Are Rhode Island’s Political Parties Dead?

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Kate Nagle, GoLocal Contributor

What is the state of the two major political parties in Rhode Island?

With the Rhode Island Democratic Party not endorsing a gubernatorial candidate in this year's race, and the GOP party recommending one candidate over the former Moderate Party head -- who has said to be up in the polls - are the parties alive and well, or not?

"Political parties in Rhode Island don’t have much strength. They don’t control money, message, or volunteers. Increasingly, those power over those things have shifted to outside groups and advocacy organizations that have money and volunteers," said Darrell West, Vice President at the Brookings Institution and former Director of the Taubman Center at Brown University. "Party endorsements don’t mean much and in the past have led to a backlash against the candidate endorsed."

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West continued, "The fact that the state Democratic party doesn’t want to make an endorsement in the Governor’s race shows the limited ability of the party to influence voter opinion. Party leaders understand it is better to lay low then to take a position that will become the object of attack."

Jennifer Duffy with the Cook Political report cautioned, however, against reading too much into the Democratic party's decision.

"Don't misread the Democratic Party's decision not to endorse in the Governor's race. It was a political calculation. There isn't a lot of upside to making an endorsement. It's not because they would look bad if the endorsed candidate loses the primary, but because activists within the party are divided," said Duffy. "It would be hard to bring the party together after the primary, regardless of who won. The party has more to gain by staying neutral."

Election Season Ahead

"One of the primary functions of party organizations is to nominate candidates who will are aligned with the party platform and are most likely to win against the opposing party in the general election. In this case, the RI Democratic party is leaving the nomination function entirely to the primary voters, and choosing not to try to influence, through its endorsement, voter choice in the primary. That is certainly a sign of party weakness, when the leaders of the organization choose not to weigh in on this very important decision," said June Speakman, Professor of Political Science at Roger Williams University.

Speakman continued, "The idea of leaving it completely to the voters puts the burden even more on the candidates, which will certainly lead to even more television ads, a more intense ground game, and possibly a more negative tone. However, this is part of a decades-long trend in campaign politics away from campaigns controlled by the parties to campaigns controlled by the candidates."

With the Democratic endorsement meeting taking place on Sunday at the Rhode Island Convention Center, the party's Executive Director Jonathan Boucher was optimistic about the weeks -- and months - ahead.

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Parties, endorsements, elections -- Rhode island political experts weigh in the place of party in elections today.

"At this point, we have not experienced any infighting among any of the candidates," said Boucher. "The State Party is going to do it's best to ensure that infighting remains at a minimum so we can stand united on September 10th and help elect the first Democratic Governor since Bruce Sundlun in 1992."

On the Republican side, the party's nominating committee voted on Thursday to recommend Cranston Mayor Allan Fung for the party's endorsement. Last month opponent Ken Block, who joined the GOP after founding the state's Moderate Party, issued a release saying internal polling has him ahead in the race.

Kay Israel, Professor of Communications at Rhode Island College, weighed in on the changing -- and in his view, diminished role of the parties in Rhode Island elections.

"Party politics in Rhode Island, as in most states, has become less and less influential. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties have the ability to meet their primary obligations getting out the vote nor, since the Supreme Court rulings of late, playing a large role in campaign financing. Organizing the grassroots and funding tend to be built around candidates, causes, or organizations such a business or labor. The result is that the endorsement of candidates has only limited impact on the campaigns," said Israel.

"The process in Rhode Island provides little value for a candidate to seek the party endorsement for an office. Those that gain it have a star placed by their name and are listed first on the ballot," continued Israel. "In a time that half the state's voters are independent and can affiliate, vote and then remove that designation, the party blessing doesn't have much clout. Add the all too common variable of low turnout and any advantage is even further reduced."

Party Positions

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"I always told candidates I worked with to never count on the party to do anything for them regardless of what they promised. If they happened to come through that would be a bonus, but if you counted on them and they failed you, you were in trouble," said veteran Rhode Island pollster Victor Profughi. "Bottom line is that today the party endorsement is probably not worth much in helping with resources (campaign workers and money), and is virtually meaningless in most campaign when it comes to delivering vote numbers for the endorsed candidate."

Looking at the current state of the Democratic and Republican parties in the 2014 election season, Israel noted the historical perspective for context.

"In the 70’s greater concern was developed in the concept of ticket-splitting. People were becoming more likely to consider the candidate or the issue over party. The frequency of elections of Republican governors, the big budgets spent by candidates in recent years, the victory of Lincoln Chafee in 2010, the changed affiliations of candidates Block and Fung, and the coming demise of the master lever are all an indication of the diminished influence of party," said Israel.

Israel continued, "That’s not to say parties don’t still play a role. They help to maintain the process, provide a common ground for the candidates, enable candidates to have an additional source of funding, and as the level of the office decreases can play more of a role of getting voters to the polls. That role, however, continues to be eroding."

Speakman noted where she saw them having strength, however.

"In terms of the other roles that parties play, in government and in the electorate, the political parties still do have power. Party labels shape voters' thinking about candidates, and are the most important cue to voters as they make their choice," said Speakman. "In government, parties serve as an organizing principle as well, determining leadership positions, committee assignments and so on."

Mike Rollins, the Chairman of the state's Libertarian Party, said the biggest challenge for their candidates was ballot access.

"The fact that we are not an officially recognized "major party" is a rather serious problem for us, because unlike the Ds & Rs we are required to do separate petition efforts for each of our LPRI candidates. No sharing of signatures allowed," said Rollins.

"We have people that are very serious about building a viable 3rd (or maybe in RI's case second) party, but ballot access will most definitely be a challenge," said LPRI Vice Chair Tony Jones.

Editor's Note: Jones' quote was incorrectly attributed to Rollins prior to correction.