PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The Democratic Party has no chance of losing control of the Rhode Island General Assembly anytime soon, but the upcoming Sept. 13 primary could affect what kind of Democrats hold power.
A slate of about a dozen liberal-leaning candidates is trying to unseat incumbent Democratic lawmakers who generally hold more conservative views on issues ranging from abortion to gun rights.
The presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won Rhode Island’s Democratic primary in April, empowered supporters to take on entrenched Democratic leaders, said Joseph Cammarano, a professor of political science at Providence College.
There are eight contested primaries for state Senate seats and 19 for the House. Primary winners move on to November’s general election. In some cases, the winner of a party primary will run uncontested in November.
Cammarano said it’s difficult to predict how many challengers could pick off incumbents, but some high-profile Democrats are vulnerable because voters are tired of corruption.
“It’s a sour campaign environment where voters really don’t like the people who are there,” he said. “That won’t alone change the outcome. But the incumbents have to work harder than they used to. They’re not used to opposition, and even when they get it, they’re not used to serious opposition.”
The Rhode Island chapter of Progressive Democrats of America is so far endorsing 18 candidates for General Assembly seats, many of whom are challenging longtime Democratic incumbents; only four of the group’s picks are already lawmakers. Democrats hold a supermajority of both legislative chambers, but the group has argued that the state’s Democratic leadership stands to the right of the national party and the state’s electorate.
Cammarano predicts that more progressive Democrat victories over many election cycles could eventually push conservative Democrats to drift into the Republican Party.
“We might finally have a competitive two-party system, which is the best thing that could happen to Rhode Island,” he said. “It’s very strongly correlated with more open government, more transparent government.”
There are also two open races to replace high-ranking Democratic legislators forced by scandal not to run again. That includes Democratic and Republican primaries for the seat vacated by former House Finance Chairman Raymond Gallison, a Bristol Democrat who resigned in the spring amid a federal investigation. The primary winners will face each other in the November election.
It’s only a Democratic primary determining who replaces House Finance Vice Chairman John Carnevale, who is disqualified from running for re-election because Providence’s canvassing board ruled he doesn’t live in the home in his legislative district where he’s been registered to vote. The primary will decide the winner because no Republicans or independents are running.
A Republican primary in Cranston will decide who will challenge Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello in November.
There are also contested primaries for Rhode Island’s two congressional seats, held by Democratic U.S. Reps. David Cicilline and Jim Langevin, who are both seeking re-election.
One race that has grabbed attention is the mayoral contest in North Providence, where the two Democratic candidates argued during a recent debate over whether the town is infested with rats. The incumbent mayor says it’s not.
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