NEWPORT — Steven J. Coaty waited. He waited and waited and waited.

But when no on else threw in their hat to oppose the lone Democrat running for the late Paul W. Crowley’s District 75 House seat — especially no one from the GOP — he couldn’t wait any longer.

Coaty went down to City Hall and put in his name.

Now, he says, voters couldn’t have two candidates more philosophically opposed than he and Clement “Bud” Cicilline, the state senator whose 10-year run at the State House was disrupted in 2002 by redistricting.

“You can’t get any further apart than Bud and me,” he says.

Two other candidates did enter the race in the hours just before the filing deadline. David R. Carlin III later lost the Democrat primary to Ciclline. The other candidate, independent James Stanek, announced last week that he was withdrawing from the race and throwing his support to Coaty.

Coaty, 47, is an attorney with a practice in Middletown. The former Navy JAG left the service in 1999 after 10 years and chose to remain in Newport, on Red Cross Avenue, to raise his four children. His wife, Mary, works at St. Michael’s Country Day School, where three of their children are enrolled. The oldest is in college.

Coaty was active in politics and government while living in Milwaukee more than 25 years ago. The graduate of Marquette University law school served as a campaign manager for the city’s mayor and ran for a seat on the county board.

Coaty said that a day and a half after Cicilline announced his candidacy, no one else had stepped into the race. The district is located entirely in Newport and represents all but the northeasternmost part of the city.

“I thought it was vital that the voters of District 75 have a voice in the Assembly and a clear choice between candidates. I wasn’t about to let Mr. Cicilline go unopposed,” he says.

Coaty said his top priority would be addressing the state’s $450-million projected operating deficit, but without raising taxes.

“You do that by cutting government spending,” he says. “We are dead last in the business climate. We are the ninth highest in the nation regarding state and local government spending. We have to do a top-to-bottom review of all state spending. There can be no sacred cows. I believe the issue is on the spending side, not on the revenue side.”

THE DEMOCRATS who have controlled the General Assembly for so long have “brought us to the brink of fiscal disaster,” he says, adding that the lack of a substantial GOP presence at the State House “is not good for state policy and for the people of Rhode Island.”

Coaty faults Cicilline for the campaign contributions he has received from various unions, including the National Education Association and the state’s AFL-CIO, and Newport Grand. He also says that Cicilline is favorable toward raising taxes, including expanding the sales tax, reinstating the car excise tax and capital gains tax, and repealing the flat income tax for high-income earners.

“He wants to raise the minimum wage, he wants universal health care, he also wants good-paying jobs. I don’t know how that works — to profess you want good-paying jobs and are going to raise taxes across the board. It just doesn’t add up. I’m against any increase in taxes.”

Coaty has taught classes from elementary school up to college courses. His father was a public school superintendent and his mother was a principal at a parochial school. He says another priority of his would be to “correct an educational system that is failing our students.”

“We have to address the educational quality of our schools and the spending in our schools,” he says. “We are not getting the quality of services we are paying for.”

He supports a collective bargaining agreement for all public educators in Rhode Island, lifting a cap on new charter schools and regionalizing school administrative functions.

CICILLINE, 67, is remarried to Noriana Royles, lives on Rhode Island Avenue and has six grown children. He’s the president and CEO of the nonprofit Newport Community Mental Health Center.

“Here we work with individuals and trying to increase the quality of life. In the legislature, you can do it … in a more global way,” he says.

Cicilline’s father worked in the state Department of Administration and several of his siblings have also worked for the state.

“I’ve been going to the State House since I was 5 years old,” he says. “We have a lot of fondness for state service.”

Cicilline, who moved to Newport in 1968 after coming to work for the mental health agency, worked on the campaign of the state’s only black mayor, Newport’s Paul Gaines, and later served on the School Committee for 12 years, until 1991. His term in the Senate began the following year. He has been a part-time teacher at the Community College of Rhode Island for 30 years.

In comparing himself with his opponent, Cicilline touts his experience as a local and statewide elected official and as an educator.

“I have considerably more experience than he does. I’ve been a teacher for 30 years. I’ve also negotiated collective bargaining agreements. I’m the only that’s had the experience of introducing and passing legislation and working on the state budget. I’ve chaired committees and commissions,” he says. “I feel that’s something I have to offer. I know something about how the state system works. I’ve worked with virtually every elected official and governor and every person who has been in Congress. I feel I can work well with people.”

Cicilline, while agreeing that the state budget is clearly the most important issue for the legislature, says that Coaty’s solutions are oversimplified.

“It’s not just a spending problem, it’s a revenue problem, too,” he says. “I agree you have to look at spending.”

He thinks every state department should be mandated to develop a strategic plan to measure its success and better determine its funding needs. He also favors multi-year budgeting instead of year-to-year spending plans.

“I think we have to look at where we’ve given away the store and where we need to reel things in,” he says.

BUT NEW REVENUES must also be explored, he says. He wants to study expanding the sales tax to items that are now tax-free, including expensive clothing and country club dues.

“I’m of the mind that if someone can pay $400 for a pair of shoes, they can afford a tax,” he says. “I’m trying to find ways [to address the deficit]. I’m trying to be honest and forthright about it and not just say slash and burn.”

He’s wary of Coaty’s approach, suggesting it could not only hurt the young and the disadvantaged, but increase social costs. Not providing enough money for education could result in more dropouts and more young people at the Training School, while reducing help for the mentally ill could make their lives more challenging.

“We probably have different ideas about what’s important in terms of services and government,” he says. “We start hammering and … we’re going to cut some of these services that are available to individuals with disabilities. You end up undermining the quality of life for these individuals.

“You have to think about where you are going with this knife,” he said. “It really could significantly hurt people. And you could hurt [the state] financially. He doesn’t know the consequences of what he is saying. He makes statements without knowing the depth and breadth of the consequences.”

Despite being away from the State House for 10 years, and being old enough to have eight grandchildren, Cicilline says, “I’m eager to do it again. I haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm.”

rsalit@projo.com