Republican Dave Talan seeks Providence mayorship on back of wide spectrum of voters, including Smiley’s
Tim Yean
Managing Editor
(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) – David Talan, among his lines of roles, coached baseball for 52 years as part of the Elmwood Little League. Can he hit a grand slam and claim the mayoral chair the Republican Party has not seen in Providence since the 1970’s?
The last Republican to have held the seat, Vincent ‘Buddy’ Cianci, won a tight race 52 years ago thanks to a share of Democrats voting Cianci in a revolt of then-mayor Joseph A. Doorley, Jr. Talan is looking to do the same with Brett Smiley voters dissatisfied with the nomination of Democratic socialist David Morales in Nov. 3’s mayoral election.
“The way I look at it is that it was a very close election in the primary,” the former engineer told Anchor TV Interviews. “It was almost 50-50.”
Talan ran for the mayoral race to fill in the empty Republican ballot square, a run he feels is an obligation as co-chairman of the Providence Republican Party.
“It would be kind of awkward for me to run as an independent,” Talan said. “It would be a possibility, but again, as the chairman of the party, I don’t feel I can do that.”
Talan anticipated running against Smiley in the election, but the primary loss against Morales shifted his focus to being a “firewall” against socialism in Providence. The 77-year-old says he actually agreed with the current mayor on many of his policies, with the primary difference being on education.
“It isn’t so much that he disagreed with me as the fact that he didn’t control the public school system until July 1st,” Talan said. “He took a hands-off approach and concentrated on the things that he really did control.”
On education, the Classical High School alum says he would like for the Providence Public School District to return to neighborhood schooling in an effort to not only reduce the costs of transporting students via school bus, but also strengthen community connections.
“It made all our parents know each other because their kids were going to the same school and let them get involved,” Talan said. “That’s one of the things that’s kind of been lost with the current model.”
Talan adds that his model would convince teachers to work in Providence with more input from parents. Resources in general are key to providing teachers with proper work environments, Talan telling Anchor TV Interviews that budget cuts on transport and “adults outside the classroom” would provide money teachers need to run a classroom.
One more idea to entice teachers to public schools for Talan is giving principals and faculty more autonomy in rule provisions, calling back to conversations with charter school teachers.
“[I] ask them, ‘Oh, would you like to go back to a traditional public school and make more money?’ And they say no,” Talan said. “They like the freedom to actually do things they like to do to improve the education for their kids and not be constricted by the contract and various policies.
On raising the age limit for nightclubs following the September death of a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth freshman at the Mezzo Lounge, Talan said that he hadn’t “decided one way or the other on raising the age limit,” but said he would focus on “bad actors” that give other nightclubs a poor reputation.
“I mean, there’s the one at the corner of Broad Street and Sackett Street that has a lot of those type incidents, and they really harass the neighbors with loud noise and just an unpleasant environment,” Talan said. “And that’s the small minority of nightclubs in general.”
On ICE, a disagreement with Morales is the idea of Providence Police arresting the enforcement agents.
“Having armed police officers from one agency arrest armed officers from another, what could possibly go wrong with that?” Talan said sarcastically. “I could see some terrible tragedy arising from that. Just a really bad idea.”
On local Question 7, which asks residents if they want to divest money from “foreign countries conducting severe violations of human rights,” Talan is very against it, condemning Morales of his support of the question and fearing that the passage of the question would spark a rise in antisemitism in Providence.
Asked if he would call the war in Gaza a genocide on Israel, Talan said the genocide is actually on the Palestinian end.
“If the time ever comes where the Palestinians in Gaza decide that they love their own children more than they hate Jews, the same thing could happen there,” Talan said. “But it's not going to happen today, and it's not going to happen tomorrow. And until then, Israel has to do what's necessary to allow their people to live in peace and safety.”
On the final question asked to Talan on what makes Providence Providence, he cites the connections residents are able to make with each other.
“In Providence, you get to know the people that live near you and know your neighborhood,” Talan said. “I think that’s something pretty special.”
Early voting in Providence has already begun. Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Rhode Island College will close classes for the day to allow students to vote.
Comments