UPDATED: GOP Makes Endorsements at Convention
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Before voting on primary endorsements, the state GOP convention last night took on the tone of a pep rally as national chairman Michael Steele revved the crowd up with a rousing speech about the future of the party and the country.
“You know you’re about to win, right?” Steele said to cheers.
Steele praised state leadership for recruiting around 90 candidates to run for the General Assembly this year—a record for the GOP. “It has positioned you to do something unprecedented and that is to kick some serious behind in the fall,” Steele told Republicans assembled at the Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRepublicans nationwide are betting that voter anger in 2010 will bear fruit in Republican victories and Steele reinforced that message last night. “This time we’re in right now is very different than a year ago and you cannot lose sight of that fact,” Steele said.
He also the national party had not lost sight of the smallest state, promising a 50-state strategy for taking back Congress. “We want to treat Rhode Island as a winning state,” Steele said.
Steele predicted that Republicans will return to power by returning to their core principles of personal freedom, opportunity, and less government. “Long ago we stopped that fight, but no more,” Steele said. “We are a new GOP. We are in a Renaissance moment for our party.”
Candidate Endorsements
After Steele spoke, the convention turned to endorsing candidates in its primary—forcing to make choices in only three contested races. For the Second Congressional District, Mark Zaccaria won the official party backing over Bill Clegg. A third candidate, Michael Gardiner, was not nominated.
The party also chose John Robitaille over Victor Moffitt for governor and Heidi Rogers over Bob Tingle for lieutenant governor. Before the convention, the party had flirted with the idea of endorsing Cool Moose Party candidate Bob Healey, who wants to eliminate the office, but instead it went with Rogers, who has committed to a similar platform.
The party also officially endorsed candidates who do not face contested primaries:
Erik Wallin for Attorney General
Kerry King for General Treasurer
Catherine Taylor for Secretary of State
John Loughlin for Congress, First District
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