Incumbent Democrats surprised by mood for change; Donovan loses, Chadronet leads in Ward 2

Avedisian answers Petri challenge

Posted 9/11/14

It was an uneasy win for Mayor Scott Avedisian, but you wouldn’t know it from the numbers. The incumbent mayor handily beat Republican challenger Stacia Petri, 3,108 to 1,627 votes, setting him up …

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Incumbent Democrats surprised by mood for change; Donovan loses, Chadronet leads in Ward 2

Avedisian answers Petri challenge

Posted

It was an uneasy win for Mayor Scott Avedisian, but you wouldn’t know it from the numbers. The incumbent mayor handily beat Republican challenger Stacia Petri, 3,108 to 1,627 votes, setting him up for a repeat contest in November with Democrat John “Jack” Kirby and independent Kevin Eisemann.

But Petri, working with the small base of the city’s registered Republicans, played off the dissatisfactions and the appeal for change that comes with an incumbency of 14 years. She was a fresh face and, with a core group of supporters who regularly attend council meetings and are vocal at budget hearings, she hit on sensitive issues.

The sweep for change was also at play with local Democrats. Charles Donovan Jr., who has survived a number of tightly fought elections in 14 years, lost this one. The Ward 7 councilman lost to first-time candidate Kathleen Usler, who will be the councilwoman, as there are no other candidates in the race. Usler won 54 percent of the vote.

In Ward 2, it appears incumbent Thomas Chadronet will hold on to his seat. He held a lead of 23 votes when the polls closed. Chadronet polled 452 votes to his challenger Michael Zarum’s 429.

In other local primaries, Joseph Solomon Jr. beat Jennifer Siciliano for Representative District 22. It was the first time both candidates have run for office. Frank Ferri, who mounted a strong but losing campaign as a progressive Democrat for lieutenant governor, had held the seat. Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee won that 3-way race.

In the other local contest, the Republican primary in Ward 3, John Falkowski beat Henry Williams Jr. to be the Republican challenger to incumbent Camille Vella-Wilkinson in the General Election. Also running in Ward 3 is independent Harold W. Ouimette.

Although she dropped out of the race, Carel Callahan Bainum still appeared on the ballot as a Democratic candidate for mayor. She garnered 2,528 votes to John Kirby’s 4,462 votes.

From the start, Petri shook the Avedisian ranks. She quickly built a following on Facebook, where she persistently posted attacks on the administration. Her “Stacia for Mayor” signs popped up across the city. Three consistent themes were repeated throughout her campaign – 14 years of Avedisian tax increases; the condition of city roads and schools, which she said is “crumbling”; and what she termed “the billion dollar” debt faced by Warwick taxpayers.

In the single debate of the campaign, co-hosted by the Warwick Beacon and WJAR Channel 10, both candidates appeared edgy. Avedisian was uncharacteristically tense. Petri didn’t stray from her message.

Avedisian was uneasy again on primary night. The first returns were not encouraging. Avedisian retreated from his packed campaign headquarters, with its tote boards across one wall, to another room where he could be seen seated at a desk, surrounded by key campaign workers. With the arrival of each poll runner, he scanned the sheets. A relieved expression filled his face and a thumbs-up from Ted Sarno, standing near the mayor, quelled some of the apprehension of those outside.

Finally, Mark Russell, long the master of ceremonies at campaign ceremonies, accompanied Avedisian into the larger room to read results.

Russell started with the losing numbers first, sending a chill through the audience.

“Nobody wins everything,” he said.

But that mood was short-lived as poll results began to show the mayor outpacing Petri 2 to 1.

Avedisian said yesterday that he felt his positive message, focusing on new development and the growth of businesses and the future of Rocky Point, resonated with voters. He said, with high profile races on the state level, many people were torn between voting in the Republican or Democratic primaries. From the start, the strategy was to identify voters and to “stick to the positive,” he said.

Petri’s campaign manager, Roy Dempsey, said yesterday, “she’s satisfied that she gave her full effort; there’s no regrets on what she put out there. I think she did something positive for the city.”

Petri called Avedisian to congratulate him when it became evident she had lost.

Dempsey estimated Petri spent $6,000 to $7,000 on the campaign, with the single-most expensive component being a mailing to registered Republicans.

Avedisian sent several mailings, one of them specially targeting taxes, and illustrating how Warwick taxes compare to those of other cities. Avedisian’s campaign manager, Chris Allen, estimated about $27,500 was spent on the primary.

Petri was on her Facebook page Wednesday morning, thanking her team of Dempsey, Roger Durand, Robert Cushman and Don Fife.

“I’ll have something more for you shortly,” she posted. “When I woke up this morning, I was thinking there are 60,000+ registered voters in Warwick, less than 7 percent voted in the primary, hmmmm…but to the 1,627 that voted for me yesterday, thank you so very much!”

She went on to say she’s not going anywhere.

Does this mean a write-in campaign in November?

Dempsey had no idea, but he didn’t see it as beyond the realm of possibility.

Ward 7

In Ward 7, Donovan bowed out gracefully.

“I’m honored to have had a nice 14-year council tenure,” he said yesterday on a cell phone call while dropping his kids off at school.

Donovan said he is “happy” to stay involved in the community and didn’t rule out running for public office again.

“It was a good campaign by both camps,” he said.

He said he did a mailing to the ward and, like Usler, walked the ward.

“I have no regrets at all,” said Donovan.

As a council member, he said he feels he always did what was right and was not tied to a particular group.

Usler, who was heading over to the Greenwood School yesterday morning, to spread mulch in the school playground, said she is excited by the outcome. She said she wants to bring positive change.

“It’s a good thing that people are ready. It makes me feel good about the community and that people are not asleep … they believed in me, too. Change is good, you can’t always do the same thing all the time,” she said.

Usler credits Mike Creta with getting her into the race. Creta worked on her campaign for Greenwood School PTA president. A mother of four, Usler became involved in the PTA six years ago. She stepped up her involvement two years ago and, at first, dismissed Creta’s suggestions she consider running for council, but then she said, “I fell in love with making it [the school] a better place” and thought she could do that on a larger scale. Her following in Greenwood, where she out-polled Donovan 2 to 1, put her over the top.

Ward 2

Chadronet, who is running for a second term on the council, found himself unable to respond to his opponent’s charges that he was unreachable.

Zarum said he got into the race at the urging of those who said they couldn’t reach Chadronet. That was particularly evident in the last weeks of the campaign, when the councilman was on an 11-day family trip to Europe to celebrate his wife Eleanor’s 75th birthday. Eleanor’s brother planned the celebration that had 15 family members visiting London, Florence and Rome where they held the birthday party.

Chadronet said he thought of staying home, eventually deciding he best go.

“Family is family,” he said Tuesday evening after the results had been tallied.

Prior to the trip, Chadronet said he walked the ward handing out 1,300 flyers. He also sent out two mailers.

Chadronet congratulated Zarum for his dedication to issues concerning Green Airport and Buckeye Brook.

“He put in a lot of time on that,” he said.

Asked what he sees as the major issue facing the ward, Chadronet identified the condition of roads.

“Roads is the biggest complaint,” he said. “Norwood is one of the worst [neighborhoods] in the city.”

Zarum capitalized on Chadronet’s absence in advertising and in walking the ward.

In an email yesterday, Zarum said, “We carried three of four precincts showing a clear preference for change in those precincts. Votes in precinct 3512 offset the votes in precincts 3503, 3505, and 3508 and we will be following up as to what happened in that precinct. There are 46 mail ballots not in the totals as of this writing. I thank all of you for getting out to vote and for your support.”

House District 22

Reached by phone primary night, as he was headed out to be with his cousin, Providence mayoral candidate Michael Solomon, Joseph Solomon Jr. thanked those who voted for him, adding, “I still have November to go through.”

He faces Republican Ralph Leone in the General Election.

In the primary, Solomon faced a strong bid from Jennifer Siciliano, a city planner in Woonsocket who aligned herself with progressive Democrats.

“I’ve learned so much,” Siciliano said Tuesday night.

She estimated she spent about $13,000 on the campaign. She did not rule out another bid for elective office, concluding, “Next time I run, I’ll really know what I’m doing.”

Ward 3

Neither Republicans Falkowski nor Williams could be reached for comment by deadline yesterday.

Falkowski, who pointed to his successful pest control companies and his family as evidence of his abilities, said during the campaign that he would bring a common sense approach to representing Ward 3. He also said he would bring a change to the ward.

Williams said it is time for a new face and new ideas in the ward. Williams, who worked for 22 years as a radio technician for the Warwick Fire Department before retiring, has said he was at a point in his life where he could step up as a citizen and do the job of councilman.

Comments

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  • allent

    woohoo crappy roads, rundown schools and tax increases for 4 more years. What's not to love?

    Thursday, September 11, 2014 Report this

  • Unionthug

    Hepdog move.. Please!

    Friday, September 12, 2014 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    Um, the mayor is elected to a 2 year term. I should listen to your opinion why?

    Friday, September 12, 2014 Report this

  • allent

    so the roads aren't crappy, the schools aren't rundown and we don't have a tax increase every year? Check your eyeglass prescription please

    Friday, September 12, 2014 Report this

  • Hemi_Royed

    Hepdog head to West Warwick there you can join the Morgan campaign. A veritable treasure trove of losers full of BS just like YOU!

    Saturday, September 13, 2014 Report this

  • DanMurphy

    And this is why Avedesian is repeatedly re-elected (that, and the Democrats never put up any meaningful opponents). The "debate" Hepdog is having quickly devolved into a low-impact argument loaded with meaningless comments. I really can't tell if Steve D. or Hemi_Royed (whose name alone lets you know where this was going) favor or oppose Avedesian, since their comments quickly turned into a volley of personal jabs instead of fact-supported comments.

    Now, should we re-elect Avedesian? Let's put it this way - my councilwoman, in the midst of a heated Democrat primary, mailed letters to her constituents (in envelops that looked a little too "official" for a low-budget source) urging us to vote in the Republican primary for Avedesian. Does this smack of backroom collusion and tugs on those puppet strings Rob Cote brought into public consciousness? In a less-suspect circumstance, if she were to urge her constituents to vote in the Republican primary, it would have been for Stacia Petri, and not Avedesian, with the idea that knocking a well-entrenched incumbent out in 2014 makes it much more likely that, either this year or 2016, her party could win back City Hall. Instead, she has help[ed the mayor extend his already-disastrous incumbency.

    Monday, October 6, 2014 Report this