8 new West Bay lawmakers take office

They make up two-thirds of Assembly freshmen

By ADAM ZANGARI
Posted 1/15/25

Tuesday marked the start of the 2025 Rhode Island General Assembly session and the swearing-in of the state’s new senators and representatives.

Though there was remarkably little turnover …

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8 new West Bay lawmakers take office

They make up two-thirds of Assembly freshmen

Posted

Tuesday marked the start of the 2025 Rhode Island General Assembly session and the swearing-in of the state’s new senators and representatives.

Though there was remarkably little turnover among senators and representatives statewide, the West Bay saw much more turnover than most of the state, with four new representatives and four new senators taking office for the first time. That marked two-thirds of the turnover in both bodies, as the Senate and House each welcomed six new members.

The West Bay’s new senators are Peter Appollonio (D-Warwick), Todd Patalano (D-Cranston), Lammis Vargas (D-Cranston, Providence) and Andrew Dimitri (D-Johnston). Its new representatives are Chris Paplauskas (R-Cranston), Marie Hopkins (R-Warwick), Earl Read III (D-Warwick, West Warwick) and Richard Fascia (R-Johnston, Cranston).

As their freshman year begins, the new members received their committee assignments. On the Senate side, Dimitri and Patalano are expected to serve together on the Judiciary and Labor committees. Additionally, Patalano is expected to be named secretary of the Labor committee – the only West Bay freshman to get a leadership role.

Appollonio has been assigned to the Health and Human Services and Special Legislation and Veterans’ Affairs committees, while Vargas will serve on the Finance and Environment and Agriculture committees. Vargas is also expected to serve on a new committee: the Senate Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies. That panel, according to a General Assembly source, is expected to be formed in a few weeks.

In the House, Fascia was assigned to the Education, Municipal Government and Housing and Labor committees. Hopkins will also serve on the Labor committee, and will also serve on the Health and Human Services and Judiciary committees.

Paplauskas will be serving on more committees than any other freshman – the State Government and Elections, Innovation, Internet and Technology, Oversight and Special Legislation committees.

Half of the new assembly members- Appollonio, Fascia, Patalano and Read – come from law-enforcement backgrounds, though each served a different municipality: West Warwick, Providence, Cranston and Warwick, respectively. Vargas and Paplauskas also have a shared background, with the two having served together on the Cranston City Council.

As for the other two new assembly members, Hopkins’s background as a nurse featured heavily in her campaign advertisements, while Dimitri has worked as an attorney.

Of the West Bay’s eight new assembly members, half are of a different party from their predecessor, with two seats flipping red and two flipping blue. Hopkins replaced Camille Vella-Wilkinson, who decided not to run for reelection, and Fascia replaced Edward Cardillo, who lost his bid to retain the seat in the Democratic primary.

Meanwhile, Read flipped his seat in the other direction, as he replaced Patricia Morgan, who ran unsuccessfully against Sheldon Whitehouse for U.S. Senate last fall. In addition to flipping his seat, Appollonio was the only candidate to defeat an incumbent, as he took down former Sen. Anthony DeLuca in an election that was decided by fewer than 100 votes.

Paplauskas’s seat was left open, as his predecessor, Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Cranston. Vargas won a five-way primary to replace outgoing Sen. Josh Miller, while Patalano replaced outgoing Sen. Frank Lombardi. Dimitri’s seat had been vacant since the death of Sen. Frank Lombardo last February.

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