Gorman announces new bid for District 43 seat

With sharp words for incumbent lawmakers and a pledge to combat a “political culture that is destroying our state,” Karin Gorman has announced a new bid for the District 43 seat in the House of Representatives.

Gorman, running as an independent, previously challenged incumbent Democrat Deborah Fellela in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Fellela, who has filed to seek re-election, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2006.

A lifelong Rhode Islander, Gorman graduated from North Providence High School, and attended the Community College of Rhode Island and Newbury College. She married T. Michael Gordon in 2003, and the couple moved to Johnston in 2005.

Gorman is the director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement (RIILE), and has been employed as a paraprofessional for a Providence-based certified public accounting firm for three decades. For the last 16 years, she has also worked for Warwick-based real estate and construction firm Sunshine Development Inc.

“Since my first run for office in 2010, I find that the state has gone so far off course that I fear there may be no turning it around,” Gorman said through a statement. “We know we have a governor that is completely tone deaf to the citizens of Rhode Island, and decades of corruption covers our state like a black cloud. Unfortunately, without significant change in representation, I believe there will be more to come.”

Gorman in the statement indicates she is “especially interest in eliminating fraud in the Department of Health and Human Services, where a very large portion of the state budget is spent.”

“Safeguards must be in place to protect the truly needy and most vulnerable – including the disabled and elderly – to ensure that the resources they need are available,” she states. “Waste and inefficiencies that plague the system must be examined and eliminated.”

Gorman’s statement also indicates she is “passionate about making sure only American citizens and legal immigrants are able to work in our state and receive social services.”

She points to her involvement with RIILE as having led to her “political awakening.”