GoLocalProv Voter's Guide - Candidates for Congress: David Cicilline
GoLocalProv Politics Team
GoLocalProv Voter's Guide - Candidates for Congress: David Cicilline
David Cicilline
Democratic Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives (1st Congressional District)
July 15, 1961 in Providence, RI
Education:
Brown University (AB in Political Science)
Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.)
Career Highlights:
• Worked as a public defense lawyer for the Public Defender Service in Washington DC
• In 1994, he was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives for the 4th District on Providence’s East Side. He went on to serve four terms.
• In 2002, he was elected to serve as the Mayor of Providence and was reelected in 2006.
• He is the 2008 president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors
Personal Information:
Cicilline is the first openly gay mayor of a U.S. state capital.
Views on Key Issues:
• Do you think RI is culturally too accepting of public corruption?
Honest government is an important tool in building strong cities, encouraging new investment, and creating jobs. Corruption in government costs taxpayers money when businesses don't place bids because of their belief that they won't have an honest opportunity or contracts are inflated beyond what they should be.
Our state has had more than its share of political corruption. In Providence, we've worked to make government honest, transparent, and accountable by choosing qualified professionals to lead departments in city government; hiring people based on what they know, not who they know; enacting a City Ethics Code; and holding those who work in government accountable if they do not maintain high ethical standards. In addition, during my campaigns I have worked hard to break the link between money and politics by refusing to take contributions from city employees.
• Do you think RI effectively spends its education dollars?
Rhode Island just passed a school funding formula to begin to ensure that every student has access to a quality public education. Key to that is ensuring that there is a good teacher in every classroom and students have access to good facilities, supportive materials, and extended learning and after-school programs. We must ensure that every dollar invested in education is spent in the most effective and responsible way possible.
• Do you favor a state law to allow gay marriage?
Yes, I support full marriage equality. I strongly oppose any discrimination based on sexual orientation.
• Do you think RI should enact restrictive immigration legislation?
I believe that the United States should enact comprehensive immigration reform and there should be one immigration policy for our entire country. Individual cities and states should not impose their own differing immigration policies - that is the responsibility of our federal government.
• Do you think municipal government has done enough to cut spending?
I can't speak for every municipality, but I know many have gone through painful reductions in spending. In the City of Providence, we renegotiated employee contracts, cut approximately 500 city positions, and found new ways to get more done with less. We have had to make serious reductions in spending and at the same time absorb tens of millions of dollars in state cuts over the last five years. We have a responsibility every single day to ensure that we are spending public funds in the most effective way possible.
• What is your strategy to address the federal budget deficit? Please be specific, i.e. what cuts or revenue enhancements you are proposing.
We must reduce our spending by bringing our troops home from Afghanistan, allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans to expire, ending massive subsidies to big oil companies, and doing away with the carried interest rule that allows hedge fund managers to have their income taxed at the lower capital gains rate.
• What specifically will you do to improve employment for Rhode Islanders?
We've fought to bring new investments to Providence, help existing businesses grow through our Neighborhood Markets program, and expand access to capital and technical assistance. In addition, we've brought new companies to our city, such as United Natural Foods, Inc. and Alteris. We are also offering green-collar job training to residents of low-income neighborhoods through the Green Pathways Out of Poverty program. In addition, we have helped build the “knowledge economy” in Providence by attracting federal investments and promoting research and development in areas like biotechnology and life-sciences work.
Congress should find innovative solutions to the challenges facing middle class families. That's why I've proposed a Made in America Block Grant to retool existing small manufacturers and retrain workers to succeed in a new economy and a National Infrastructure Bank to make significant reinvestments in our roads, bridges, and transit like we did with the WPA. In Congress, I will also fight to expand unemployment compensation benefits for people who cannot find work.
• How would you deal with the cost of social security programs? Would
you raise the eligibility age, decrease benefits, or increase taxes?
Please elaborate.
I do not support raising the retirement age, cutting benefits, or increasing taxes. Social Security is a promise we made to our seniors 75 years ago and it's a promise we must keep. I will do everything I can to protect Social Security from efforts to privatize it.
• Do you favor a specific time-table for withdrawal from Afghanistan?
I believe we should bring our troops home and we should begin planning for this immediately. We just entered our tenth year in Afghanistan - longer than we've spent in any other foreign conflict in American history. In that time we have lost more than 1,000 American heroes and spent $400 billion. It's time to bring our troops home and redirect our vital resources to the challenges we face in our own country.
• Do you favor a second stimulus program?
I argued along with the U.S. Conference of Mayors for the stimulus to be directed towards local infrastructure projects. We now need innovative, targeted job programs like creating a Made in America Block Grant, establishing a National Infrastructure Bank, and enacting job creation tax credits for small businesses. If there is to be a second stimulus program, I would only support it if it focused on effective job creation.