Politics & Government

Roberti Scoops Up 5th District Supporters, Patrick Kennedy Visits Avon

The former Rhode Island congressman, one of the late Ted Kennedy's sons, was in town on business and stopped by Dan Roberti's campaign stop at J. Foster Ice Cream.

When former Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy learned he'd be in Avon, a 5th District town, on business for his organization, One Mind for Research, he called fellow Democrat Dan Roberti, 30, about organizing a campaign stop in town.

Roberti, of Kent, whose main campaign platform is job creation and whose first job in high school was scooping ice cream, chose Avon business J. Foster's Ice Cream on Route 44 for his meet and greet Monday.

"It was an opportunity to talk and interact with voters," said Roberti, whose campaign staff offered free scoops of ice cream for anyone who signed up for his mailing list.

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Kennedy, one of the late Ted Kennedy's sons and nephew of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, has endorsed Roberti in the race for the 5th District seat, which opened up when stepped down to run for U.S. Senate. Kennedy was a congressman for 11 years and has also served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"My family always believed politics was a noble profession," Kennedy said, stressing the importance of working to be constructive in solving problems. "I like someone who's not only young, but who's got the right values, is energetic and who wants to go and serve."

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He quipped that his 11-week-old son, Owen, who he carried around the ice cream store as he spoke with Roberti's constituents, is "already a Dan Roberti supporter."

Roberti first met Kennedy at an event when he was working for James Carville in 2005. They reconnected after a lecture Kennedy gave at Yale about two years ago amid launching his organization, One Mind for Research, which strives for collaborative research about cures for "diseases of the brain," as well as improved public policies and equality for people with mental illnesses.

Kennedy, who is a recovering alcoholic and has suffered from depression, has experienced the struggle firsthand for patients with mental illnesses to receive the same health insurance coverage as someone who is physically ill. He said he is appreciative of how Roberti understands that "you can't exclude the brain" in health care. Kennedy helped pass the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. Since leaving Congress in 2010, Kennedy said he has remained sober.

Roberti, a Loyola University New Orleans graduate, witnessed neglect toward Americans with mental illness when he was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Washington state in 2004 and 2005. Some of the first soldiers to return from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan came to the homeless shelter he volunteered at to see a mental health counselor and to seek help when the government wasn't able to give it to them, he said. Others were impoverished.

"That was heartbreaking to see our heroes coming to a shelter for help," Roberti said.

He also remembers Dec. 17, 2006 when his mother, Kathleen Lenihan, 60, called him and was incoherent. What initially seemed like a stroke turned out to be a brain tumor. She is still battling the cancer today and her family is supporting her in the healing process.

As someone in support of bipartisanship, Roberti described Kennedy's One Mind for Research initiative as an attempt to "address issues of the mind" while working together.

One issue that has polarized the Democratic and Republican parties is health care. Roberti and Kennedy both said they were pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's health care plan as constitutional. Kennedy said that it supported a notion the executive and legislative branches already voiced – that "health care should be a right, not a privilege."

"I'm very excited we're approaching a new day where we take care of everyone up front," Kennedy said.

Roberti identified health care as something that politicians need to work to improve.

"When we work together, we can solve problems," he said, echoing his campaign mantra.

More information about Dan Roberti is available on his website, www.danroberti.com. To read about Patrick Kennedy's One Mind for Research, you can visit the organization's website, 1mind4research.org


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