CDTC repeats its
2008 choice
By
Will Collette
In
2008, the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee bucked the Party establishment
by backing first-time office-seeker Guillaume deRamel of Newport in his bid for
the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State.
DeRamel was running against
the establishment pick, then North Providence Mayor Ralph Mollis.
Mollis
eventually won the Democratic primary, but by a narrow margin, against deRamel,
who handily carried Charlestown. Mollis went on to win the General Election,
and by a razor-thin margin, a second term, as Secretary of State.
DeRamel
has waited until Mr. Mollis ended his term-limited tenure to declare his
intention to run again. When the campaign season started, he had two rivals:
former Democratic State Party Chair Ed Pacheco and former director of
HousingWorksRI, Nellie Gorbea, who had also served as a deputy Secretary of
State. It was a tough choice since all three candidates were qualified and easy
to like.
The
choice became a little easier when Ed Pacheco decided to drop out of the race
and endorsed deRamel. Nonetheless, town Democrats interviewed both candidates,
Gorbea and deRamel, before deciding on which one to endorse. Though the
committee was impressed with Nellie Gorbea, they voted unanimously to endorse
deRamel as their pick for the September Democratic Primary.
That
made Charlestown the first municipal Democratic committee to endorse deRamel, a
fact noted in the deRamel campaign’s news release (below). Last Tuesday,
deRamel told the monthly meeting of the RI Association of Democratic City and
Town Chairs that since then, Johnston Democrats have voted to endorse him.
Here’s
the news release from the deRamel Committee:
“Guillaume De Ramel has the experience
and vision needed to help move this state forward,” said Cathy O’Reilly
Collette, Chairwoman of the Charlestown Democrats. “The Charlestown
Democrats are proud to be the first town committee to endorse his candidacy in
2014 and we do unanimously.”
“I am thankful to Chairwoman Collette
and the entire Charlestown Democratic Committee for their strong show of
support for my campaign for Secretary of State,” said Guillaume. “There
is so much potential in our state and I know we can positively impact the
business climate by cutting red-tape, increasing transparency, and creating a
new way of doing business here in Rhode Island.
The Charlestown Democratic Committee
joins North Providence Mayor Charlie Lombardi, former Democratic Party Chairman
Ed Pacheco – himself a former candidate for Secretary of State – and eleven
members of the Providence City Council to publicly endorse Guillaume’s
campaign.
Current Secretary of State, A. Ralph
Mollis, is term-limited from seeking re-election to the same office in 2014.