Democrat Elizabeth H. Roberts says she sees the office as "a clearinghouse for new ideas."

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 23, 2006

BY ELIZABETH GUDRAIS
Journal State House Bureau

WARWICK -- Elizabeth H. Roberts has championed health-care issues as a state senator, and those issues will remain a priority if she's elected lieutenant governor.

Roberts, a Democrat, made that much clear yesterday in her announcement for office, vowing early in her speech to "expand and improve health care for all of us, and to build a healthy and strong Rhode Island."

Some of her speech's keywords seemed pulled from the Republican playbook: economic expansion, job growth, biotech, investment tax credits for small businesses.

"Those shouldn't be partisan issues," Roberts said in an interview after her speech. "Those are about the future of our state."

Roberts announced at the Aspray Boathouse, just down the street from her home on Norwood Avenue in Cranston. Through the open door behind the podium, the rain-swollen Pawtuxet River could be seen rolling along.

Roberts incorporated themes of patriotism and rebellion, recounting how in 1772, not far from that very boathouse, Rhode Islanders burned the HMS Gaspee to protest the British ship's blockade of the harbor. "We in Rhode Island have always been a fiercely independent people," Roberts said.

She pledged to bring just such a spirit of independence to the lieutenant governor's post. "I can promise you . . . I will never stand down from the fight for quality affordable health care for every family in Rhode Island," Roberts said. "I will not stand down!"

If she succeeds, Roberts will make some history of her own: She would be the state's first female lieutenant governor. "That would truly be an honor," she told her listeners, a gleefull smile spreading across her face.

Roberts spent some time outlining her view of the role of the lieutenant governor, an office whose function hasn't always been entirely clear. (Cool Moose Party candidate Robert J. Healey Jr. says he would abolish the office and give his salary back to the state if elected.)

"I believe the lieutenant governor's office can be a clearinghouse for new ideas," Roberts said. "I believe the lieutenant governor can be the people's advocate and a powerful voice for a healthy and strong Rhode Island."

In fact, Roberts has worked with the current lieutenant governor, Charles J. Fogarty, on a proposal for the Rhode Island Affordable Health Plan and Reinsurance Program, which aims to create lower-cost health-insurance options for small businesses. Roberts said yesterday that she still hopes to make that proposal a reality before this year's legislative session ends.

Fogarty, who faces a term limit and is running for governor this year, stood at Roberts' side yesterday.

She was introduced by Sen. Jack Reed. "She brings to the task of government great intelligence, great integrity, and a real passion to help people," Reed said.

Roberts faces a Democratic primary challenger, former state Rep. Spencer E. Dickinson. Besides Healy, a Republican, retired insurance executive Kernan F. King, is running for the office.

Roberts said she counts among her largest accomplishments the 2004 legislation that increased oversight of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island by forming the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner and a Consumer Community Advisory Council, among other reforms.

Roberts was elected to the state Senate in 1996. She is co-chair of the Permanent Joint Committee on Health Care Oversight, and chaired the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services from 2003 until earlier this year, when she ceded the position to Sen. Rhoda E. Perry to make more time for her campaign.

Roberts, a native of Virginia who moved to Rhode Island in 1974 to attend Brown University, married into one of Rhode Island's major political families. Her husband, Thomas H. Roberts, is not involved in politics -- he is a professor of history at the Rhode Island School of Design. But his brother, Dennis Roberts, was attorney general from 1978 to 1984.

Their father, also named Thomas Roberts, was a federal court judge, then a judge on the Rhode Island Supreme Court for 20 years, 10 of them as chief justice. His brother, also named Dennis Roberts, was mayor of Providence from 1940 to 1950 and governor from 1950 to 1958.

Roberts paused to thank her husband during her speech yesterday. "We don't say these things in politics very often, but I love you very much," she told him.

Apart from her work in the state Senate, Roberts is a homemaker now. (That's how she lists herself in the General Assembly directory.) She previously worked as a clinical researcher at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital, as a policy aide to former Gov. Bruce Sundlun, and for Telesis, Ira Magaziner's business strategy consulting firm. She also worked for Blue Cross for a time, developing insurance policies and assessing reimbursement technology.

Roberts is a director of Union Land and Management, a Virginia-based structural and ornamental steel business her family has run for three generations.

Roberts raised $112,170 in contributions from individuals and $7,350 from political action committees last quarter, her state campaign-finance filings show. She spent $33,100 in the same period and had $303,408 in her campaign account as of March 31.

Roberts has not yet decided whether to limit her spending by accepting public matching funds, campaign manager Paul Tencher said yesterday.

ELIZABETH H. ROBERTS

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Lieutenant governor

Previous office: State senator, 1996-present

Age: 49

Residence: Cranston

Profession: Homemaker; Homemaker, director in of Union Land and Management Co.

Education: Bachelor's degree, Brown University, 1978; master's degree in business administration, Boston University, 1984.

Family: Married to Thomas H. Roberts; two daughters, Kathleen, 17, and Nora, 14.

egudrais@projo.com / (401) 277-7045