Michael J. Pinga was stymied yesterday when he stopped at the Whole Foods Market in Providence for a quick lunch and couldn’t find what he wanted.

He passed by the soba noodles and couscous in the store’s café and finally grabbed a ham and cheese wrap from a cooler.

“I just want a Diet Coke,” he said to himself, skimming a cooler of organic teas and sparkling juices.

He settled on a bottle of water.

That everyman perspective caught the attention of enough voters in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to win the fight for the Senate seat representing West Warwick. With 994 votes, he toppled political powerhouse Sen. Stephen D. Alves by a slim 17-point margin. Alves, chairman of the Senate’s Finance Committee, has called for a recount, which the state Board of Elections will conduct Monday.

If Pinga survives the recount, he will begin a two-year term in January, when a new legislative session convenes. The seat has no Republican challengers.

Pinga said he thought his numbers would be even better because of the response he got when he campaigned door to door. People were tired of Alves, he said, and wanted someone different.

“That’s what people want — change,” Pinga said. “If not, [Alves] should have had 2,000 votes and I should have had 10 … It at least shows that [994] people aren’t happy with his performance.”

He continued: “He hasn’t done much for the town of West Warwick. We only see him around election time. He’s not in touch with the people, the everyday problems.”

In fact, Pinga thinks the public isn’t satisfied with any of the representation in the legislature.

The day after winning the primary, Pinga didn’t get to sleep in like he wanted to. He was up at 3 a.m., just as he is most days.

He had to go to work.

Pinga operates his family’s business, Westcott Bakery, which opened in West Warwick in 1956. He also manages N&M Properties, his family’s real estate investment company. One of the company’s properties is a building on Main Street in West Warwick that has housed the local Registry branch of the Division of Motor Vehicles for at least 17 years.

But yesterday was different.

His work at the bakery was interrupted by a television interview, and phone calls from other media seeking appointments. Then Pinga went to the Board of Elections in Providence to check on the status of the recount, trailed by a photographer and the same camera crew. As he sat in Whole Foods eating lunch, another television interview awaited him at the bakery. Pinga, born and raised in West Warwick, graduated from La Salle Academy in Providence in 1981. He received an associate’s degree in business from the Community College of Rhode Island in 1983. He and Jill, his wife of 13 years, have two daughters — Nicole, 11, and Michaella, 8. The girls attend Barrington Christian Academy and the family attends St. Joseph Church in West Warwick.

A member of Operation Clean Government, it’s not unusual to see Pinga sitting in the audience of a Town Council meeting, or questioning the decisions by local officials. He is also a member of such disparate organizations as Rhode Island Common Cause and the National Rifle Association.

“I’m a small-business man. I’m a hard worker. I’m a family man. I’m just an honest, down-to-earth person,” Pinga said yesterday at lunch.

For a political newcomer to successfully challenge Alves, whose career in the Senate spans 18 years, Pinga had to have a plan.

Turns out he and Alves had the same agenda: run on Alves’ record.

Alves’ campaign emphasized the good things he’s done for West Warwick and the state, such as legislation in 2008 capping the state’s motion-picture film credits and legislation providing tax benefits to pave the way for the $150-million water park resort proposed in West Warwick.

Pinga, however, highlighted the more controversial aspects of Alves’ legislative career.

In the last days of the campaign, Pinga’s camp published a four-page newsletter that culled headlines from local newspapers and quotes from stories critical of Alves.

The mailing pointed to the shabby state of West Warwick’s municipal pension plan, after Alves served eight years as pension board chairman. Some stories reported that Alves, an investment adviser, is among the legislators under scrutiny as a part of Operation Dollar Bill, the federal probe of influence peddling at the State House. Others mentioned how Alves effectively held up a bill that would have required legislators to pay a portion of their health-care premiums.

As part of his campaign, Pinga promised that he would work to have legislators pay the same rate as all state employees.

“We have to set an example for the people,” Pinga said during a pre-election interview. “You don’t ask a working man to take a cut and you’re not willing to take any cuts yourself.”

He also said he would work to remove the “cloud of corruption” that looms over West Warwick and the State House. The campaign strategy complete, Pinga stayed active throughout Tuesday’s election. He assigned volunteers to all polling places. When the polls closed, everyone gathered at campaign manager Raymond Paolino’s home to wait for the results from volunteers.

And the volunteers would call it in to Paolino, who would write in the totals for each candidate on a large poster taped to his wall.

As poll after poll rolled in for Pinga, he knew he was in good shape.

“It’s very exciting,” Pinga said about watching the results. “My daughters were next to me holding my hands. It’s a thrill.”

Alves, reached yesterday, said the call for a recount was only a formality.

“I think it’s really a long shot,” he said. “But I owed it to my supporters and the people that worked hard for me over my campaign.”

If he had it to do over, Alves said he wouldn’t have changed anything about his campaign. He did say that some of his supporters may have failed to vote, thinking he was safe. He began to realize his seat was in jeopardy a few weeks ago when he ran across some voters who didn’t even know he was in a primary battle.

Alves said this was going to be his last term in the Senate.

“I look forward to a new phase in my life,” Alves said yesterday. “Obviously, we’re all disappointed. I felt I served the town and the state very well over my terms, at a personal cost. But voters make a decision and you live by it.”At the helm of Senate Finance

Before Sen. Stephen D. Alves, D-West Warwick, was installed as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee by former Senate Majority Leader William V. Irons in August 2002, he was preceded by some officials well known to Rhode Island voters.

His immediate predecessor was Sen. Frank T. Caprio, D-Providence, who had been a state senator for 12 years and Finance Committee chairman from 2001 to 2002, and was removed after he and Irons had a public disagreement during a budget briefing.

Caprio was preceded by J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, who held the seat from 1993 to 2001. Others who have held the position in the last 25 years are:

1991-1992: Providence Sen. James D’Ambra

1989-1990: Sen. Richard Patterson, D-Providence

1987-1988: Sen. David R. Carlin Jr., D-Newport

1985-1986: Sen. Donald R. Hickey, D-Providence

1983-1984: Sen. Robert J. McKenna, D-Newport-Middletown The West Warwick vote

Michael J. Pinga

994 votes (47.8 percent)

Stephen D. Alves

977 votes (46.9 percent)

Paul P. Caianiello Jr.

110 votes (5.3 percent)

tbuford@projo.com