WPRI’s debate this evening between Congressman David Cicilline and Republican challenger Brendan Doherty comes as the First Congressional District race remains up for grabs. Just consider last week’s Brown University poll: it showed Cicilline with a lead of slightly less than 6 percentage points.
Congressional incumbents tend to limit their appearances in debates. The thinking can be boiled down to: why give your opponent more, not fewer, opportunities to duke it out?
But David Cicilline, a good talker, is drawing attention to his intention to meet Republican Brendan Doherty in a series of televised debates: