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Thanks for the kind compliment, WwkVoter.

I, too, remember the many times that the make-believe "mayor" told other commenters to "watch out" or suggested that he would sue them for publishing information that proved his statements to be false. This is clearly intimidating behavior, and as you point out, not acceptable for someone running for office.

As to why the local Democratic party allowed him to run under their banner: My theory is that they didn't have much choice; given their losing performance in the mayor's race since 2000, it's become clear that they do not consider the mayor's office to be attainable, and will let literally anyone who can collect the signatures put their name on the ballot.

The token support he's received from sitting city councilors, state legislators, and other Democratic politicians proves that they don't take his campaign seriously. [You can read a detailed review of his "support" from the party at this link: https://warwickpost.com/digit-spinner-richard-corrente-fudges-numbers/ ]

An obvious downside to this approach is that no one in the local or state Democratic party is providing any oversight or advice to the make-believe "mayor."

If they were, they would certainly suggest that he stop using a newspaper's website as his sole online platform, pay to get his website URL back [instead of letting it lapse and get taken over by a virus-spreading website], update and use his own Facebook page, and actually craft a political message that can withstand the barest scrutiny. But so far, this as proven to be too much effort for the make-believe "mayor," who will clearly take advantage of free political advertising as long as the Beacon allows it.

As you correctly point out, the actual incumbent mayor easily dispatched the losing candidate with little apparent effort in 2016. The one note I would offer on that point is that Mayor Avedisian is a regular presence at many community events, which -- to the degree that it can be considered "campaigning" -- is one factor in his easy time in getting re-elected.

I am glad to hear that, even before you are eligible to vote, you are making the effort to learn about local candidates. As I've said before, it's beneficial to readers that he is so willing to prove his total unfitness for office; that someone of your age can so clearly understand that is a great consolation.