Flanders launches US Senate run
CENTRAL FALLS – In the city where he said he once worked for a collaborative resolution to Central Falls’ dire financial woes, former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders on Thursday said he would seek to bring that same sense of problem-solving to Washington, D.C. as he announced his candidacy for United States Senate.
Flanders, alongside friends and colleagues, painted his potential opponent in a 2018 election – incumbent twoterm Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse – as an out-of-touch elitist who is more focused on partisan pol- itics than what is best for the working families of Rhode Island.
A resident of East Greenwich, Flanders during his announcement on Clay Street Thursday morning said he understood that many would ask why a 68-year-old grandfather of four would want to run for public office at a time when he could instead be settling down and retiring. He answered that he recently came across a quote from Nelson Mandela which said, “There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
“The reason I’m doing this is I’m dissatisfied with hyper
partisanship seen in Washington,” Flanders said. “There’s too much fingerpointing and not enough hand-shaking. We need problem solvers, men and women who can bring diverse factions together and reach solutions.” He said that partisan politics leads only to stasis, inaction, and “nothing getting done.”
“My entire professional life has been devoted to problem solving,” he said. “Every job I’ve held, that’s the essence of what I’ve done.” Flanders over the years has held a number of titles, including as a two-term town councilman in Barrington, town solicitor in Barrington, executive legal counsel to the governor, and chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education.
Flanders in 2011 was appointed as the receiver for the financially-troubled Central Falls.
“Problem solving is what it takes, people willing to bring sides together to find a solution to the issues that are plaguing us,” he said. He recalled coming to Central Falls in 2011, a city he described as being in “dire straits” that was ready to default. “We needed to find a way out of the problem.”
Flanders said he met with a diverse group of stakeholders, retirees, and unions to make the best of a “very bad situation” as the city was running an annual $6 million deficit on an alreadylimited budget. But by listening and being transparent, Flanders said, he collaborated with people and presented a plan of debt adjustment and recovery. Within two years, the city was out of the bankruptcy restructuring process and now Central Falls is hailed by many as “The Comeback City.”
“The lesson of Central Falls is that kind of collaborative approach needs to travel to Washington. We need folks who can find solutions to all the issues we’re facing. We’ve got health care, immigration, tax relief, all these issues crying out for compromises that will help the average working family in Rhode Island,” he said.
While Flanders will run as a Republican – meaning he’ll first need to survive a primary challenge from fellow Republican Senatorial candidate, District 28 State Rep. Robert Nardolillo – he contends that he’s independentminded and willing to “call balls and strikes on issues, not reflexively follow what the President or Senate leadership says.”
“My mantra is what’s right for working families in Rhode Island and small businesses in state, that’s going to be the touchstone,” Flanders said. “I have a bias for action. I’m achievement-oriented … The reason I’m a Rhode Islander by choice is this is a state where one person can make a difference, that’s going to be true in Washington as well.”
“I think there are a lot of senators who are willing to compromise and to reach across the aisle but like anything else, you need leadership and you need people who aren’t afraid to buck the leadership in their respective parties and I’m prepared to do that in order to get things done in Washington,” he added.
Flanders and his colleagues were quick to turn their swords toward Whitehouse, criticizing him for coming from privilege and wealth and being disconnected from the everyday Rhode Islander.
Richard McAdams, one of Flanders’ friends of over 50 years, said that his buddy comes from a family background that is typical of many in the Ocean State.
“Nothing Bob accomplished professionally or attained was by way of inheritance or entitlement,” he said. “It comes from American middle class values, education, hard work … Too many live paycheck to paycheck while the Washington elite live party to party.”
McAdams said that Whitehouse has accomplished “so little” for ordinary Rhode Islanders, saying that the incumbent senator “bloviates on TV while Rhode Islanders languish.”
“Everyone I know would rather have a beer with Bob than a Chardonnay with Sheldon,” he added, which drew a laugh and applause from those in attendance.
By his own estimation, Flanders said he’d have to raise close to $3 million during the upcoming campaign. “He’s already got that!” he said of Whitehouse.
“Unfortunately, it takes millions, even in Rhode Island, which is considered a ‘cheap seat’ by national standards. But listen, one senator from Rhode Island is equal to one in Texas, one in California, and one in New York, so we can punch above our weight here,” Flanders said.
As a judge who drives an expensive car and wears tailored suits, some may view Flanders’ criticism of Whitehouse’s wealth as hypocritical. But he said, “What I have in terms of material things are things that I’ve earned because of my practice. I wasn’t born into privilege and wealth. My whole background is coming from a hard-working middle class family.
Draw the distinction between earning it and being given it.”
Flanders said that he worked several manual labor jobs – from sweeping floors to washing dishes – through high school and college to pay for his education at Brown University. Additionally, he said his parents lived paycheck to paycheck. “Those experiences never left me, I can identify with people who struggle,” he noted.
“It’s time to take back the federal government and Senate from entrenched partisans who are now ruling the roost,” Flanders said, calling Whitehouse one of the most partisan senators in the nation. “It’s time to send ‘Silver Spoon Sheldon’ home … It’s time for a climate change in Washington D.C.”