GolocalProv.com used its ‘slide show’ motif to make a thoughtful run through of Hot General Assembly Races last week. But, as often happens with upstate media, those of us downstate hit the cutting room floor.
Mark Zaccaria’s race in North Kingstown against incumbent Representative Robert Craven is the exception to this rule. Certainly, Zaccaria’s turn as state GOP Chairman and candidacies for US Senate and House make the race notable – perhaps for the notion that Zaccaria is taking a bite he can swallow this time.
But in the other North Kingstown District right next door, a close race is being waged to succeed Doreen Costa who term limited herself in a move akin to the Contract-with-America Republicans. Julie Casimiro, who ran against Costa two years ago, faces Republican Michael Marfeo from the Exeter half of the district. The race is being fought door by door, person by person and has skirted the issues, like tolls, that are animating many other races in South County. So it may not appear hot, but it is close.
And this District 31 House race bumps up against another hot contest, the District 34 Senate seat which features a rematch between Senator Elaine Morgan and Catherine Cool-Rumsey who lost the seat to Morgan in 2014. Unlike the more politically featureless, personally focused race next door, Rumsey comes with a progressive seal of approval and a rich warchest for a swamp Yankee senate seat. In this rural district, Elaine Morgan counters with a conservative bent and populist work ethic tempered by a record of vigorous bipartisan work advocating municipal priorities with the 5(!) town councils that represent portions of District 34.
Morgan is a staunch opponent of tolls while Rumsey favors them. And differences on policy are echoed by the two women’s approach to the office. Rumsey touts high-minded macro policy, e.g. the Behavioral Health and Firearms Safety Task Force, and a $15 minimum wage which she excoriates Morgan for opposing. Morgan is unabashed in opposition to such mandates on business that can under cut what little job growth we have. But she is more of a local sparkplug, helping to organize opposition to the Governor’s proposed ‘Welcome Center’ which would take land off the tax rolls and put the state into competition with taxpaying businesses – all while giving rise to fear that the state’s habit of not policing itself for hazards like fuel storage and surface runoff could harm the aquifer underlying the proposed site.
Recent mailings attack Morgan for not supporting more money for Chariho schools which is a twisted way of saying she didn’t vote for the budget. Of course you can’t vote for part of the budget, its an all or nothing vote. This is an ironic line of attack as Morgan lead the charge to restore school transportation funds threatened after both Hopkinton and Richmond Town Councils passed resolutions opposing the tolls and the Speaker went on the warpath of retribution.
It is the more ironic because that duty should have fallen to District 38’s representative, Brian Patrick Kennedy. This member of leadership and long serving Hopkinton and Westerly rep kept his head down rather than defend the town he represented, on either the tolls or the ‘Welcome Center’. During the election he emphasizes his reluctance about the tolls and finds the ‘courage’ to oppose the ‘Welcome Center’ that is opposed by virtually all his constituents. But when it mattered, when transportation spending could have been questioned at the legislature, he was AWOL.
Tolls are issue number one for his opponent Mike Geary who works in trucking. But Mike also helped spearhead citizen opposition to the ‘Welcome Center’ and questioned why Blake Filippi and Elaine Morgan had to take the lead in working with state and federal agencies and town governments to abate the mess at the Copar Quarry when Kennedy was the veteran legislator.
While the demands of leadership can focus legislators on larger issues -- Kennedy for instance did much work on utility regulation, some good and some hopeless -- no amount of legislative celebrity will protect incumbents that loose touch with the day to day issues affecting their district. So this is a hotter race than anyone expected, not only as a result of tolls.
And can a race with no challenger be hot? Blake Fillippi in House District 36, who hopes to field a larger caucus of independents this year, has no opponent. But he could be cutting a bigger swath at the legislature in the future, so he’s in our hot races column.
In South County, the anti-toll and anti-status quo sentiment is unlikely to move the legislature in the progressive direction noted during the primaries. This is true for many other of the hot races elsewhere in the state. So the political balance of the legislature will be less affected overall than the average tenure of its members - which should go down noticeably.
And then the question of the ultimate upstate hot race, the speaker’s. There is an ironic ambivalence amongst various of the loyal opposition as to whether they really want the speaker to loose to Steve Frias. This has a kind of “devil you know over the devil you don’t” concern when it comes to who might wield the speaker’s gavel in his place.
Institutional players like the Providence Journal and Brendan Doherty have endorsed Mattiello. Ken Block is backing Frias. We too must side with Steve Frias tilting at the status quo. Because we see the ideological balance of the body as a wash in these elections, a change of speaker doesn’t loom as so great a hazard.
Of course the speaker is not selected solely for the extent to which their political predilections represent a middle ground amongst their colleagues. Good old fashioned log-rolling and an ability to command a majority when it counts matter more than policy centrality. It is conceivable that the speaker’s replacement could move more left of center, not a healthy direction for this state. But seeing the sitting speaker defeated for digging in his heals against the citizens on tolls is worth the risk. It is still our recommendation that you go to the polls and vote out those who voted for tolls.
Brian Bishop is on the board of OSTPA and has spent 20 years of activism protecting property rights, fighting overregulation and perverse incentives in tax policy.
Related Slideshow: 15 RI General Assembly Races to Watch in 2016
Serpa, who is seeking her sixth term representing District 27 in West Warwick, Warwick, and Coventry, turned back Progressive challenger Nicholas Delmenico in the Democratic primary in September.
As Chair of House Oversight Committee, Serpa has been front and center — and vociferously so — at the General Assembly hearings into the state’s botched UHIP rollout. Back in August, however, Serpa was asked to subpoena the 38 Studios investigation interview documents from the Rhode Island State Police. (GoLocalProv has since sued Governor Raimondo and the State Police to get them).
Now, Serpa remains in the hot seat as she faces Independent Mark Bourget.
The race for former State Senator Edward O’Neill’s seat in Lincoln and parts of North Providence and North Smithfield is taking another interesting twist.
O’Neill, prior to announcing he would not be running for the seat he had held since 2008, switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican.
Only one Republican candidate emerged to follow O’Neill — Thom Paolino — but a crowded Democratic primary saw Petrarca-Karampetsos emerge from a four person field.
Lawyer Petrarca-Karampetsos practices alongside her bother Peter Petrarca, who is often before the Providence Board of Canvassers.
Pictured: Petrarca-Karempetsos (and brother Peter Petrarca).
The twelve-term Representative for District 1 on the East Side of Providence is facing a strong opponent in 2016.
Democrat Rep. Ajello, who was first elected in 1992, is being challenged by Independent businessman Mathieu, who had been Managing Director and Chief Financial Officers at Prov Equity, the $23 billion private equity firm.
“I am not looking for a career in politics (I’ve already had two successful careers in banking and private equity) or to serve any special interest groups other than the RI taxpayers,” said Mathieu, who cites John Chafee and Bruce Sundlun among his political inspirations.
Ajello had been at the forefront of the marijuana legalization front in Rhode Island for years, has been known for her support of legislation protecting civil liberties.
In 2014, Republican Lancia beat beleaguered Rep. Peter Palumbo 52.4% to 47.4% — after Palumbo found himself at the center of a Democratic party scandal and an ethics complaint .
(As GoLocal reported in 2014, “Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Block chastised Democratic Party Chair David Caprio and Palumbo for ‘rigging the game’ and ‘serving their own financial interests’, citing an NBC 10 I-Team investigative report that revealed Palumbo was the high bidder on a contract to operate concession stands at state beaches but then backed out, and the contract was awarded to the second highest bidder, Caprio, who then hired Palumbo to manage the operation,”
Lancia, who has been a strong champion of veterans issues at the State House while facing questions of his own veterans’ effort, is squaring off against Democratic lawyer Millea, who just received the endorsement of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Care Professionals.
Incumbent Craven, a lawyer, was first elected to District 32 in North Kingstown in 2012. In 2014, he defeated Republican Sharon Gamba 51.9% to 47.8%.
Now, Craven faces former RI GOP Party Chair Mark Zaccaria, who in 2014 squared off against Senator Jack Reed and garnered just under 30% of the vote.
Zaccaria has been a visible figure with his show “Common Sense RI” on politics in the state; Craven has been hard at fundraising, garnering over $17,000 in the last quarter alone from top party officials and PACs.
The race for Republican Dan Reilly’s District 72 seat finds former Democratic Rep. Finn (who had beat Reilly in 2012 before losing to him in 2014) being challenged by Republican Mendonca.
Former member Finn faced a particularly difficult Democratic primary, which saw Democratic party chair Joe McNamara endorse Finn’s opponent instead, as reported by the Providence Journal.
Staunch gun-control candidate Finn was endorsed however by the Portsmouth and Middletown Democratic committees - and recently refused to take part in the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens debate against opponent Mendonca.
Challenger(s): Lori Barden (I); Jonathan Vallecilla (I)
The politics of Pawtucket finds incumbent Rep. Jean Philippe Barros, who was first elected in 2014, facing two Independent names on the ballot, Lori Barden and Andrew Maguire.
in 2014, Barros defeated John Arcaro in the district’s Democratic primary, 804 votes to Arcaro’s 582.
Now, Arcaro is squaring off against Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien — and both Arcaro and Barden were at the recent protest at Hope Artiste Village where former tenants and community activists came out in opposition to controversial California developer getting $3.6 million from the state.
Another race that is repeat of 2014 — that saw Kettle prevail with 54.9% of the vote to Morisseau’s 35.6% (with their party candidate Zachary Farnum garnering 9.3% of the vote), Progressive Morisseau is slated to challenge Kettle once again.
Kettle, who was first elected to the Senate in 2010, said on the record he did not plan on holding the seat this long, however.
In July, GoLocal reported Kettle had pledged to quit after two terms.
The 2014 rematch pits incumbent Republican Roberts against Democrat Tomasso — who had been elected to represent the district in 2010 and 2012 before being defeated last cycle.
Tomasso, meanwhile, has been putting forth legislative proposals, ranging from pledging to introduce legislation to phase out the motor vehicle tax, to calling for veterans pensions to be 100% tax exempt.
All politics is local, and perhaps no where in Rhode Island are local politics more heated right now than in Burrillville, as they pertain to the Invenergy power plant proposal.
Democratic lawyer Cale Keable was first elected to District 47 in 2010 — and faced no opponent in the last general election in 2014. Since then, Keable has been in the middle of the local control issue as far as the Invenergy power plant is concerned — this past year he introduced an ill-fated measure to give Burrillville residents control over the proposal, which approved overwhelmingly in the House but failed to make it out of committee on the Senate side.
Republican Councilman David Place — who along with the town body voted to opposed the power plant in September — has been running a campaign opposed to RhodeWorks and truck tolls, among other issues. Keable voted for truck tolls.
It’s deja vu all over again. In January, Republican Pagliarini won the special election against Democrat Seveney to fill the seat vacated by Republican Senator Christopher Ottiano, when he left to take a job at Neighborhood Health Plan.
Despite getting the endorsement of Ottiano — and the Newport Daily News — Seveney was unsuccessful on his first attempt.
Now, the staunch anti-truck toll Pagliarini and Seveney are squaring off once more. Seveney refused to take part in the recent Portsmouth Concerned Citizens forum.
The 2014 challenger to Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed has set his sights on a new target — Representative Lauren Carson.
Smith, who ran as a Republican against Paiva Weed last election and lost with 44.9% of the vote to Paiva Weed’s 54.9%, is battling with Carson, who beat Peter Martin in the 2014 Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election.
Carson has been front in center in the oversight of the state’s botched tourism campaign rollout, Chairing the House special commission on tourism. Smith took issue with Carson’s public position on 38 Studios however, pointing out that when she called in September for the State Police to release the interview notes, that she had voted in June against a bill calling for the appointment of an independent investigator.
Challenger(s): Anthony Paolino (D), Vincent Marzullo (I)
One of a number of three-way races pits Deputy Minority Leader Morgan facing two opponents once again — in 2014, she turned back Democrat Nicholas Denice and Moderate Paul Caianiello — whose combined 49.7% of the vote were ultimately bested by Morgan’s 50.1%.
Now, Morgan, who was first elected in 2010, faces veteran Paolino on the Democratic side, and Independent Marzullo, who is known for his long-term work in the state’s service community, having overseen the AmeriCorps VISA program.
Morgan had put her support — unsuccessfully — behind GOP candidate Shawna Lawton in the GOP primary in Cranston with Steve Frias. Morgan recently decried the Raimondo administration’s botched UHIP rollout. Marzullo demanded Morgan denounce Trump, and Paolino has appealed to those “tired of the business as usual politics and ineffective career politicians.”
Challenger(s): Marcia Ranglin-Vassell (D), Roland Lavallee (R)
The two-way turned three-way-race in District 5 in Providence could be one of the most intriguing battles of 2016.
Progressive Ranglin-Vassell beat incumbent John DeSimone in the Democratic primary, only to have DeSimone toss his hat back in the ring with a write-in campaign — to create a cross-cutting general election among three candidates.
While the Democrats have a Progressive and more conservative candidate, Republican Lavallee is making the case for being outside the Democratic machine. “The one party rule has led Rhode Island in a race to the bottom for every major metric that would determine livability, freedoms and business friendly climate,” said Lavallee.
Challenger(s): Steve Frias (R), Patrick Vallier (I)
Undisputedly the top legislative contest this election season, the battle between Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, Republican challenger and Republican National Committeeman Steve Frias, and independent Patrick Vallier in District 15 is the race to watch in 2016.
In June, GoLocal looked at a number of the issues between incumbent Mattiello and Frias, (Vallier, who filed his notice of organization in July, reports having no cash on hand, contributions, and has no discernible campaign presence online).
Since then, developments including Donald Trump’s mounting problems — and Frias’ reluctance to talk about the GOP nominee, despite being the national committeeman, as well as campaign issues ranging from line-item veto to car tax repeal — have entered the race, with both candidates continuing to pound the pavement in Cranston.
OSTPA’s Pam Gencarella wrote for GoLocal that Mattiello is feeling the heat — while GoLocal’s Russ Moore wrote that a defeat of the conservative Mattiello would be a “hollow victory” for the GOP.
