Winthrop, Former Newport Mayor, Announces Citywide City Council Bid

NEWPORT, RI—After a two-year hiatus from the City Council, former Newport Mayor Harry Winthrop is ready for a return.

Winthrop, who served terms from 1990 to 1993, in 1995 and from 2011 to 2012, announced his candidacy for a citywide seat on the City Council on Sunday, saying that “Newport needs leaders who have the vision to get the City of Newport on track to make us a 12-month city, with quality, high paying jobs and an infrastructure that will allow us to compete to bring tech and green jobs to our city."

Winthrop served as mayor from 2012 to 2014. The mayorship in Newport is chosen by the council among their members following each election.

In prepared remarks, Winthrop said his agenda is focused on addressing core infrastructure issues, such as securing funding for the realignment of the Claiborne Pell Bridge ramps and following through on the acquisition of Navy property that was the former home of the Newport Naval Hospital.

The ramp realignment, which would re-do the spaghetti of ramps that were never meant to be a permanent solution, is "the first step in the redevelopment of Newport's North End," Winthrop said.

That redevelopment should also include a plan to move the Visitors Center to the North End and the city must "work with residents, developers and neighbors for a better re-use of this property," Winthrop said.

The former mayor also said the Small Business Incubation Center at the Sheffield School must be finished and businesses need to move in as soon as possible. He also said the city's strategic plan, which hasn't been updated since 2013, is something he will work on getting updated.

Winthrop is a lifelong Newporter and graduate of the former De La Sall Academy and Rhode Island College. He also completed courses at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He retired from the position of Director of Planning with Electric Boat in 2007.

After his "retirement," Winthrop worked as a defense consultant with Apollo Professional Solutions from 2007 to 2014 "in the development of a twenty-year facilities master plan for the Electric Boat Manufacturing Facility at Quonset Point," according to a statement.

Though he didn't garner enough votes to get reelected in 2014, Winthrop didn't fade into the background. Along with staying active with local organizations, like the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Newport Rugby Club and as a board member of the Newport Museum of Irish History and St. Clare Home in Newport, he was appointed to the state Labor Relations Board by Governor Gina Raimindo in 2015.