Murray, Garrepy, Dusablon vie for open Senate seat
WOONSOCKET – When an elected official like Sen. Marc A. Cote decides to give up his seat in the General Assembly after 24 years, it is to be expected that there will be plenty of interest from those wanting to take on the job representing his District 24 Senate district, Woonsocket and North Smithfield.
And that has been the case during this fall’s campaign season as four candidates remain in the running to replace the retiring local Democrat when the state general election arrives Tuesday on Nov. 6.
Dist. 24 voters will find Melissa A. Murray, a Democrat, Richard L. Garrepy, an independent, Michael Disney, an independent, and Glenn F. Dusablon, also an indepen- dent all listed on the ballot as contenders for Cote’s seat. A fifth candidate, Carol Frisk, withdrew before a Democratic primary match-up with Murray.
In the weeks since the primary, Dusablon, Garrepy and Murray have taken more active roles in seeking the seat, with each taking a position on why they want to be elected.
Disney, who could not be reached about his campaign, is a perennial local candidate who has changed his surname from Moniz to Disney and run for several local elected offices in the past.
Murray is currently a member of the Woonsocket City Council and finishing her second two-year term after initially serving on the council for three years following her election in 2013 as the city changed from
off-year elections to match the state election calendar.
Murray, 44, said the fact Cote was retiring after 24 years in office presented her a decision to make about her own service to the city and northern Rhode Island.
“I saw it as a unique opportunity. It’s not every day that a Senate seat becomes available and I wanted to take my experience from the City Council and take that to the next level,” Murray said. As a council member, Murray said she has been able “to work with my fellow council members across the table to get legislation passed.”
If elected, Murray plans to fight “for all of Rhode Island’s working families,” and to “protect and strengthen programs that help seniors afford their medications and enable them to remain self-sufficient.”
She also intends to honor the state’s military veterans and help their families “by advocating for programs that address their specific needs.”
Murray said she sees a need to strengthen mental health, addiction and recovery programs as solutions to the state’s opioid crisis and as a small businesswoman herself, to work for the small business sector by “eliminat-
ing redundancies, barriers, and red tape,” while helping them to expand and grow the local economy.
Murray, a resident of Prospect Street in Woonsocket, has business experience in running her Opulent Squid handmade jewelry line, and also as a freelance business consultant.
In addition to her interest in promoting small business and human services support, Murray said she is also an advocate of improving educational opportunity for both children and adults.
“I believe that children all deserve the same education no matter what city and town they live in,” Murray said. “Whether they live in Woonsocket or Barrington or North Smithfield or West Warwick, they should all receive the same quality of education,” Murray said. Murray also supports developing more educational and job training opportunities for adult residents of the state. A better educated work force also is “a highly skilled and motivated workforce” which in turn can help to build the state’s economy, Murray explained.
Her support for education has also put Murray behind Question 1 of the state election ballot seeking voter approval of $250 million in funding for a school facilities improvement program.
“Our crumbling school infrastructure is definitely a barrier to equal educational opportunity,” she said.
Dusablon, 66, a retired R.I. Department of Labor and Training chief electrical investigator and an electrical inspector for the City of Woonsocket for 18 years prior to his state service, also had a decision to make when learning of Cote’s retirement from the senate.
“The state has been controlled by the Democratic party for decades and it’s just more than I can stand,” the independent candidate said of his choice to run.
Dusablon said he has not taken any political action committee campaign funding during his run for the office but has received the endorsements of AFSCME, Council 94, AFL-CIO, and National Education Association of Rhode Island.
Dusablon is the curator and president of the board of directors of the Veterans Memorial Museum at 78 Earle St. in Woonsocket. He also is a member of the American-French Genealogical Society at 78 Earle St. and a member of Elks Lodge 850, Woonsocket.
Dusablon has served as president of Local 2869 at the Department of Labor & Training and as vice president of Woonsocket’s Local 3851.
He has registered as a lobbyist for the Department of Labor & Training to comment on bills that affect the professional regulations unit and also served on the executive boards of Council 94 and the AFL-CIO.
Dusablon said he supports a “review of redundant state management” as exposed by the Segal Group Report under former R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
“We need to help small, licensed trade businesses with proper enforcement to protect their businesses against illegal contracting throughout the state,” Dusablon said.
He also supports putting political term limits on the ballot, “so voters can decide if they want lifetime politicians.” Dusablon said he would also like to see equal distribution of grant funds to cities and towns.
“We need change in R.I. politics,” Dusablon said while pointing to the fact the state has been controlled by the same party for decades and as a result will see the minimum wage in Rhode Island rise to $10.50 cents in January – an added burden to business – and other costs such as those driven by an auto parts bill, approved last year, that will increase the state’s already high automobile insurance rates.
“Luxury boats pay no sales or property taxes,” he noted. “We pay them on our cars and trucks to get to work or run a business,” Dusablon, a resident of Elizabeth Avenue in North Smithfield, said.
“We should provide our senior citizens the same Medicare back up as Massachusetts does for their seniors,” he added.
Garrepy, 72, a semi-retired part-time auditor for automobile dealerships and a veteran of 20 years service with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, said he knew Cote as Dist. 24’s senator and viewed him as a conservative Democrat in the General Assembly who kept an eye on spending and government excesses.
It was Cote’s record, in fact, that peaked Garrepy interest when Murray, who he described as a liberal Democrat, began to seek the Dist. 24 seat. “I’m a moderate conservative, a middle of the road person,” he explained. “I don’t lean to the right, I don’t lean to the left,” Garrepy said.
Garrepy decided to run for Dist. 24, he said, to continue Cote’s legacy of a conservative approach to R.I. Government.
Garrepy retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a gunnery sergeant in 1981 and had also served full time with the U.S. Navy when initially joining the military in 1962. He served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, while with the Brown Water Navy in the Mekong Delta and saw action during the Tet Offensive.
He earned a college degree in communications and journalism while in the military and served as a combat correspondent and photojournalist for Marines during his career. He is a member of the Disabled Veterans of America.
As for his positions on state government, Garrepy said he does not support state spending through ballot bond issues and suggested that rather than promote a school improvement bond issue this year, the state should instead be spending state lottery revenues for school updates as was originally proposed when the R.I. Lottery was created.
If elected, Garrepy said he would seek to have the state impose at least a 1 percent reduction in every state department budget to reduce state spending and follow that with additional budget reductions if needed.
“We all have a budget and I think we all need to live with our means and it begins now,” Garrepy said.
Garrepy lives on Farm Street in Woonsocket. He was married to the late Loretta Blouin.