UPDATED: Mid-term election results

How big will the Blue Wave be? It's certainly big in Charlestown and Rhode Island

Another really bad night for LORIB

By Will Collette

UPDATE: Clearly, we won't need to wait to appreciate the scope of yesterday's Blue Tsunami and Donald Trump's massive loss. Democrats took both Houses of Congress as well as numerous Governorships and state houses across the country. 

Now we wait to see what King Donald does.

Locally, the overnight tallies did not change the results I reported last night. Notably, Samantha Wilcox's win over incumbent state Senator Elaine Morgan (MAGA-R, representing the northern half of Charlestown) is now solid at 52.6% to Morgan's 47.35%. That's a margin of just under 700 votes. Rep. Megan Cotter (D) margin in winning her third term increased from 15% to 20%.

Charlestown's controversial Question 7 to reduce Planning Commission terms from 6 years to 4 remains uncertain. The "reject" votes outnumber the "accept" votes by just 3.   

The Chariho School Construction bond question appears to have passed by a slim margin, thanks to Charlestown's votes. 

The Westerly Sun reports:

"Charlestown had the most voters supporting the bond with 2,450 votes, while Hopkinton had the least, 1,521, with 2,060 Hopkinton voters voting no. In Richmond, 1,670 people voted yes, and 1,886 voted no."

The Sun got the Richmond numbers wrong - it was 1886 YES to 1670 NO. 

By last count, with 5,857 yes to 5,292 no votes, the bond to construct a new unified elementary school on the site of the existing Charlestown Elementary passed by 565 votes. 

And here is Dear Leader's first take on the results:

It will probably take a while for all of the votes to be counted so we can find out whether the Democrats take both houses of Congress. Or what Donald Trump will do after that.

But we do have enough votes counted to reliably report who won and lost here in Charlestown plus contested General Assembly seats in South County. The final counts may change a percentage point or two when all mail-in and early votes are counted, but that will matter only in very close races.

Congratulations to Sam Wilcox for flipping incumbent state Senator Elaine Morgan's seat by a likely margin of 53% to 47%.

Brewed Awakenings' owner Dave Levesque continues to see his money circle the drain. His 40 League of Rhode Island Businesses (LORIB) political action committees backed all the wrong candidates. Levesque had endorsed Elaine Morgan who was the only flipped seat in South County.

His other South County candidates all lost to Democratic incumbents mostly by very large margins:

• Sen. Victoria Gu won by 24 points
• Rep. Carol McEntee won by 20 points
• Rep. Kathy Fogarty won by 30 points
• Rep. Megan Cotter won by 15 points
• Rep. Sam Azzinaro won by the largest margin - 33 points 

In Charlestown, Charlestown Residents United (CRU) maintains its 4-1 majority on the Town Council. The Council will also have the first Democratic majority in the 25 years I've lived here with the election of incumbent Council President Deb Carney, Cynthia Drummond in third place and Jill Fonneman who came in fourth. 

Deb, Cynthia and Jill, all elected

In a surprise, at least to me, the least competent Council incumbent, CCA 's Bonnita Van Slyke, came in second. CRU incumbent Steve Stokes (R) keeps his seat with a 5th place finish. Incumbent Craig Marr (R) loses his seat with a 7th place finish. 

The big disappointment for the night was Ruth Platner's big win in getting her entire slate of CCA-bots elected to the Planning Commission. That plus her first-place finish get her another six years to block every project she doesn't like. 

Platner probably eked out another goal - rejection of Charlestown Question 7 which would have reduced the terms of Planning Commission from the current six years to four. As of this writing at 11:30 PM, the margin was down to only 3 votes for the CCA position to reject reducing PC terms.

Richmond Blue Wave

All four Richmond Democrats running for Town Council won, along with one Republican. That sole Republican WAS NOT Justin Price, former state Representative and J6 insurrectionist. Price's campaign pitch was based on his time in the General Assembly which was a pretty bad strategy given how awful he was. This was his third comeback attempt.

Westerly sweep.

Democrats swept town offices, with every Democrat winning and all Republicans losing, giving Blue Wave control in the Town Council and Westerly School Committee. Democrats won everything that wasn't nailed down.

Hopkinton didn't go quite so Blue

Their Town Council is now split between an independent top-vote getter, two Republicans and two Democrats.

Dems won two of three of their Chariho School Committee seats, one of them going to Greg Avedisian, a former Charlestown Town Council member who was excommunicated by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) in 2010.

All blue statewide and federal

All three of our members of Congress, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, won by comfortable margins. 

Helena Foulkes (D) trounced Independent Ken Block to become Rhode Island's next Governor. Kim Ahern easily won the right to succeed term-limited Attorney General Peter Nerohna.

The race between incumbent Democratic Lieutenant Governor Sabrina Matos and Republican John Loughlin was supposed to be tight with some polls giving the edge to Loughlin. However, she wins easily by about 16 points to retain her seat. 

Some tips for last-minute undecided voters

Your vote counts. Be wise how you use it

By Will Collette

If you’re the kind of person who does their Xmas shopping on Xmas Eve, or mails in their tax return on the evening of April 14, this article is for you.

As of Monday after early voting ended, 2323 of Charlestown’s 6805 active registered voters cast their ballots either by mail or through in-person early voting. On its own, that’s a big turn-out for a non-Presidential election. Tomorrow, it’s up to the remaining 4,482 to decide whether to go to the polls and, if so, to decide how they will cast their ballots.

To find out WHERE you need to go to vote, CLICK HERE.

From a Progressive Charlestown standpoint, many of those decisions are clear and at the federal and state level, we should follow Donald Trump’s call for us to vote like he’s on the ballot…and vote for Democrats, especially US Rep. Seth Magaziner, and Helena Foulkes for Governor.

At the town level, the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee supports three outstanding Democrats for Town Council:

Left to right: Town Council President Deb Carney, Cynthia Drummond and Jill Fonnemann. Endorsed Democrats.

Charlestown Residents United (CRU) is a bi-partisan PAC that has held the Council majority for the past four years. They defeated the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) and it’s corrupt and inept leadership in 2022 and have since delivered competent, fiscally responsible, no-drama government. Their Council slate:

Charlestown Residents United's endorsed slate for Town Council

In my opinion, the CRU incumbents – Deb Carney, Craig Marr and Steve Stokes – have earned re-election. Jill Fonnemann is also one of my favorites – I supported her first election effort in December’s special election to fill the Council term of the late Rippy Serra. I don’t know much about Republican Matt Westover, other than he gave negative answers to the Womenx Project’s survey on women’s rights issues.

Democrat Cynthia Drummond (D) is on the town Democrat’s list but not on CRU’s list. She IS featured on the CCA’s endorsement list as if she was the top of the ticket.

Because this seemed contrary to Cynthia’s interview remarks to Alex Nunes that she wanted to steer clear of the CRU-CCA rivalry and only seek the town Democratic endorsement, I asked her this:

COLLETTE’S QUESTION:

[F]rom the CCA campaign material, it looks like the CCA is touting you as the top of their ticket. Did you give the CCA your consent for them to market you so prominently? 

Second, the CCA is notorious for demanding loyalty from all their endorsed candidates not just to their platform but also to every directive from the leadership. They purged their very first Council [in 2010] when the CCA decided to make a 180-degree switch of position on wind energy going from positive support to total opposition. Were you asked to pledge your loyalty to their platform? To their leadership? 

CYNTHIA’S RESPONSE:

When I decided to run, I stated that I would not be accepting endorsements from either the CCA or CRU. I did not want to become embroiled in the rivalry between the two PACs, which I often find distracting and unnecessary. The CCA accepted that I had declined their endorsement, but asked if they could still support me, which I agreed to. Then I learned that for CRU, CCA support amounted to what they considered to be an endorsement, and that CRU would, therefore, not support me. 

For the record, I have known Deb Carney for more than a decade and I did reach out to her before announcing my candidacy. We have always gotten along well, and I believe she has done an excellent job as council President. 

The CCA has never demanded loyalty or anything else from me and I have declined to take part in their campaign activities such as canvassing or envelope stuffing. Consistent with that effort, I went door to door last Sunday with my neighbor who is a Republican and not affiliated with either PAC. The CCA has put me at the top of their ticket, which I am fine with.

I take Cynthia at her word that she is not committed to the CCA. Throughout her years as a journalist covering Charlestown politics, I felt she has been honest and forthright.

Cynthia isn’t the only candidate the CCA has given an unsolicited endorsement. Council member Steve Stokes (CRU-R) received the CCA’s “conditional” endorsement, a dubious honor he never sought. The Democratic candidates for Chariho School Committee also did not seek the CCA’s endorsement. 

Indeed, Democrat Holly Eaves rejected the CCA's unsolicited endorsement and asked the CCA to remove her from their website, which they have done.

I urge voters to reject the CCA's Ruth Platner
for Planning and her crony Bonnie Van Slyke
for Council.

For the Planning Commission, I recommend you vote AGAINST the CCA slate, especially CCA founder and Planning Commissar-for-life Ruth Platner. She’s the architect of the CCA’s sleezy land deals, cover-ups, financial screw-ups, and persistent use of phony issues to scare voters. Bring the CCA's mailer with you to the polls and don't vote for their Planning Commission slate

Among the Charlestown Town Questions, I urge you to support Question 6 to approve funding for construction of a new unified Chariho District elementary school on the site of the existing Charlestown Elementary. It’s needed badly. Since Hopkinton and Richmond often vote against investment in Chariho, Charlestown voters need to get this referendum passed.

I also urge you to vote YES on Question 7. This question is bitterly opposed by the CCA because it would cut the current six-year staggered terms for Planning Commission members to a staggered 4-year term. The CCA says the 6-year terms are necessary so commission members for continuity on major projects. I say “WTF?”

This is the CCA saying the quiet part out loud – that they use the Planning Commission to talk projects to death and run out the clock on the funding developers hope to use. Six years for Planning to complete its work on projects is four years too long. The CCA knows that projects with government funding face deadlines and that investors in private projects will not wait 6 years for a final decision.

Charlestown is the ONLY Rhode Island municipality that still elects its Planning Commission. All other towns appoint their planning boards. The state enacted legislation in 1972 in an effort to de-politicize planning decisions. In Charlestown, the CCA has ensured that planning decisions are hyper-politicized, if not outright corrupt. While holding on to an elected board is the real problem with Charlestown’s planning, voting YES on Question 7 is a step in the right direction.

Re-elect incumbent state legislators EXCEPT ONE

Senator Victoria Gu, Reps. Megan Cotter, Carol McEntee and Kathy Fogarty have done a terrific job and will hopefully win re-election in landslides.

One incumbent deserves defeat: state Senator Elaine Morgan who represents the northern half of Charlestown. She has embarrassed her district and the state of Rhode Island with her MAGA-inspired antics.

Instead, I strongly recommend her opponent, Democrat Samantha “Sam” Wilcox, the effective Richmond Town Council president. Unlike Morgan, she has the skills and intelligence to actually help her district that spans northern Charlestown through Exeter.

Finally, I recommend you vote to approve four of the five state bond proposals. They meet important infrastructure needs and will create jobs.

I am skeptical about Question 3 and voted against it. This bond measure will put millions more into infrastructure at Quonset Point. While I’m sure this measure will create jobs, especially in construction, the Quonset Point Development Corporation has made a lot of dubious choices, such as support for asphalt and hazardous waste disposal. The QPDC, a quasi-governmental agency, has also stonewalled local officials seeking more information on the now-stalled sludge incinerator project.

The businesses at Quonset are pretty profitable, especially Electric Boat. Isn’t it time that they, not the taxpayers, finance the continuing build-out at Quonset? If taxpayers are going to continue pouring in millions, we need an expanded role for the community in decision-making and a lot more transparency. Send the right message: Vote NO on state Question 3.

Time to vote!

 

C-Town Dems News

It's time to VOTE!

Early voting ends November 2 at 4 PM at Town Hall The General Election is November 3 from 7 AM – 8 PM at your LOCAL polling place. Find your polling place here.

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee endorses the following local candidates:  Charlestown Town Council Deborah Carney, Cynthia Drummond, and Jill Fonnemann Chariho School Committee Holly Eaves, Craig Louzon, and Linda Lyall Senate District 34 Samantha Wilcox Senate District 38 Victoria Gu House District 36 Tina Spears

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee endorses the following state candidates: US Senate Jack Reed US House of Representatives District 2 Seth Magaziner Governor Helena Buonnano Foulkes Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos Attorney General Kim Ahern Secretary of State Gregg Amore General Treasurer James Diossa

Our next meeting date is November 4, 2026 Join us at the Charlestown Police Station at 6 PM. All registered Democrats are welcome!

If you'd like to donate to the Charlestown Democratic Committee, you may   Send checks payable to: Charlestown Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 1088, Charlestown, RI 02813  or Scan the QR code  or Click the button below   DONATE

Call for Volunteers Your Charlestown Democratic Town Committee needs you! We are looking for active participants who want to help support Democratic candidates and causes. If interested, visit charlestowndemocrats.org and click VOLUNTEER. Please consider joining us!

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The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee manages the affairs of the Democratic Party in the town of Charlestown, RI subject to RI Election Law, State Party rules and its own bylaws. We meet the first Wednesday of every month at 6:00 PM at the Charlestown Police Station. Any Charlestown registered Democrat is welcome to attend.