Both parties put their own spin on Tuesday's elections.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, November 4, 2004

BY KATHERINE GREGG and LIZ ANDERSON
Journal State House Bureau

As the haze from General Assembly election dustups began to settle yesterday, it appeared Republicans could post a net gain of up to four seats in the House but could potentially lose one seat in the Senate.

And that had both parties claiming victory.

It also led House Democratic leaders to call a Democratic caucus, for 7 p.m. today, to try to nip a challenge to House Speaker William J. Murphy's leadership team from a Providence Democrat John J. DeSimone, who is counting on House Republicans to help him take Murphy's place, as speaker, in January.

Asked why they were moving so quickly to elect a leadership team -- and take what would amount to a vote of confidence in Murphy -- his second-in-command, House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, said:

"You call a caucus when you have the votes because otherwise it leads to all kinds of rumor and innuendo and who's on first, who's on second, and this one's with me, but that one's not really with you . . . and all that kind of craziness."

But DeSimone said: "I do not believe they have the votes.

"If the Republicans decide to continue their pursuit of new leadership, I believe we have the votes necessary to allow me to become speaker, constitute a new caucus and elect Rene Menard as majority leader," he said.

In this heated atmosphere, Murphy and Fox publicly questionned DeSimone's roles as a labor lawyer for both the town of North Providence and the Providence Teachers Union, an AFT affiliate.

"Whose best interest do you serve?" Fox asked rhetorically. "How does John DeSimone then advocate the position of the governor which is diametrically opposed to the wishes of the people he represents as a lawyer for the teachers' union?" But DeSimone labled the talk of potential conflicts bunk and accused Murphy of rushing the caucus to "quickly install Gordon Fox again as majority leader, someone who has paid the highest ethics fine . . . of any legislator in history."

"I haven't had any discussions with the governor personally," DeSimone said last night. But, "I've talked to Bob," he said of House Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich, "and I have expressed my interest in working cooperatively with the Republicans and the governor and I expect we will have further conversations." (Watson was unavailable for comment.)

Meanwhile, pundits and party leaders debated the significance of the GOP's potential three- to four-seat gain in the House, where they are now outnumbered 63 to 12, and the potential one-seat loss in the Senate, where Democrats dominated 32 to 6. GOP Chairwoman Patricia Morgan said the election "wasn't a good showing for the Democratic Party."

"You've got to remember what we were dealing with -- a very contentious presidential race," she said. "There was a lot of anti-Bush sentiment, and unfortunately the electorate doesn't distinguish between the national party and the state party."

"Our candidates were pedaling against that," said Morgan, who lost her own race against Murphy for a West Warwick House seat. "That being said, we picked up four or five [seats] in the House and had some incredibly close races. That's our farm team for the next time out."

Morgan conceded she had hoped the party would also gain several seats in the Senate, which it did not do.

From his camp, meanwhile, state Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch issued a statement headlined: "Democrats Soundly Defeat Republican General Assembly Candidates."

Lynch said the outcome showed that Governor Carcieri and Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, two high-profile GOP leaders, "could certainly deliver the bluster, but they couldn't deliver the coattails" on behalf of their party's candidates.

But Brown University political science Prof. Darrell West yesterday called the election "forward progress" for the Republican Party.

"It's not as substantial as they wanted, but it's pushing the ball forward," he said. Carcieri "wanted a veto-proof chamber and didn't get it; I'm sure that's disappointing."

But, with a small bloc of Democratic dissidents in the House, "I suspect on controversial issues [the governor] can peel some Democrats off and get a hearing on things he cares about," West said.

The Board of Elections yesterday did not complete counting mail ballots in close races around the state.

Among them: two races for open seats in the House that had been held by Democrats. In North Smithfield, Republican Paul Laprade led Democrat Raymond Church by just two votes, while in North Kingstown, Republican Laurence Ehrhardt led Democrat David Ashley by 37 votes.

Republican Richard Singleton claimed victory in a close Cumberland House race over Town Solicitor Thomas Hefner, while Republican John Loughlin II won a wider margin of victory over Democrat Michael Forte in Tiverton, Little Compton and Portsmouth in District 71.

In Coventry, Republican incumbent Victor Moffitt held a 75-vote lead over challenger and former Rep. Scott Guthrie. In South County's House District 33, incumbent Democrat Donald Lally Jr. was ahead of Republican challenger Karen Salvatore by 305 votes.

Each party lost one incumbent. In Middletown, Newport and Portsmouth's House District 72, incumbent Republican Christine Callahan fell to Democrat Amy Rice, a lawyer.

In Cranston, Republican James F. Davey knocked off longtime Democratic Rep. Frank A. Montanaro.

Montanaro said he lost the race, in part, because a lot of new people moved to the Western Cranston district who don't know him and what he's done during his 18 years in the House for the city.

But other Democrats said the controversies surrounding his father, Frank J. Montanaro, as head of the state AFL-CIO and chairman of Blue Cross & Blue Shield's board of directors, helped Davey.

"All the negative articles about his father, came back to hurt Frank," Cranston Democratic City Chairman Michael J. Sepe said yesterday. "You can divorce your wife, but you can't divorce your father."

In the Senate, former Rep. Charles Levesque took a Bristol-Portsmouth seat -- formerly in GOP hands -- for the Democrats, while an East Providence seat remained neck and neck between incumbent Rep. Michael Damiani and Republican challenger Lloyd Monroe. Damiani leads by 43 votes.

If Republicans pick up four seats in the House, they will have gained the largest percentage of the membership they have had since 1985-86, when the chamber still had 100 members, with 22 Republicans and one independent.

In the years since, the GOP's numbers dwindled.

A net GOP gain of 4 House seats would give the Republicans 16 seats -- or 21 percent of the 75-member House.

In the Senate, the potential loss of one Republican seat would drop the GOP to its lowest numerical point since 1991-92 when the split was 45-to-5. But in the downsized chamber, the percentage is just a hair more than the party's share in 2001-2002.

On election night, Carcieri said he hoped the minority GOP caucus "could play a major role in choosing the next speaker." The speaker is elected in January by the entire 75-member body.

Carcieri said yesterday he was basing his hopes for influencing the speaker's race simply on the GOP inroads in the chamber, not any planned alliance with DeSimone and other dissident Democrats.

Late Tuesday, Murphy ridiculed Carcieri's suggestion that a three- to four-seat gain would give the Republicans any say in the choice.

But, if Carcieri "wants to support the legal counsel to the Providence Teachers Union who he has so vehemently been at odds with, good for him," Murphy said.

The governor, for his part, said he didn't know DeSimone well, and had not spoken with him recently. He said the choice of speaker would be "up to the minority caucus."

Carcieri reiterated yesterday, shortly before speaking at a Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce luncheon, that he was pleased with the election outcome.

"Gains are gains. I'm very happy," he said.

Carcieri said there were 13 races in the House and 7 in the Senate, by his count, where first-time Republican candidates earned at least 40 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbents. He called that a strong sign for the future.

Later, he told the assembled business leaders, "The Patriots didn't get to the Super Bowl overnight. You build a team; you've got to build it up."

West said it could be more difficult for Carcieri to make inroads in 2006 because he will presumably have his own reelection campaign to run. But he said candidates often "run once to get known, run the second time to win."

Morgan said she planned to challenge Murphy again in 2006.

"I'm not going away," she said. "As much dirty tricks as he played against me, I was still able to get 41 percent against him."

But Lynch accused Morgan of running "one of the most malicious, negative and groundless campaigns Rhode Islanders have ever witnessed.

"It is sad and unfortunate that the voters of West Warwick were subjected to Ms. Morgan's nonsense for so many months," he said.

With reports from staff writer Scott Mayerowitz