Walter Felag Jr., the incumbent Democratic state senator representing District 10 (Bristol, Warren, Tiverton), touted his years of experience in that position and history of helping get things done as the top reason he should earn your vote in November. His challenger, Republican Allyn Meyers, made the exact opposite case, arguing that the State House’s supermajority of stalwart democrats, like Felag, is causing legislative chaos for Rhode Islanders due to a lack of alternative thinking on Smith Hill.

The two candidates, who hadn’t met before last Thursday, came together at Warren Town Hall to participate in a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, sponsored by East Bay Media and moderated by its general manager, Scott Pickering.

During opening statements Meyers, a Tiverton resident, cordially pointed out the similarities between his own career and Felag’s. Meyers is a network engineer and systems analyst, while Felag is a computer software engineer, and Meyers pointed out that one of the companies Felag worked for once wrote software for hardware that was developed by Meyers. Both candidates also stated they were pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, but once the questions started flying, their differences on each issue became more apparent.

Reasons for running
Meyers claimed that his dissatisfaction with the general assembly’s supermajority of Democrats was the primary reason for his candidacy.

“I believe the general assembly as we see it is broken,” he said. “We have a supermajority now that is one-sided. There is no discussion. There is no real debate of any substance…It seems like there is an air of activism that has seeped into our general assembly and the wants and needs of the people are not being taken care of. Our roads are terrible, our schools are 45th in the nation. We we just need better leadership.”

Felag, a Warren resident, countered that he has advocated for people in his district regardless of their political affiliation.

“I go to all the houses, not just Democratic houses or unaffiliated,” he said. “I go to Republicans’ houses because I like to hear the perspective of people within my district.”

Felag said that the legislature has just accomplished massive tax relief for residents through the phaseout of the vehicle excise tax, amounting to “about $1.84 million for Bristol, $1.1 (million) for Tiverton, and about $1 million for the Town of Warren,” Felag said. “So we’re providing relief to our constituents.”

On abortion rights
While both candidates claimed they were pro-life approved candidates, Meyers took a harder stance on a question raised by Pickering regarding the proposed act that would guarantee abortion care access to state workers on Medicaid and Medicare. He said his concern regarding the legislation was how it would impact financially-constrained senior citizens.

“One of the concerns they have is Medicare and Medicaid not paying for things like dentures, glasses, and various things that they need, and we have such a budget shortfall on those kind of things,” he said. “Expanding this out to another issue, it's just it's really just going to over stress the system.”

Felag, however, said he would have more of an open mind on the issue. Since the act would be included within the governor’s budget, he said he would utilize his longstanding role in the legislature’s finance committee to fully flesh out the details before it would have to be decided in June of next year.

“I believe that all life is precious. But by the same token the act of 2019 has made it such that women have their rights,” Felag said. “And so it's important that we look at this insurance parity bill and look at its assistance for our low-income women and minorities. So I'm going to have an open mind on this.”

On gun legislation
Again, both candidates claimed they were advocates for the Second Amendment, but when prompted about what gun legislation they would support, or if more was needed, their differences showed again.

“We're wasting legislative time talking about certain things,” said Meyers, who said that the three recently passed gun laws — which increased the age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21, banned high capacity magazines, and prevents the open carry of loaded rifles and shotguns in public — were unconstitutional in light of the recent Supreme Court decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.

“We should be more concentrating on gun crime — and the gun crime is criminals, people who are criminals that use guns for acts of violence,” Meyers continued. “They should not be in a revolving turnstile from our attorney general’s office. We should be concentrating on prosecuting the cases that are there instead of turning around and taking guns from law-abiding citizens.”

Felag said that he supported “common sense gun legislation” and that he believes the bills recently passed do not infringe on the Second Amendment. He further said that the state’s Red Flag law, passed in 2018, was the correct step to preventing domestic abusers and dangerous individuals from possessing deadly weapons.

On school funding and school choice
The two candidates disagreed on the role and number of charter schools that should operate within the state.

“I believe that the charter schools exist in those urban communities and shouldn’t exist in the regional communities,” Felag said. “The communities of Bristol and Warren have enough students to provide a full and adequate educational system. By having more charter schools within our outside districts, it’s going to cause a stress on those districts, especially those that have small communities like Tiverton, Warren, and Bristol.”

Meyers said that all families should have a choice of where to send their children, regardless of where they live.

“I agree with the inner city people. I mean they should have the same rights to better schools as some of the suburbs do,” he said. “I think charter schools and vouchers, having that money following the student is the best thing. That way the parents can make the best decisions for their kids, and they don't have to worry about being stuck in a school system that’s subpar or even worse than what we have in our state right now at 45th in the country.”

Meyers said that the state spends about $19,000 per pupil on average to attend public schools, which he said was higher than some private school tuitions. Felag said that the state should be looking into restoring bonuses for regional school districts, such as the one in Bristol Warren.

“I think we need to encourage regionalization by providing those incentives to these school districts,” Felag said.

Status quo or no?
In closing the forum, Felag touted his experience within the legislature and proven results in getting things done — from helping get the bike path bridges under construction, to addressing contaminated soil in Tiverton, all the way down to granular issues like helping a resident who had high-tension wires located over their home.

“I've always gone on the assumption that this is a job that requires a lot of attention,” Felag said. “I have a book before me which I started maybe a couple years ago, noting down all the different people who have contacted me over the years and trying to assist them in their particularly dilemmas, and we've worked very diligently with those individuals.”

Meyers said that the status quo wasn’t working for Rhode Islanders, and change was needed. He mentioned issues not brought up in questions, such as the long-term impact that masking might have on children, and how businesses were affected by the pandemic.

“We have IEPs that are going to go ballistic in the early years of school,” he said. “Our people are used to being home because they're not working…And the fear that people have is you can tell when you're talking to people they don't they don't see the future as something that they can look forward to.”