Election Night Winners & Losers
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Who were the biggest winners and losers on Election Night? GoLocalProv has the complete breakdown.
Winners
David Cicilline - > There is no question that Congressman Cicilline’s turnaround is the story of the 2012 election. At a time when any number of ambitious Democrats had every reason to throw their hats in the ring against Cicilline, the Congressman managed to avoid a credible primary opponent and then ran an excellent campaign against Brendan Doherty to pick up the win Tuesday.
Sheldon Whitehouse -> Nobody helped Cicilline more than Senator Whitehouse, who cruised to re-election against Republican Barry Hinckley. Whitehouse always had a huge financial advantage and a lot more name recognition, but his decisive victory was among Tuesday’s most impressive wins.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTJim Langevin -> And don’t forget about the Congressman in the 2nd District. Langevin withstood what was clearly the most significant Republican challenge he’s ever had to win comfortably. It appears that Congressman Langevin has the ability to hold his seat for as long as he wants.
Gordon Fox -> The House Speaker may have been caught off guard by his challenge from Independent Mark Binder, but Fox’s talented campaign team placed all of their focus on the Martin Luther King School and it paid off. What originally appeared like it might be a race that was too close to call turned into a relatively comfortable victory.
Twin River -> The Lincoln-based casino will soon offer blackjack, craps and roulette after voter across the state and in the town supported Question 1. It’s a major win for Twin River, but more importantly, it preserves the state’s third largest source of revenue. For now.
James Diossa -> The Central Falls Councilman picked up more votes than every other candidate combined in Tuesday’s Mayoral primary. He still has to win a general election race against former police chief Joe Moran III, but Diossa is clearly the favorite to become Mayor of the state’s smallest city.
President Obama -> The President won four more years in office and now has prove that he can reach across the aisle and avoid the same Congressional gridlock the country has faced in recent years.
Losers
State GOP -> It’s bad enough the Republicans lost all their federal races, but every solid candidate it put up in General Assembly races also couldn’t pick up wins Tuesday. From Keith Anderson to Sean Gately to Jim Haldeman, it certainly appeared as though the GOP had a real opportunity this year, but Democrats rode the Obama/Whitehouse across the state.
Brendan Doherty -> The Republican Congressional candidate built himself into a strong challenger for David Cicilline, but he lost a double-digit lead in the polls and couldn’t overcome having President Obama on the ballot. It will be interesting to see where Doherty goes from here. Will he take a shot at Governor?
Newport Grand -> While voters in Lincoln approved bringing table games to Twin River, the voters of Newport turned the plan down at Newport Grand. Newport voters actually supported Twin River’s expansion, but by voting against the proposal in their city, it looks as though the casino could soon fall on hard times.
Jon Brien -> The Woonsocket State Rep. staged a write-in campaign after losing his Democratic primary, but the union-backed Stephen Casey easily won on Tuesday. The conservative Democrat likely joined most of the state’s Republicans in being unable to overcome the popular Democrats at the top of the ticket.
Scott Brown -> In the end, Scott Brown received the same treatment from Massachusetts voters that Lincoln Chafee received in Rhode Island in 2006. It will be interesting to see if Brown ends up following the same path as Chafee and decides to run for Governor in two years.
Dan McGowan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @danmcgowan.
