Top Ten RI General Assembly Races to Watch in 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Who could be facing the toughest road to the Rhode Island State House this election season?
Rhode Island primaries are now just six weeks away, and some General Assembly incumbents are facing fierce challenges from both outside -- and inside -- their parties, while other open seats promise to be hotly contested races to watch.
See Top Ten GA Races to Watch in 2014 BELOW
"I think in my humble opinion, there has been a shift, just because we have a new speaker, he's more of a moderate, and people have recognized such a shift," said community activist Sandy Riojas. "It will be interesting to see how progressives hold on."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTParsing the House
Currently, there are 69 Democrats and 6 Republicans in the House. Six Democrats have chosen not to run again: Gordon Fox in Providence; three in Pawtucket: J. Patrick O'Neill, Elaine Coderre and William San Bento; Frank Ferri in Warwick, who is running for Lt. Gov., and Agostinho Silva in Central Falls.
Of those, only five races are contested since Pawtucket School Committeeman Coughlin is running unopposed for Coderre's seat.
"The most competitive race we see this year is in House District 26 in which Nick Denice (D) will be challenging Rep. Patricia Morgan (R)," said Jonathan Boucher with the Rhode Island Democratic Party. "'Nick is a great candidate with a great background and came just a few hundred votes short of winning the seat in 2012. With that said, there are only 5 other GOP held seats up for grabs in very conservative districts."
Representative Spencer Dickinson (D), who is facing a strong challenge once again from inside the party from Kathy Fogarty, spoke to what he saw as the dynamics facing his race.
"I ran unendorsed the last two times. It is no secret that Gordon Fox and his Chief of Staff, Frank Anzeveno, wanted me out of the State House," said Dickinson. "First they carried out an extreme redistricting plan where they took away the neighborhoods where I had done best. Anzeveno had hired Kathy's husband, Brendon. Brendon's job that summer, as a member of the Speaker's staff, was to get me out of office. I didn't appreciate the fact that my tax dollars (and yours) were being spent to get Kathy elected. The kicker was that Anzeveno showed up to work at my polling place as a volunteer for Kathy on election day. That didn't work out for them, but I had the compliment of knowing I was Gordon Fox's number one priority."
Dickinson, who said he would "rather have the party endorsement, but it is what it is," in facing Fogarty once again this year.
Eye on the Money
"It's sad to see so many races uncontested. Voters suffer when they do not have choices at the polls. That's why we have worked hard to reduce the barriers for people who are trying to run for office, including eliminating the master lever. We will continue to push for reforms so that incumbents no longer possess such great advantages," said John Marion with Common Cause, of half of the General Assembly seats being uncontested in the general election. "Our long-term goals include public financing of campaigns for the General Assembly, like we see in Maine and Connecticut, and Common Cause believes that would encourage people to run for office because they will be able to use matching funds to raise the necessary resources to mount a credible campaign."
Marion said Common Cause would be keeping a close eye to spending in the big races.
"With the U.S. Supreme Court's McCutcheon decision earlier this year we will be looking to see if anyone has exceeded the now defunct aggregate $10,000 limit in Rhode Island. In the past the Speaker was one of the few people who approached that limit and it will be interesting to see whether the removal of the limit means the new Speaker, or anyone else, tries to spread even more money among legislative candidates," said Marion.
Related Slideshow: Top Ten RI General Assembly Races to Watch in 2014
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