The Category 2 storm brewing in the Rhode Island Republican Party became a full-blown hurricane on Tuesday evening.

In a meeting at Avedisian headquarters at Airport Plaza, the GOP’s executive board voted 26-10 in favor of moving towards closing the party primary. The board voted to bring the issue before the full State Central Committee at a meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Closing the primary would only allow Republicans who have been registered for 90 days to vote in a primary. Supporters of closing the primary say an open primary gives liberal-minded independents the ability to tip the election away from conservative candidates – akin to hijacking the party.

The executive board is comprised of party leaders like Mayor Scott Avedisian, Party Chairman Giovanni Cicione, and leaders of GOP boards and committees. Ray McKay, the city’s telecommunications director who also leads the Rhode Island Republican Assembly, a conservative organization within the GOP, is also on the executive board and is a leader in the movement to close the primary.

Despite the fact that the GOP bosses moved to expedite the process, Cicione said he’s not inclined to schedule a meeting to expedite the process of closing the primary. In other words, Cicione said he’d likely defy the will of his own executive board.

In Cicione’s opinion, closing the primary before this year’s election is unrealistic, and would be a rushed process that’s unnecessary.

“It’s the wrong time to be doing this,” said Cicione.

“We should not be focused on internal party business in an election year.”

Cicione has also argued that closing the primary could alienate unaffiliated voters, which make up the largest voting block in the state, outnumbering registered Democrats and Republicans.

Michael Napolitano, chairman of the Lincoln Republican Party, said that Cicione should allow the Democratic process to play itself out.

“I don’t understand how the chairman can argue that closing the primary would disenfranchise voters when he’s not letting his own party members vote based on the vote that took place on Tuesday evening,” said Napolitano.

Napolitano, who claims to have a list of 31 other city and town Republican chairman and women in Rhode Island who support closing the primary, said a vast majority, far more than the two-thirds required by party bylaws to close the primary, are signed onto the movement to close the primary.

House Minority Leader Robert Watson (R-East Greenwich) said he opposes closing the primary, but he voted to move the process forward out of a desire to let the Democratic process play itself out. Earlier this week Avedisian said in a statement, “I am opposed to closing the primary as it creates another barrier to people entering the party. The Republican Party in Rhode Island has always criticized the Democrats for being the party of closed decisions in back rooms. This attempt to close the party is not the transparent manner of government that Republicans in Rhode Island have advocated for.”