Arlene Violet: RI Attorney General Candidates Flex Their Credentials

Arlene Violet: RI Attorney General Candidates Flex Their Credentials

Kim Ahern, Keith Hoffman, Jason Knight, and Joseph Solomon are all facing each other in the Democratic primary. 

 

The Democratic Party has an embarrassment of riches given the quality of these candidates. Kim Ahern was a prosecutor in that office and handled about 1000 prosecutions involving domestic abuse, human trafficking, and child molestation. 

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Keith Hoffman served ultimately in an executive position as Chief of Policy and managed the 63 lawsuits brought by his boss, Peter Nehrona, against the Trump administration policies of defunding programs. Jason Knight also served in the Attorney General’s office as a prosecutor, then in private practice as defense counsel, and for 10 years in the General Assembly, passing with his colleagues the assault rifle ban legislation in RI. Joseph Solomon also served in the General Assembly and has been trial counsel in numerous cases.

 

Regrettably. Mr. Solomon was not at the Sojourner House Public Policy Forum at Lincoln School on July 16 to share his ideas on being the Attorney General, although he made his “appearance” via a submitted question from the audience.  The question centered on Mr. Solomon’s “no” vote against the Jason Knight legislation banning assault rifles, stating previously that it went too far. All three  Democratic candidates supported it, with Mr. Knight rebutting claims that it was too liberal.

 

Alan Gordon, the Republican candidate for Attorney General, parlayed the question from the traditional notion of domestic abuse and gun violence to state his pro-life stance and how he would stand up for the unborn, who are slaughtered more than domestic violence victims, without so much as a peep out of society. He scored some points with the attendees when he promoted his “Man UP” proposal, which would involve men in Rhode Island voluntarily donating $2.00 per payroll period to a restricted fund that would pay for emergency housing for domestic violence victims.

 

Sojourner House has been around for 50 years, and its mission is to end domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Accordingly, questions were focused on these topics. I was impressed by the answers of all the candidates, which were not boilerplate but actually bespoke of steps to take to improve protection for victims. The strategies were all workable but did involve priorities. Ms. Ahern noted that when she was in the domestic violence unit, her case load was 150 cases routinely. Now, the prosecutors there have 200-220 cases at any one time, so more funds would be needed for additional prosecutors.

 

The Democratic candidates spoke eloquently about Mr. Trump’s degradations of the Constitution and human rights, including the unlawful actions committed by ICE agents.   They all supported, and Mr. Knight voted for the protection of immigrant witnesses in courts. Regular readers of my column know that I support protection for immigrants, legal or otherwise, since often they witness the horrors of crime in their neighborhood, and the perpetrators would get a free ride unless they had both the courage and protection to testify against those perpetrators. All candidates would prosecute ICE forces who committed unlawful acts. This posture, of course, is no different than now, when police officers, corrections officers, and other law enforcement officers violate civil rights through criminal action. All would continue the lawsuits. 

 

Republican candidate, Alan Gordon, said he’d have to review the presently pending cases, but “if his friend, Donald, was wrong, he’d hold him accountable”.

 

The candidates were asked how they were different from one another. Ms. Ahern quipped that voters would want a Providence College athlete (asking for a show of hands of Friar sport devotees in the audience) like herself, who made it to the national championship in rugby. 

 

Mr. Gordon stated that he had been prosecuted by the attorney general’s office about 1,000 times for bogus criminal acts and winning so that gave him a great insight into what not to do in that office.

 

Given my background as a former AG, it was a treat to see how thoughtful the candidates were.  They treated each other with respect. They could express disagreement without being disagreeable. The office will be in good hands after the election!