State Republican Primary to Stay Open
Turn-out to the RIGOP meeting tonight in Cranston was, I’m pleased to report, very heavy. The list of speakers (none of whom I heard, regrettably, as I arrived just as the voting started) included former Governor Don Carcieri, who spoke in favor of keeping the primary open.
In the end, the vote tally was 108 in favor of the Resolution and 80 against it (i.e., 80 delegates voted in favor of keeping the primary “open”, defined as the absence of a requirement for the voter to have been a registered Republican for a certain period of time in order to vote in the party’s primary).
This was eighteen votes short of the two thirds majority needed to change the RIGOP bye-laws and close the primary. (Thanks to Dave Talan for these numbers.)
Accordingly, unaffiliated voters in Rhode Island will continue to enjoy the privilege of voting in the primary of any political party that they wish.
Someone should have followed up this vote with a motion to change the party name from “Republican” to “The Rhode Island Party”. Hey, why not, that’s what it includes. Everyone.
Good news! That spells the end of Loughlin! Good riddens to that fool now its clear sailing for Congressman Doherty! Thanks Governor!
So, Jane, what three issues in your mind make Colonel Doherty the preferred candidate for Congress? Please describe Doherty’s stance on those issues versus Loughlin’s.
That’s easy. He has the most money because more people support him and agree with him on the issues.
“He has the most money because more people support him and agree with him on the issues.”
No they don’t.
See, I can make unfounded ridiculous statements too.
Patrick,
Ok, he has the support of all the republicans and Governor Carcieri – Loghlin has only raised $300, and has no support. He is only going to spoil this race for Doherty if the primary was closed. Now we can all vote in the primary for the best candidate.
@ Patrick: I appreciate what you’re trying to do here — but it appears that Jane, whom I don’t remember seeing here before, can only develop confidence in a candidate based upon what complete political and managerial failures like Gov. Carcieri have to say.
Oh and money. Money makes a good candidate — remember what that guy Lincoln Chafee had raised back in Q3 2009? You should go look it up, the numbers are quite funny until you get to Q1 2010. But he *lost*, right?
Too bad too, because I’d like a legitimate breakdown on the differences between the two of them (Mr. Loughlin and Mr. Doherty) myself.
Are you telling us that you’re not a Republican?
“Good riddens to that fool now its clear sailing for Congressman Doherty!”
What is a “ridden”?
No! I am most definately not a republican!!! I don’t like Ciceliny and want him out. Doherty is a man of integrity and won’t go along with all the republican foolsihness in Washinton. I have contributed and plan to work hard to see him win.
Jane,
I’m going to assume you are trolling, until you have something more coherent to say.
Carcieri did absolutely nothing for the RIGOP when he was in office.
He was a bald faced liar to the entire State Central Committee when he gave his speech about accepting money from the RNC when Laffey was going against Chafee. He said the money was going to benefit every candidate. Recall the gasp of the entire audience when Rob Manning actually read the letter that clearly stated the money was to “further the candidacy of Lincoln Chafee”
Carcieri was supporting Lincoln Chafee. Do you numbskulls remember that?? And now the RIGOP should listen to Carcieri??? Talk about the fox in the henhouse. And so many in the RIGOP can’t see this. There is a reason the RIGOP is a pathetic excuse for a party. You have have a bunch of disloyal, opportunistic clowns that use you and then discard you without apprehension.
Last night was a chance to change that. You didn’t. Now you can be ready for more of the same. How pathetic!
“Ok, he has the support of all the republicans”
No he doesn’t.
“Recall the gasp of the entire audience when Rob Manning actually read the letter”
I was there too and yes, very clearly. I was shocked. I had no idea why that information hadn’t come out sooner. Definitely was a dark day with regard to me trusting anyone in the party’s “leadership” then.
Once again I feel to set the record straight based on what has been written here.
1. The John Loughlin Campaign has more than $300 in fundraising. In fact, we raised about $25,000 in the last quarter.
2. It is important to note, that John Loughlin has yet to declare his candidacy and we still raised money, even while John is off serving his country in Iraq.
3. The 90 day primary vote will be of little consequence should Democrats like Merril Sherman and Anthony Gemma jump into this race.
4. John Loughlin has the grass roots support of the Republican Party in District 1.
5. John Loughlin came within a few percentage points of defeating Cicilline in 2010, when Cicilline was far less vulnerable than he is now. John Loughlin was the first individual to go after Cicilline on the financial mess in Providence, while he was denying everything. David Cicilline campaigned on a record of lies. John Loughlin is the best candidate to confront him once again.
6. The voters will decide which candidate is best to take on a Democrat, when Loughlin and Doherty debate.
7. Remember there have been many races where candidates raised a great deal of money and still lost. Frank Caprio had millions and came in a distant 3rd place, well behind John Robitaille who had far less money.
Jane points out that more people support Doherty because he has the most money. She clearly has not taken into consideration that the amount of donors is a different number than the amount of money as donors can give up to $2500.
Michael, you also miss one other valuable point about John Loughlin. He announced his candidacy to take on Patrick Kennedy. That is a tough hill to climb. He was not the opportunist that people like David Cicilline, Anthony Gemma and David Segal were. They thought they were the best person for the job, only after Kennedy bowed out. Loughlin has said from day 1 that he is the best man for the job.
If Cicilline had any leadership ability, he would have announced to take on Kennedy in primary. Only John Loughlin showed that leadership two years ago.
“Too bad too, because I’d like a legitimate breakdown on the differences between the two of them (Mr. Loughlin and Mr. Doherty) myself.”
In another rare moment of agreement with jparis, all this is gibberish until I see the differences.
I can’t believe what I reading – Last Year’s Loser! If he was so great why won’t his own Governor support him? Loughlin was a pathetic candidate – he’s no Doherty thats for sure. Doherty will bring more money for education which our children need, he supports in-state tuition for the unfortunate undocumented among us – who, by the way work hard and pay taxes like every American. He’ll bring all our troops home once and for all. He stand up to the NRA and those idot republicans in Washington who want to take away social security. Hes in favor of the environment and support efforts to stop global warming. He’ll get more money from Washington for Rhode Islanders to build jobs and he won’t gut pensions.And he’ll fight everyday – with integrity – for working families.
Well that about sums it up Jane.
Jane = Democrat Troll
I dunno if Jane’s a Democrat, but definitely either a troll or the worst press-release machine Mr. Doherty could afford (one without spell-check?)
Either way, a waste of space. And you know what they say abut trolls folks: please try not to feed them.
I beg to differ about Cicilline being more vulnerable now. People in RI have short memories when it comes to the filthiness of their politicians. It is will be harder to unseat an incumbent, even one as rotten to the core is Cicilline.
ugh, “as” not “is”
“Jane” (or whatever other names that you’ve gone by on Anchor Rising), with your comment at 11:51 am, you have misrepresented at least two of Colonel Doherty’s positions. The inexorable conclusion is that you are not truly following the issues in the Republican primary but are commenting for some other reason.
A.R. is real big on comments – for the most part, the more the merrier. But not dishonest ones or those that materially misrepresent the views of others, especially candidates, which you have done here.
Accordingly, my recommendation to readers is to view all of your comments and representations with a large dose of skepticism.
Monique,
Great points on our new friend. I would find it quite hard to believe that the Doherty folks would have someone working for them on blogging who has so little knowledge of the positions of their own candidate. Probably a Cicilline person or something just trying to mix things up.
That being said, I have to take the RIGOP vote last night with a grain of salt… final vote was 108 to 80 in favor of “closing the primary” (which actually means having a 90 day affiliation period before the primary, instead of 90 seconds). We needed 124 votes of the 188 present for it to pass, because it was a bylaws amendment requiring a 2/3rds vote. But for a few cities in the state, we had extremely heavy support from amongst the elected local delegates from all across the state. The problem for us is that over 1/3 of the state committee members are currently appointed or otherwise not actually elected to their delegate positions.
Sure, I’m disappointed, but 6 or 7 years ago, we couldn’t scape up a handful of votes to support it. Now we have a solid majority in support of it. We’ve made a lot of progress.
As Mike said, we fully expect there to be a wonderfully bloody Democratic primary, so it kind of makes whatever we do moot on the GOP side, at least in so far it might have affected this one particular race. That being said, this was never about one race, it’s about the principle that members of our party should determine our own preferred candidates, not people who aren’t. Thank you again to everyone who put in the effort. We’ll be back!
Sorry, irony is often lost in text… I was basically saying “Jane” is either a weirdo private citizen, or a very desperate Cicilline staffer whom I probably know.
Either way, back to the topic at hand:
The Democratic primary will only be as bloody as the right wing of the party makes it. I still have no idea what young Mr. Segal is up to (other than trying to defeat PROTECT-IP), but I can’t see another credible challenger from the left for that seat. Not this year at least…
” we fully expect there to be a wonderfully bloody Democratic primary”
Ooo, there is that, isn’t there? I’ll get the popcorn out …
The pathetic, weak-kneed RIGOP is yet another reason to leave this miserable state.
BobN if you think that the RI GOP is pathetic and weak-kneed then why don’t you join and get involved to strengthen it? Many of us (particularly the city/town chairs) have been actively working on just doing that. A 90-day primary would have have been a big step in the right direction. We continue to fight to make this party stronger and yes at times it is very frustrating. But we are engaged in that process rather than sit on the sidelines and bitch. Perhaps if more people got involved it would push what we need to do in this state over the top.
But many voters in our state choose to look the other way while 7 decades of Democrat rule continue to sink our ship. That is part of the problem. So Bob, you can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Contact your local GOP city/town chairperson and make a difference.