PICARD

Rep. Roger A. Picard, D-Woonsocket, won yesterday’s special Democratic primary to fill the empty seat in Senate District 20.

Picard received 873 votes. Rosina L. Hunt, of Woonsocket, received 345 votes and Thomas J. Scully, of Cumberland, received 332 votes, according to unofficial results from the Cumberland town clerk, Sandra Giovanelli.

Picard, who is serving his eighth term in House District 51, will run unopposed on the ballot for the April 22 general election.

“I am excited. This was a very interesting campaign because of the compactness of it. I am grateful for voters to come out no matter who they voted for.… to come out in a primary in March after a presidential primary,” he said.

As senator, he said he would continue to seek out his constituents. “I will continue to do what I’ve been doing for the past eight terms, making sure I’m accessible to everybody, listen to what they have to say so I can bring their opinion and thoughts to the State House,” he said. “The biggest issue we have is the budget, this year.”

Picard, 51, who has been an attendance officer/social worker for the Woonsocket school district for 11 years, was at Chief Landry Fire Station on Mendon Road yesterday afternoon greeting voters. The turnout had been small but expected for a special election, he said. Picard said that campaigning while attending sessions of the General Assembly, coaching and going to work had been tough.

“It’s been a logistical nightmare in a way. I think we pulled it all together though something fell through the cracks. I forgot to invite my brother to my fundraiser a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

Picard celebrated his victory at Tuck’s Pub and Restaurant on Mendon Road in Cumberland.

One of the criticisms of Picard jumping from the House to the Senate has been that he would leave an empty seat in House District 51 and that would require another special election and an added expense. But a special election will not be necessary. Under state law, if a legislator leaves the General Assembly before the first Monday in February there will be a special election. Sen. Roger Badeau’s death in January created the need for the special election but Picard is leaving after February so his seat will remain empty until the November elections. Picard said that, in essence, the position would be vacant for five to seven weeks because the legislative session ends in June.

Hunt, 45, a lawyer with her own practice on Mendon Road, ran her campaign promising to be a strong voice of opposition to new taxes. People already facing high gas prices and the cost of groceries don’t need higher taxes too, she said. She favored pension reform and finding new sources for state revenue such as the privatization of some governmental agencies.

Hunt, who ran unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in a special election in 1994, said that running this time around had been a great experience.

“I think people have a lot of hope and optimism for the future once you get under their initial feelings of discouragement and disillusionment with politics. They are ready to embrace change and try to look toward a better way of doing things,” she said.

Scully, a former member of the School Committee and the Town Council, said that his priorities were education, the state deficit and high taxes. Scully, 60, is a Spanish and French teacher at the Western Hills Middle School in Cranston.

As head of the council’s finance committee in 2004, Scully authored a town ordinance that put a cap on the amount of money the town can raise each year from local taxes.

tpina@projo.com