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Journal photo/ Kathy Borchers
State Rep. John Loughlin announces his candidacy for Congress Thursday morning in Lincoln.
By Katherine Gregg
LINCOLN, R.I.-- John J. Loughlin II, a three-term state representative from Tiverton, has formally launched his bid to unseat the only remaining member of the storied Kennedy clan in national elective office.
Though he has been raising money for months, Loughlin, 50, a Republican, officially entered the race against U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, an eight-term Democrat representing the First District, with an announcement Thursday morning outside an office park.
With Rhode Island unemployment at 12.9 percent, Loughlin faulted President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress for "failed'' job-creation policies, and Kennedy, in particular.
"When we should have been focused on jobs, Congressman Patrick Kennedy was voting for a massive government takeover of our health care system that would have raised taxes, increased spending and cut Medicare for our seniors,'' he said.
"When we should have been focused on jobs, my opponent was voting for a ... trade energy tax that would impose huge new costs on businesses and families in this state. Instead of extending a helping hand, my opponent has teamed up with Nancy Pelosi and her friends in Washington to throw us one anchor after another, making matters worse, not better.''
Contending "it's time for a new start,'' Loughlin ticked off his own views, including: "The best social program is a good job that pays a decent wage...Money and resources are best used when they remain in the hands of the people.''
Talking at length about his 26-year career in the National Guard and Army Reserve, Loughlin, who now runs Media-Rite, a television, radio and film production company, said: "It was there I learned that while our strength as a nation starts at home and in our schools, it is preserved by a strong military.''
With the United States fighting two wars, he said "our troops deserve the support and funding they need to defeat the radical jihadists who want to destroy our way of life,'' and "we must treat our adversary for what are - not as ordinary criminals, but as enemies in wartime.''
"That means military justice,'' he said, "not civilian court trials where they are granted the right to remain silent and the right through the legal process to obtain sensitive information.''
"When it comes to terrorists, we should be getting information from them, not the other way around,'' he said in his prepared remarks.
He leveled this broadside at the Democrats controlling Congress: "In Speaker Nancy Pelosi's world, there is no problem that can't be solved by more government. But Washington today is not the solution, it's part of the problem...Our national debt is an unthinkable $12 trillion.... and the president's new budget forecasts trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.''
"And what,' he asks. "has all [this] spending gotten the people of Rhode Island? Nothing. Not one job.''
Loughlin is already the best-financed challenger Kennedy has faced since 2004, when Kennedy defeated Republican Dave Rogers with almost 60 percent of the vote.
But Kennedy raised almost $756,000 last year to campaign for a ninth term - roughly triple what Loughlin raised. And Kennedy had more than four times as much campaign cash on hand - almost $452,000 - as Loughlin, according to year-end reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Loughlin reported having about $110,000 left in his campaign war chest, having spent more than $136,000 by year's end.
Loughlin has said he wants to spend at least $1 million on his race against Kennedy, who spent $1.79 million on his 2008 reelection campaign, in which he faced two candidates whose campaigns were too poor to require federal reports.
State Rep. Jon D. Brien, a Woonsocket Democrat from the party's conservative wing, has raised the possibility of challenging Kennedy in a primary next September.
