Charlestown voters have spoken

A big night for the CCA

By Will Collette

Well, Town Council Boss Tom Gentz and Deputy Dan Slattery will be returning to the Town Council in their old slots, and now they have a third CCA true-blue in George Tremblay who will have to vacate his Planning Commission seat to take a seat on the Town Council. 

Democrat Paula Andersen, a first time candidate, also won a Council seat coming in third. She will be the first Democrat on the Town Council since 2008.

Councilor Lisa DiBello will also return, in her own manner, to the Council.

Incumbent Gregg Avedisian was defeated. The bottom finisher was Jim Mageau.

Planning Commissar Ruth Platner also won re-election to a new six-year term which will mean she can run her string on the Commission to 22 years if she serves out her term. She is joined by CCA candidates Gordon Foer (who was re-elected) and newcomers Connie Baker (who can’t tolerate meetings longer than 90 minutes) and Jan Knost. 

Democrat Brandon Cleary, a professional firefighter in Cranston, won the fifth slot. Brandon will be the first Democrat to sit on the Planning Commission in many years. [Readers - if you remember the last Democrat who served on Planning, please post a comment or send an e-mail with the name and year].

Here are the numbers posted on the Secretary of State's website:

TOWN COUNCIL TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN

5 to elect

Candidate	Total votes	Pct
Thomas B. GENTZ (IND)	1861	12.2%
Daniel J. SLATTERY (IND)	1721	11.3%
Paula Ann ANDERSEN (DEM)	1715	11.2%
Lisa A. DiBELLO (IND)	1595	10.4%
George C. TREMBLAY (IND)	1593	10.4%
Ronald J. AREGLADO (IND)	1514	9.9%
Timothy E. QUILLEN (DEM)	1383	9.1%
Thomas M. FERRIO (DEM)	1260	8.3%
Gregory J. AVEDISIAN (IND)	1187	7.8%
John C. DONOGHUE (IND)	801	5.2%
James M. MAGEAU (IND)	622	4.1%
WRITE-IN	17	0.1%

CHARIHO SCHOOL COMMITTEE TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN

Candidate	Total votes	Pct
Stephen M. HUZYK (IND)	2573	98.6%
WRITE-IN	36	1.4%

NON-PARTISAN PLANNING COMMISSION TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN

5 to elect

Candidate	Total votes	Pct
Ruth L. PLATNER	1694	12.9%
Jan V. KNOST	1587	12.1%
Constance D. VADNAIS-BAKER	1515	11.5%
Gordon L. FOER	1427	10.8%
Brandon Thomas CLEARY	1418	10.8%
Peter D. HERSTEIN	1374	10.4%
Frank D. GLISTA	1279	9.7%
Melina LODGE	1239	9.4%
Michael Eugene BRETON	815	6.2%
Joseph S. DOLOCK	785	6.0%
WRITE-IN	29	0.2%

All four proposed Charter Revision changes won by wide margins even though, by and large, they serve no useful purpose. However, their saving grace is that in their final form, these revisions are largely harmless.

As disappointing as the town election results are, they were tempered by some big wins in important state races. Of course Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Jim Langevin won by big margins, but it was encouraging to see Rep. David Cicilline win re-election in the 1^st District. 

The northern half of Charlestown does indeed have a new Senator with the victory of Catherine Cool Rumsey over incumbent Frank Maher by just unde 11 points. Strong support from Charlestown Democrats really helped, with Cathie carrying Charlestown by 25 points. Cathie’s going to make a great state Senator.

SENATOR IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 34

Candidate	Total votes	Pct
Catherine COOL RUMSEY (DEM)	6853	55.4%
Francis T. MAHER, JR. (REP)	5508	44.5%
WRITE-IN	14	0.1%

Rep. Donna Walsh crushed her two very unusual opponents[1], winning re-election with 63.4% of the total vote in the three-way race. She bested her 2010 results when she defeated Moderate Party challenger Tom Browning with 60.6% of the vote.

REPRESENTATIVE IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 36

Candidate	Total votes	Pct
Donna M. WALSH (DEM)	4356	63.4%
Tina B. JACKSON (REP)	1782	25.9%
Kevin W. PRESCOTT (IND)	728	10.6%
WRITE-IN	4	0.1%

Overall, it looks like state Republicans lost five General Assembly seats out of their meager numbers. One Democratic pick-up is the apparent win by Charlestown Town Solicitor Bob Craven who defeated incumbent Republican Larry Ehrhardt for the House district centered on North Kingstown where Craven lives.

One seat the Republicans had hoped was vulnerable to a snatch was House District 39 held by CDTC-supported Rep. Larry Valencia.

The numbers in the early evening were a little scary for our friend Rep. Larry Valencia who represented the northern half of Charlestown until losing it in re-districting. That's why the CDTC could only support Larry and not officially endorse  him. Charlestown provided Larry with his margin of victory in 2010.

Earlier in the vote tallying, Larry was actually behind, but in the end, he defeated his Republican challenger by 7% and didn’t need Charlestown to win. Indeed, even without Charlestown, Larry did a lot better than he did in 2010 when he first won the seat by a margin of only 2.8%. Congratulations, Larry!

REPRESENTATIVE IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 39

Candidate	Total votes	Pct
Larry VALENCIA (DEM)	3194	53.4%
Clay P. JOHNSON (REP)	2777	46.4%
WRITE-IN	10	0.2%

As gratifying as these General Assembly races are, they don’t make up for the CCA’s rally to maintain its control of town government.

Charlestown Dems didn’t get totally skunked. Of its ten endorsed candidates, five won but unfortunately only two of those five were Council or Planning Commission candidates[2]. 

The CCA now has its solid three-member majority on the Council and won’t need Lisa DiBello’s vote anymore. Wonder what that will do to her chances of getting a nice settlement in her $1.5 million lawsuit against Charlestown.

I suspect that with the win, the CCA’s gloves will be totally off and we will see what they will do with unfettered power.

Obviously, I’m not going to paint their victory as anything but that. They will, no doubt, have their own theory for why they won, but I think the most significant factor was the influx of big, outside money from non-residents and the CCA’s six-year non-stop fear-mongering campaign.

When you see the final tallies of the money the CCA spent to maintain its grip on power – and where that money came from – I think it will put their victory tonight in a different context.  

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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Both opponents, Tina Jackson and Kevin Prescott, have records of multiple arrests for serious crimes, many of them involving substance abuse.

[2] CDTC endorsed Rep. Donna Walsh and Senator-elect Cathie Rumsey as well as Henry Walsh who ran unopposed for Town Moderator. Tom Ferrio and Tim Quillen didn’t make the cut for Town Council. Neither did Frank Glista, Melina Lodge or Mike Breton for Planning Commission. Only two of the seven CDTC Council or Planning Commission candidates had ever run for office before though all five would have served well on the Council or Planning.