A Primary Question: Where Did All the Voters Go?
Friday, September 17, 2010
John DePetro can be heard weekday mornings 6-10A, on GoLocalProv media partner 630WPRO & 99.7, and podcasts of show highlights are found at 630wpro.com.
What happened to the Primary voters of 2010?
If you are like many Rhode Islanders, it appears you may have slept through or just worked through (unless you are a teacher/public school employee who is granted the day off) or maybe felt like you were "just completely through" with this Primary season and stayed away. Whatever was the case, the voter turnout numbers seem stunningly low compared to the heights of the hype that seemed to be telling us the voter is angry and will show it at the polls.
Whatever voter anger is out there, was, for the most part, not seen around here on Tuesday. "Throw the bums out" turned into (yawn) "what's the difference if the bums stay?" Tuesday had a common theme, with most of the incumbents winning in contests that in the end were not even close. What is even more striking than the small number of voters was the miniscule number of Republican voters.
Democrat Betsy Dennigan lost to Congressman Jim Langevin, yet Dennigan got more votes than the four Republicans running in the District 2 Republican primary combined. Republican Mark Zaccaria won his primary with 5,569 votes, and now faces Langevin, who received 25,000 votes on Tuesday. The Red Sox are out of the playoffs, and the Patriots have played just one game, so where were the voters?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe only real suspense in the closing days of the Primary seemed to be if Anthony Gemma's late August offensive against David Cicilline, which grew more aggressive—and expensive—by the day, would translate into an 11th-hour surge and bring Gemma within striking distance. It did not --and when the votes were counted Tuesday night, Cicilline won with 38 percent of the vote to Gemma's 22 percent. Are you kidding me? Bill Lynch seemed to doze off back in mid-August and finished a distant fourth. So much for the power of chairmanship. The man who is poised to be Cicilline's successor, Angel Taveras proved he may not know the finances of the city of Providence as well as he should, but he apparently knew where the votes were, and won big.
State office-holders Ralph Mollis and Liz Roberts ended up beating back primary opponents without breaking a sweat. John Robitaille beat Victor Moffitt with ease, and now has
to face Caprio and Chafee, who have huge war chests and name recognition.
Every candidate seemed to have the same talking points at the ready: "We need to create jobs and oppose the "Schilling Deal." But in the end the "Facebook election" turned into the "same faces" primary. Chris Young gave the Primary the most sparks, yet even his 15 minutes faded to a dud by the end. The Primary of 2010 was like watching a very hyped movie that starts off slow, but never quite takes off, then finishes in a very unsatisfying way.
We have reached the general election season. I can hardly stand the suspense.
John DePetro can be heard weekday mornings 6-10A, on GoLocalProv media partner 630WPRO & 99.7, and podcasts of show highlights are found at 630wpro.com.
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