Lawless officially declares run for Congress

WARWICK - Assistant Professor of Political Science Jennifer Lawless officially kicked off her campaign to wrest Rhode Island's second congressional district from incumbent Rep. James Langevin (D) Wednesday, saying that her differences with Langevin are largely over his establishment values and unwillingness to fight on core Democratic issues like jobs, health care and education.

Citing polls expressing disapproval with Congress, Lawless said, "I'm one of those Americans. I don't approve of the job Congress is doing. ... I cannot sit back and watch the Republican party trample on our America."

Lawless made her announcement at the Community College of Rhode Island's Warwick campus at an event attended by a small group of supporters and local media.

Lawless also threw down the gauntlet on abortion, a key policy difference with the anti-abortion Langevin that she downplayed to The Herald in April when she first announced to colleagues and students her intention to run. "We must send women to Washington who will protect a woman's right to choose," she said Wednesday.

She emphasized that the theme of "choice" in her campaign extends beyond abortion. "Rhode Islanders should also have a choice when they go to the polls."

"Over the course of this campaign, I hope to demonstrate a lot of policy differences beyond reproductive freedom," she added. "We clearly differ on medical marijuana. We differed on the Terri Shaivo legislation."

Lawless told The Herald that her policy positions in education will be formed in consultation with community members and policy experts over the course of her campaign.

"I believe it was Plato who said that philosophers would make great people in government, and I think she has a great philosophy," said Regina Berenback, a coordinator for Brown's BioMed research administration. "Being a political scientist, in a sense, she is a philosopher, and has many philosophies of government as opposed to very detailed practical views."

-Herald staff reports

This article appeared on June 15, 2005 in the Brown Daily Herald.