Updated as numbers come in
By Will Collette
At 11:10, with 100% of Charlestown's votes counted, it looks like the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) got routed again by Charlestown Residents United (CRU):
Rippy Serra (CRU) apparently edged out Deb Carney. If these numbers hold, Rippy will be the new Council President and Deb the new Vice-President. Voters re-elected 3rd-place finisher Steve Stokes, elected new Councilor Craig Marr of Breachway fame and gave Peter Slom his first full term.
The best CCA finisher, again if these numbers hold up, is Sarah Fletcher who ran as a Democrat and had the good fortune to appear first on the ballot. She finishes in 6th place and out of the money.
CCA leader Ruth Platner and her dog's body Bonnita Van Slyke were soundly rejected by Charlestown voters, with Platner finishing 9th and Van Slyke in last place.
Platner's dark skies and b.s. campaign didn't work.
For Planning Commission, the top vote getter was CRU candidate Glenn Babcock. Here are the Planning Commission results:
Controversial state Question 1 has apparently been rejected, as hoped. The other four state ballot questions, all for good job-creating programs were approved.
Charlestown voters voted on 11 proposed amendments to the Town Charter. Charlestown ballot questions. The CCA opposed five of those questions and had reservations about Question 8 which would prevent Council majorities from blocking the Council minority from putting items on Council meeting agendas.
The CCA got their wish on three of the five, and lost when voters approved Question 8 by less than 1%.
I may go into more detail about that later though given the CCA complete defeat, some of those charter questions are now pretty much academic. I was especially happy to see voters reject the CCA's objections to including emergency ambulance service as an essential service in the Charter. Charlestown voters APPROVED that ballot question by a 20-point margin.
I plan to go to bed before we know the outcome of the battle for the White House and Congress, but at least here in Charlestown, hooray for our side.
In local General Assembly races, all of South Kingstown's Democratic women won either by default or by wide margins.
With 100% of the vote counted, our state Senator Victoria Gu (D) won re-election by 11 points.
With 91% of the vote counted, odious MAGA state Senator Elaine Morgan (R) is ahead by enough to pretty much guarantee her toxic personality another term.
With only 83% of the vote counted, District 39 state Rep. Megan Cotter (D) leads her MAGA opponent Justin Price by 4 points. Close, but much better than her 22 vote win in 2022.