On September 10, Republicans in the Second Congressional District will have to decide between a carpenter who's proud of having helped to raise money for lights for a Hope Valley Little League field and a retired math professor who spent more than a decade challenging the General Assembly's leadership. The district extends from Smith Hill in Providence to Watch Hill in Westerly.

As Rodney Driver, 70, and John Matson, 56, battle for the Republican nomination for the congressional seat, they're separated by their views on the proposed war with Iraq, gambling, the death penalty, party loyalty, and military spending. Both men have twice run unsuccessfully for the seat now held by freshman US Representative James Langevin, a Democrat.

Driver, a former state representative from Richmond, argues that he's the ideal candidate. Because he and Langevin served together in the legislature, a clean comparison of their voting records is possible, he says.

On the other hand, Matson, who has never held elective office, pitches himself as a regular guy who has worked in mills, run a gas station, and volunteered on Hopkinton civic projects. As the endorsed candidate, Matson also questions Driver's party switching past. Elected to the legislature as a Democrat, Driver ran for Congress in 1998 as a Republican and in 2000 as an independent. "He runs wherever it's convenient for him to run," says Matson.

Driver counters that he grew up as a Republican and campaigned for Dwight Eisenhower, but left the Republican Party during Richard Nixon's presidency. Watching Democratic representatives (including Langevin, he says) blindly follow the House Speaker during the '80s, he says, convinced him to switch back to a party that supports free enterprise and limited government spending. Driver says he ran as an independent two years ago because the pro-Israel lobby objected to his publicizing human rights abuses against the Palestinians and pressured Republicans to shun his campaign.

Driver and Matson are both pro-choice, oppose development of a container port at Quonset Point in North Kingstown, and support requiring carmakers to increase fuel efficiency. The two also criticize Langevin, as Democrat Kate Coyne-McCoy did in the 2000 primary, for voting in 1993 to reduce the state capital gains tax for executives of North Kingstown manufacturer American Power Conversion.

But they differ on other key issues. Matson, for example, supports the death penalty and has a "let the voters decide" attitude toward casino gambling. Driver opposes the death penalty and has actively opposed expanded gambling, authoring the law which prohibited "Las Vegas nights," or small-stakes gambling run by churches and local charities. Had the law not passed, he says, the Narragansett Indians could have successfully sued to open a casino.

During a recent cable television debate sponsored by Operation Clean Government, the two also differed sharply over a proposed invasion of Iraq. Matson took the hawk position. "They are bent on destruction of our system and our way of life," he insists. "We are going to have to do something with Saddam Hussein." And in his closing statement, he added, "I will pick up a gun and fight for this country."

Driver, however, called a second Gulf War "a mistake," and criticized the current economic sanctions and US bombings to enforce no-fly zones over Iraq. Saying war isn't in the American interest, Driver says, "If we go about causing hardship for innocent people, whether it be in Iraq, Latin America, or the Middle East, or elsewhere, we are creating more enemies for the United States."

Issue Date: August 23 - 29, 2002