| projo.com | The Providence Journal

11.9.2000 08:17
Kehew: Desire for change gave GOP the nod

Councilman Michael P. Kehew says "it feels good" to have a Republican majority on the Town council.

By JERRY O'BRIEN
Journal Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN -- The candidates who were walking heard the word: change.

"That was the feeling on the streets," said Michael P. Kehew, the Republican Town Council veteran now elected to his sixth term. "People wanted change on the council."

Republicans haven't held the council majority since after the election of 1984, when they won six of the seven seats. On Tuesday, voters finally gave Kehew the majority he has never seen as a councilman.

As of last night, the state Board of Elections still had not released the results of its count of Middletown's 525 mail and emergency ballots.

In a race in which the top seven vote-getters win, 176 votes separate the sixth- through tenth-place finishers, so the final tally could change the political landscape once again.

But if the pattern holds, voters will have turned three incumbent Democrats out of office: George L. Andrade Jr., Scott McLeish and Paul M. Rodrigues. Incumbent Democrats William J. Flynn and Bruce D. Allen were spared the ax.

Also elected to the Republican majority were Mary M. Nunes and newcomers Mary Theresa Santos and Suzi Conklin Nance.

Based on numbers provided by the Middletown Board of Canvassers and the state Board of Elections, the top vote-getter was Democratic newcomer Charles J. Vaillancourt, with 3,481 votes.

The second- through fifth-place finishers were all Republicans: Nunes (3,197 votes), Kehew (3,107 votes) and Nance (2,995 votes).

Vaillancourt finished first in six of the nine voting precincts, while Nunes finished first in the other three. Kehew finished third in six of the nine precincts.

Strong fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place finishes for Santos in different precincts helped her grab the fifth seat with 2,726 votes. Santos, a frequent inquisitor at council meetings regarding financial matters, made it to the council in her third attempt.

Flynn was only 40 votes behind Santos, and Allen just one vote behind Flynn, rounding out the new council.

The night's biggest surprise was the fate of Andrade, the 10-year council president, who was left behind in eighth place with 2,574 votes. Andrade was either the eighth-, ninth- or tenth-place finisher in five of the nine precincts.

According to voter registration clerk Catherine Stahl, about 66 percent of the town's 10,090 registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday's election, the same percentage as 1996.

The architect of the Republican campaign strategy, Kehew said he gave all of the GOP candidates a kind of "how to" manual back in June. There were lots of ads and lots of knocking on doors. The candidates ran as a team, and "the ones who worked the hardest won."

"It feels good,' said Kehew, the former GOP state chairman and frequent radio talk-show host who is now poised to be the next council president. "I've waited 14 years to be part of a majority."

Kehew said that Andrade, McLeish and Flynn stopped by GOP headquarters Tuesday night to congratulate the victors.

"There was no bitterness. They are my friends," Kehew said. "They are true gentlemen."

For Flynn, the writing was on the wall back in April, when voters defeated, by nearly 2 to 1, an $11.2-million bond issue for major construction projects affecting the School, Police and Fire Departments, the public library and the senior center.

Council members had lobbied aggressively for its passage, and its defeat was seen by some observers as a referendum on the council itself.

"We couldn't recover from the April vote," said Flynn, who added that council/constituent disputes over the fate of the Berkeley-Peckham School, the purchase of the drive-in theater property and the bungled zone change at the corner of Green End Avenue and Valley Road, among other issues, alienated voters in different neighborhoods.

The momentum against the incumbents grew as charter violations regarding political campaigning came to light. Other observers noted that Andrade's new position "up state" -- in January he was named chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty -- also might have hurt him back home.

In the end, Flynn said, voters wanted new leadership for their town.

"So let's see what the new leadership can do," said Flynn, the senior returning Democrat. "That's what Election Day is all about."

Back to: Vote 2000	Printer-Friendly Version
Read/Post to our Bulletin Board on this topic

Vote - West Warwick

newspaper ads

shop & subscribe