Julie Casimiro will again challenge Doreen Costa for NK House seat

Democrat Julie Casimiro is again challenging Republican Rep. Doreen Costa for the District 31 House seat in North Kingstown, RI Future has learned.

Casimiro lost to Costa in 2014 53.1 percent to 46.8 percent.

“Running again was not part of my plan as my family commitments have been exhausting, but the groundswell of support for me to do so has been absolutely overwhelming, from within the district and throughout the state,” she said in a news release. “It’s hard to say no during a presidential election year!”

Casimiro added, ““I am running on a platform of respectable values and a desire to serve my constituents for what’s important to them – creating jobs, improving the economy,” she said in the press release. We need to do things differently in order to move Rhode Island forward…the status quo is not going to cut it!”

In 2014, Casimiro took 2242 votes and Costa won 2547 – a difference of 352 votes.

While Costa, a very conservative tea party Republican is close with Democratic Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello, Casimiro’s press release says she has the endorsement of the Democratic Party. The speaker of the House has great influence with the Democratic Party in Rhode Island.

In 2014, as was reported by RI Future, Casimiro won the endorsement of the Republican Town Council President Liz Dolan, who said at the time, “I have not been impressed with Doreen’s record. “We need to bring this party back to where it is more moderate.” But the North Kingstown Fire Fighters union endorsed Costa, saying, “We looked at who has been in our corner.”

According to her press release: “Casimiro has experience in both the private and non-profit sectors.  She has been married to her husband, Richard, for 32 years.  She has held several leadership positions on various boards and committees and earned a BS in Marketing from Providence College.  She is a graduate of Leadership Rhode Island’s class of 2008 and newly appointed 2nd Vice Chair of the North Kingstown Democratic Town Committee.”

Costa was a guiding force behind the Exeter recall election and mocking then-Governor Linc Chafee for using the term holiday tree instead of Christmas tree. In 2014, she told RI Future she was less conservative than people think. “People have me as this extremist and I find that very offensive,” she said. “I’m not as to the right as people think I am.”

Update: I reached out on Twitter to North Kingstown fire fighters to find out of they would again endorse Costa. In a direct message, that they said I could publish: “@NK_Fire has been burnt by politicians, both local and statewide in the past from both parties. Therefore, we have chose not to be politically active at this point.”