.”

Capalbo spoke extemporaneously for a while, but mostly he read from position papers he has written.

“Why are we at war with Iraq?” he read. “Weapons of mass destruction, involvement in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, collaboration with al-Qaida. All proven to be false. Yet, the spin doctors in Washington just keep changing the reason for going to war with Iraq. They talk about World War III. They salivate about going to war with Syria and Iran.

“Of the nine people considered to be most responsible for our war with Iraq, six are Jewish. Is this just a coincidence? Jews represent about 2 percent of the population of America. Their power in Washington far exceeds their numbers. Our foreign policy should be based on what is in America’s long-term best interests, not those of another nation.

“Muslim nations will never accept their world being controlled by the United States. We, the United States, are a threat to Islam, not the reverse.”

Capalbo, a Catholic, who in years past ran unsuccessfully for state Senate and the South Kingstown School Committee, wanted to run for Congress from the 2nd District, where he lives. He decided to run in the 1st District to avoid competition with his friend Rod Driver, the Richmond resident who is vying for that seat.

According to the secretary of state’s office, a candidate does not have to live in the congressional district he or she wishes to represent. The U.S. Constitution requires only that a representative “be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.”

Among Capalbo’s objections to the war in Iraq is the use of torture. “Is that where we are — gouging people’s eyeballs out? How about taking a chainsaw and cutting his leg off? … And if that saves 10,000 lives, is it worth it? I say, ‘No, it’s not worth it. You have principles or you don’t have principles. You have a sense of morality or you don’t.’

“I don’t know exactly what you define as torture. But however it is legitimately defined, that’s a line you don’t cross. Because if you cross it, what difference does it make if you gouge his eyeballs out, you chainsaw his leg off, you take his fingernails off, or whatever else you do? What difference does it make? It’s just a slippery slope to nowhere.”