Cumberland race offers differing views on state government
Incumbent seeks second term, while challenger makes first bid for office
CUMBERLAND — Local voters will weigh the importance of political party affiliation when considering candidates for the town’s House of Representatives Dist. 52 seat in the state general election on Tuesday.
On the one hand, Democrat Alex D. Marszalkowski is seeking his second two-year term in the House of Representatives after serving on the House Finance Committee and the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee as a freshman House member.
On the other, Republican Brandon S. Bell, chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, is making his first bid for public office with a wealth of experience in challenging Rhode Island Democrats on many fronts.
Marszalkowski, 31, an attorney in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, is currently managing his family’s Adams Farm property and vegetable stand operation in Cumberland, along with his father, James Marszalkowski.
As part of his campaign, Marszalkowski has been reaching out to his constituents through door-to-door campaigning and also candidate forums put on by local Democrats like the one he attended on Thursday at the Bear Hill Village community center.
“It is a just a way to address all of the issues that everyone has,” Marszalkowski said while noting he has also used such forums in the past to gain
insight into what residents of his district feel he should be pursuing in his representative role.
In the last session, Marszalkowski submitted legislation to support economic development in the Blackstone River Valley corridor and saw a study commission established to explore the topic with the help of local business representatives, Bryant University economics professors and members of local and state government.
“It is a good opportunity for business owners, academic professors and representatives of government to talk about the issues and see what we can do to get businesses to flourish in the Blackstone Valley,” Marszalkowski said.
DURING HIS first term, Marszalkowski has also won passage of a bill determining that fire district commissioners hold public office and as a result fall under the requirements of state election laws.
Another initiative by the freshman representative requires hospitals to provide cost estimates for hospital services within five calendar days, and he has also sponsored a new law moving the authority for expelling credit union members from the credit union’s board of directors to the credit union’s management team.
From his contacts with constituents, Marszalkowski said he has learned that the big concerns in his district remain focused on the economy, school support and ethics in government.
“I’ve tried to address these issues in my first two years and I will continue to fight the good fight if re-elected,” Marszalkowski said.
Marszalkowski said he supports the proposed $250 million school improvement bond on the Nov. 6 ballot and noted it will bring additional state aid to Cumberland just in time for a planned major school improvement project.
He has also supported the General Assembly’s rollback of car taxes and is currently considering how to go about winning state support for a new senior shuttle bus and also a new senior center at some point in the future. Marszalkowski is a 2005 graduate of Mount St. Charles Academy. He earned his undergraduate degree from Roger Williams University in 2009 and his law degree from the Roger Williams School of Law in 2012. In addition to running the Adams Farm on Sumner Brown Road, Marszalkowski and his family also maintain several other farm properties in the Cumberland and Wrentham area.
Bell, 46, a native of New Jersey who has resided in Cumberland for 17 of the 24 years he has lived in Rhode Island, is campaigning on the argument that the General Assembly and its leadership need more oversight than is currently possible under its control by the Democratic Party.
While suggesting his opponent is beholding to that leadership as a new member of the General Assembly, Bell said he would serve as a representative willing to take the leadership to task and “challenge the status quo.”
That is just what he done over the past two and half years as Republican Party chair, he noted.
“I am a trial attorney in real life and I just don’t scream and jump up and down; I hold the other side accountable,” Bell said.
Bell noted his filing of an ethics complaint against former state Rep. Donald Lally, D-Dist. 33, over his being given a state job in Gov. Gina Raimondo’s administration as a small business liaison in June after having stepped down from his seat in March.
The move was an apparent violation of the state’s revolving door law and Bell said the case was ultimately upheld by the state Ethics Commission, with Lally paying a significant fine for the infraction.
Bell also took action against former state Rep. John W. Carnevale when it came to light he was a resident of Johnston while serving as a representative for Providence.
“I filed a complaint in Providence and got him removed from the voter rolls,” Bell said. The story didn’t end there, however, and Carnevale ultimately accepted a plea deal on felony criminal charges of perjury and filing false documents and is currently serving home confinement, Bell said.
ALTHOUGH MANY
of the Democrats running this fall have pointed to the General Assembly’s car tax repeal program as a plus from their party, Bell noted that House Republicans had been pushing the repeal in prior sessions and argues that House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello only made it one of his priorities after running into re-election pressure in his home district.
Bell said his willingness to challenge the leadership is a key difference between himself and his opponent, who he argues has “done exactly what the leadership wanted him to do.”
“I think we need someone up there who is independent and willing to challenge these things,” Bell said.
His opponent is “nice enough of a guy,” Bell offered. “But he not the right guy to make the changes we need up there,” he added.
A graduate of Hightstown High School in Hightstown, N.J. Bell earned his undergraduate degree at the Indiana University and his law degree from Roger Williams University School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
A resident of Abbott Valley View Drive, Bell and his wife, Lisa, have three children, Billy, Cheleen, and Alexa.
Bell served on the Cumberland Planning Board from 2003 to 2007. He also served on the R.I. Sex Offender Board of Review from 2007 to 2011.