John Edwards (Rhode Island politician)

John 'Jay' G. Edwards IV^[2] (born April 7, 1958 in Newport, Rhode Island) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives representing District 70 since January 2009. On March 25, 2014, Rep. Edwards was elected House Majority Whip by the House Democratic Caucus when Rep. Nicholas Mattiello became Speaker. Prior to that he had served as the Senior Deputy Majority Leader under Speaker Gordon Fox. Edwards serves on the House Labor, House Oversight, House Judiciary and House Small Business Committees. In September 2014, Edwards became a CSG Henry Toll Fellow.

Legislation

In his freshman year, Rep Edwards was able to push through legislation that would increase the fines on industrial polluters from $1,000/day to $25,000/day in response to an environmental problem that occurred in the Bay Street area of his district in 2002. In 2012 Rhode Island became the 15th state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana under legislation championed by Rep Edwards. The major legislation that Edwards is responsible for is stopping the toll on the Sakonnet River Bridge that spans both towns represented by Edwards, Tiverton & Portsmouth. Included in the 2015 RI Budget, Edwards was able to have the toll removed, increased funding added to RIDOT and to have a statewide infrastructure program established outside of the state's budget.

Education

Edwards earned his BS in political science from Northeastern University. Edwards attended the Centre Scolaire St. Marc a Lyons in Lyons, France during his junior year in high school and graduated from St. George's School in Middletown RI in 1976.

Elections

• 2012 Edwards was unopposed for the September 11, 2012 Democratic Primary, winning with 618 votes^[3] and won the November 6, 2012 General election with 4,267 votes (71.7%) against Independent candidate John Perkins.^[4]

• 2004 To challenge District 70 incumbent Republican Representative Joseph Amaral, Edwards ran in the September 14, 2004 Democratic Primary, but lost by 73 votes to K. Nicholas Tsiongas,^[5] who lost the November 2, 2004 General election to Representative Amaral.^[6]

• 2008 When Representative Amaral retired and left the seat open, Edwards was unopposed for both the September 9, 2008 Democratic Primary, winning with 279 votes^[7] and the November 4, 2008 General election, winning with 4,590 votes.^[8]

• 2010 Edwards was unopposed for the September 23, 2010 Democratic Primary, winning with 649 votes^[9] and won the November 2, 2010 General election with 2,760 votes (56.5%) against Republican nominee Nancy Driggs.^[10]

References

External links

• Official page at the Rhode Island General Assembly
• Campaign site
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• John Edwards at Ballotpedia
• John Edwards at the National Institute on Money in State Politics