PROVIDENCE — Six things to know about new Rhode Island House Speaker Christopher R. Blazejewski.
He’s Rhode Island’s most progressive House speaker yet
Blazejewski, 45, a Providence Democrat, is considered the most progressive House speaker in Rhode Island history, rivaled only by former speaker Gordon D. Fox. He became speaker May 7 after K. Joseph Shekarchi, a moderate Warwick Democrat, stepped down to apply for a state Supreme Court seat.
Before running for office, Blazejewski organized a local chapter of the progressive social club, “Drinking Liberally,” which met at the Wild Colonial Tavern in Providence, and he has said he was inspired by former President Barack Obama.
Blazejewski volunteered for the campaign of former state Representative David A. Segal, who ran for Congress in 2010, and Blazejewski ended up succeeding Segal in the House District 2 seat in 2011.
Segal, who co-founded Demand Progress and is now Yelp’s vice president for public policy, said Blazejewski became involved with a group of young, progressive organizers who were trying to “move away from the dominance of the old guard.” That was well before the state legalized same-sex marriage in 2013 or passed legislation to protect abortion rights in 2019, he noted.
Segal said he expects Blazejewski to continue supporting abortion rights and gay rights, and to be “a champion for making the state work better for everyday Rhode Islanders.” He said, “I think he will hold those progressive priorities while working with a broad array of House members of various ideologies.”
Early in his House tenure, Blazejewski sponsored legislation creating a “Homeless Bill of Rights,” and he sponsored an earlier version of the Act on Climate. “Fighting climate change is the challenge of our time,” he said when the bill passed in 2021.
His first step as speaker is a Republican priority
While viewed as the most progressive speaker, Blazejewski’s first major step was to make the unexpected announcement that he will push for a long-held Republican priority — creating a state inspector general to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse.
Democratic leaders, including Shekarchi, have long been unconvinced of the need for an inspector general. The Rhode Island Republican Party issued a statement, saying, “While action is long overdue, the sudden reversal by Democratic leadership appears to be an attempt to appropriate a core Republican priority only after being compelled to do so.”
But Blazejewski noted he first sponsored the measure with other Democrats back in 2015. He said “the time is now” because of “high-profile state failures” including the Washington Bridge crisis, and the partial collapse of an onramp over Amtrak tracks.
House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale, a Foster Republican, said Republicans such as Representative George A. Nardone of Coventry have been doing the “heavy lifting” on the inspector general idea, bringing in experts to testify. And some have questioned whether Blazejewski’s proposal as “a cynical move,” perhaps aimed at cementing support from conservative Democrats, he said.
But Chippendale noted Blazejewski has backed an inspector general before, saying, “Chris always demonstrated he is interested in transparency and good government that does not always align with Democratic politics.”
The true test, Chippendale said, is whether Blazejewski puts the inspector general’s position in the state budget, making it tougher for the Senate to kill. He said that would put Republicans “in a pickle” because they’d otherwise be inclined to vote against the budget. “That would be the biggest flex a speaker could ever make,” he said.
He’s a Harvard-educated lawyer
Blazejewski graduated from Harvard University in 2002 and Harvard Law School in 2005. He now works for the Sherin and Lodgen law firm, working from its Providence and Boston offices.
Blazejewski handles commercial litigation, legal malpractice defense, and business disputes, defending national and regional law firms, according to the firm’s website. “As a lawyer who other lawyers go to for legal advice, he assists law firms and attorneys in client disputes, risk management, and professional ethics,” the website says.
Blazejewski represents clients in Rhode Island and Massachusetts state and federal courts, according to the website.
When asked for a list of his Rhode Island clients and what he’d do about potential conflicts with House matters, Blazejewski said, “I cannot share my client lists. If any issue relating to conflicts arises, I will follow the rules relating to conflicts and recusals. In the past, I have been in contact with Jason Gramitt at the Ethics Commission to get his advice and I will continue to do so.”
He’s a working-class kid from Cumberland
While now an Ivy League-educated lawyer, Blazejewski grew up off Mendon Road in Cumberland – “where the old Benny’s used to be” — raised by a father who worked at Arnold Lumber and a mother who worked at Macy’s in the Emerald Square Mall.
After being elected speaker on May 7, Blazejewski thanked his parents, Richard and Diane.
“When we started out in North Smithfield, my Dad worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, including at a grocery store in Woonsocket, and on a loading dock as a Teamster,” he said. “When we moved to Cumberland, he got a job at a lumber yard in South County, and worked there until he retired a few years back. Dad, thank you for all you did to instill in me the value of hard work and commitment.”
Blazejewski said his mother “stayed home and raised my siblings and me when we were young — reading books and taking us to school, to the library, to sports, and all along teaching us to love animals. As we got older, she started working in retail in Attleboro, where she still works to this day. Mom, thank you for always keeping us focused on the importance of education, and for always being a fierce advocate for us along the way.”
He was debate team captain in high school
In 1998, the House passed a resolution congratulating Blazejewski for being that year’s Cumberland High School salutatorian. “It is no surprise, as he has attained near-perfect SAT scores and grade point average,” it said.
The resolution noted Blazejewski was editor of the school’s yearbook and literary journal, president of the National Honor Society, and a member of the math team and model legislature.
The 1998 Cumberland High School yearbook shows that Blazejewski also was captain of the debate team, and it pictures a “riled” Blazejewski, wearing a Smashing Pumpkins T-shirt, taking “a moment to compose himself before speaking.”
In the yearbook’s “Senior Quotes” section, Blazejewski quoted Robert Frost: “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,/But I have promises to keep,/And miles to go before I sleep,/And miles to go before I sleep.”
He’s not a rebel
In November 2018, a group of progressives rebelled against then-House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, a conservative Democrat from Cranston. But Blazejewski decided not to join them.
“My argument,” Blazejewski told the Globe in a 2020 interview, “was that it’s critically important to have a seat at the table when discussing public policy.”
That approach was vindicated, he said, when the House approved abortion rights legislation in 2019, despite Mattiello’s opposition. He said he played a key role in drafting, negotiating, and lobbying for the Reproductive Privacy Act, which aimed to protect abortion rights in Rhode Island in anticipation of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.