Voters came out in support of incumbent Dist. 25 Sen. Frank Lombardo III at the polls this September, with his total far outpacing any local politician on the ballot.
The interesting note on that turnout, though, is that Lombardo is running unopposed. He’s one of two Johnston legislators, along with House Dist. 44 Rep. Gregory Constantino, without an opponent in either the primary or general elections.
Lombardo garnered 2,021 Johnston votes, second only to U.S. Sen. Jack Reed’s 2,127. Lombardo’s tally nearly doubled the next closest Johnston candidate, incumbent Dist. 43 Rep. Deborah Fellela, who received 1,013 votes.
“I was pleasantly surprised. Typically when you don’t have an opponent your vote totals are a lot lower than people who do have opponents,” Lombardo, who will enter his sixth term, told the Sun Rise in an interview on Tuesday. “It proves to me that what I’m doing, I’m doing it correct, and people are responding to that. It made me feel good inside because, this may be a part-time job as a legislator, but to me it’s a full-time position and that’s how I serve it.”
Lombardo said he approaches campaign season the same, whether someone is challenging him for his seat or not. He said the goal is to remain visible to voters, even if some question why he continues to knock on doors.
“Just because I don’t have an opponent doesn’t mean I don’t have to continue to serve my constituents,” Lombardo said. “By doing that, it means I’m out in the neighborhoods walking, going door to door and the response has been tremendous. The first question they ask is, ‘Well, why are you walking? You’re unopposed.’ They’re happy with my response. I don’t just walk when I have an opponent. I’m here for you 365 days any time of the day or night.”
Lombardo said the state faced plenty of challenges even before the coronavirus pandemic brought life to a halt. Those issues have been exacerbated, growing into “extraordinary public health and economic” crises.
He forecasted a $300 million budget deficit, with little clarity on how the state is going to fill that hole.
“That’s a lot of money to try to make up and we’re unsure,” Lombardo said. “A lot of the taxes, though they were due in July, the middle of July, a lot of the taxes still have not been collected. Small businesses have been greatly affected by this, as you can see by the turnout, small businesses are going out of business. That’s going to affect the tax bases in Rhode Island, not just this year but years to come.”
Given his background in local business, Lombardo said he wants to help small employers rebuild and create jobs, but amid the pandemic, “we don’t know where we’re going to be.”
“Nobody has that answer yet, and if they tell you they do, they’re lying to you, because they don’t know what the ramifications are yet,” Lombardo said. “I know our Finance Committee is working very diligently to put those answers together to the questions, but we’re just not sure yet. I know that’s not an answer you want to hear, but we don’t know. We don’t know yet.”
Lombardo said he believes Rhode Island has been overtaxed for the past decade, and he keeps tax stability in mind when the budget comes before the Senate.
“When [the budget] does come to the Senate, it’s either a vote of up or down,” Lombardo said. “Unfortunately, they control the budget out in the House side, so they will vote on every article that comes up. Every year, the governor has tough choices to make when she puts her budget together, and then it’s dissected in the House and in the Senate, and we look at, is it something that’s sustainable?”
Lombardo said that he and his fellow senators take a close look when the budget is delivered to their chamber, specifically noting that he would be opposed to cuts in areas like human services.
“Should we increase, and I’m just going to throw this out there, the money allotted to transportation, instead of making sure that our human services are taken care of?” Lombardo said. “Every article is dissected in the House and then it comes over as a package to the Senate, and then you need two-thirds in the Senate to pass the budget. It’s more of something seriously looked at in the House before it comes to the Senate.”
He lauded the work of current Senate Finance Committee Chair William Conley and the rest of that body for smoothing out any rough edges before the final document is approved.
“There are certain things that the Senate wants to make sure, especially the people of Rhode Island, are taken care of before there’s any increase in the budget,” Lombardo said. “The budget’s increased, in the 10 years I’ve been there, every year, and we’ve done a good job at holding the line on taxes. That’s very important to me, like I said.”
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