PERRY

PAIVA WEED

On a radio talk show, Republican Senate candidate Donna Perry accuses her opponent, Democratic incumbent M. Teresa Paiva Weed, of thwarting legislation to curb illegal immigration.

At a fundraiser, Perry says Paiva Weed “represents a sellout of the middle class” because she and the Democratic leadership care only about “the entitlement pie of state government.”

And at a candidates forum in Middletown, she criticizes Paiva Weed for avoiding important gambling decisions because her law firm represents Newport Grand.

Perry, former executive director of the state Republican Party and sister of conservative talk show host John DePetro, is clearly waging a vigorous campaign in Senate District 13, representing Newport and Jamestown. But can she pull off an election upset?

Paiva Weed’s political stature is enormous at the State House as the first female majority leader in the Senate.Perry, 47 and a divorced mother of two school-age children, grew up in Cranston but lived out of state for many years — in Washington, where she worked on Capitol Hill and for the Republican National Committee, and in New York City, where she was affiliated with the Woman’s National Republican Club. She returned to Rhode Island seven years ago, moving into a house she owns in Jamestown and taking a media relations job with Governor Carcieri. She later took the full-time, paid executive director’s job with the state GOP, which she left to challenge Paiva Weed.

Paiva Weed, 48, well-known and amiable, is a Newport native who worked as a tour guide at Fort Adams in her student years and returned to her hometown after earning a law degree. She worked as an assistant city solicitor before joining the law firm of Moore, Virgadamo and Lynch.

First elected to the General Assembly in 1992, she had no opponent in the last election. Two years earlier, she routed her Republican challenger. In 2004, she handily defeated popular Democrat J. Clemente Cicilline, in a primary that pitted the two incumbents against each other because of redistricting, and then she creamed her Republican challenger, Janine Atamian, in the general election.

Incumbency has certainly benefited Paiva Weed, but Perry is trying to use her long tenure against her, linking her to the state’s current economic struggles.

“What is the record of achievement we are talking about here?... [We have] an out-of-whack budget and a permanent structural deficit and no leadership idea of how they are going to get over it.”

Paiva Weed defends her record, saying that she supported a state budget that resulted in the retirement of 1,000 state employees this year and no broad-based tax hikes. And she points to her role in crafting legislation that incrementally lowers the cap on municipal tax increases. Her vote to support the governor’s budget, which passed by a slim margin, has been described by some as “courageous,” she said, and it demonstrated “that I understand this is not a time for finger-pointing or partisanship.”

Paiva Weed said she has also used her power as Senate majority leader to speak out on transportation issues affecting her constituents, including RIPTA services and the arrival of E-ZPass at the Claiborne Pell Bridge.

“My position of leadership has benefited Newport County,” she said.

But Perry argues that Paiva Weed has been absent on a huge issue: gambling, particularly at Newport Grand.

“I do think it’s unfortunate to have your sitting senator have to recuse themselves from votes on a gambling facility when it is such a central part of the economy of Rhode Island,” Perry said at the Middletown forum.

Paiva Weed countered that the General Assembly is run by citizen legislators and many members recuse themselves to avoid career-related conflicts. Not only does she divulge that her law firm has represented Newport Grand since before she joined it, she said she declines any pay from her firm related to the gambling venue.

Perry has also homed in on legislator benefits.

“It is hypocritical, it is very poor judgment and it is arrogant for the Senate majority leader to say that legislators can get free health benefits for what is really a part-time political position,” she says.

Paiva Weed says she was the first Democratic leader at the State House, and one of the earliest legislators overall, to voluntarily pay 10 percent of her health insurance premium.

Perry blames Paiva Weed for contributing to the death of the E-Verify bill that would have required businesses to check the immigration status of their employees. Groups seeking stricter immigration laws picketed a Paiva Weed fundraiser this year.

“She, in my view, does not recognize that Rhode Island has become a magnet for people and programs Rhode Island cannot afford at this time,” said Perry.

Paiva Weed noted that business groups opposed the legislation and said immigration should be dealt with in Washington. Paiva Weed said she voted for a budget that eliminated illegal immigrants from subsidized health care, which is “not something that is easy for me to point to, but nonetheless, I believe that was the last public benefit that illegal immigrants received in our state.”

rsalit@projo.com