Three candidates have been certified by Pawtucket and East Providence canvassing officials to run for former state Rep. Elizabeth “Betsy” Dennigan’s District 62 seat.

Pawtucket’s Mary Duffy Messier and East Providence’s Paul A. Dinsmore and Thomas L. Clupny returned their declaration papers with the 50 necessary signatures by Tuesday’s deadline. A fourth person who had taken out papers didn’t bring his documents back.

The General Assembly seat represents 85 percent of Pawtucket and 15 percent of East Providence, election officials say. Dennigan resigned after 13 years to run for Congress in the Second District.

The special election will be Dec. 29.

“I’m tired of seeing our taxes going up and the way money is being spent,” said Clupny, 65, of 30 Bourne Ave., East Providence. The Republican is director of environmental affairs for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. “There’s no accountability and there needs to be tax relief everywhere.”

The “need to control taxes” is a top priority for Messier, of 25 Olympia Ave., Pawtucket, as well. Yet the Democrat said education is also a leading issue Rhode Island must tackle.

“The need to provide an adequate and meaningful education for all students mandates that the legislature adopt a funding formula that treats taxpayers and students fairly,” said Messier, who was a Cumberland teacher for 34 years before retiring recently. She is also the sister of Timothy Duffy, the executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees. “… I realize that holding elected office is a public trust and, if successful, I hope to serve the citizens … in a dedicated and exemplary manner.”

Independent candidate Dinsmore, of 25 Orange St., East Providence, said no one can question his dedication. The lawyer has run and lost in every election he has entered since 1988. He previously said some General Assembly members are corrupt and the connected always claim everything is “squeaky clean.”

“The General Assembly is not practicing in front of the public like they should be,” he said previously. “[The taxpayers] don’t trust the legislators. I don’t either.”

Although he didn’t repeat those statements verbatim in his last interview with The Journal, Dinsmore did say change won’t happen for the better until some of the people in the General Assembly change.

apina@projo.com