PROVIDENCE — All but a handful of Rhode Island’s overwhelmingly Democratic lawmakers want their jobs back next year.

Only 2 of 38 senators and 9 in the 75-seat House are not running for reelection, despite predictions that this year could see the largest exodus in recent memory.

Many incumbents will run opposed, while lines are forming to scoop up the few vacated seats. On that list of contenders: local politicians, former legislators, the mayor of East Providence and at least one older brother, according to a state list of candidate filings.

There were also some last-minute surprises yesterday, including challengers for the four highest-ranked legislative leaders: House Speaker William J. Murphy, House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano and Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed.

In what will be one of the most closely watched races of the season, Donna J. Perry, executive director of the state GOP, will try to unseat Paiva Weed. “As majority leader, she is part and parcel of what, in my view, is the wrong-headed approach to many issues in this state,” Perry said of her opponent.

The GOP will need all the help it can get in the Assembly. Nearly a third of the already tiny House Republican caucus is not running for reelection.

State Republican Party Chairman Giovanni Cicione said several of them just had enough.

“This has been a brutal budget year,” Cicione said. “The legislature is probably rightly so getting blamed for our budget issues. Some of the Republicans don’t want to be a part of that. They’ve just been fed up with the process.”

But Cicione said a rough year at the Assembly spells opportunity for the GOP, which is fielding at least 46 Republican candidates in the House and 21 in the Senate. They include more than a half-dozen candidates in their late teens or early 20s. But not all those Republicans are running against Democrats. House Minority Leader Robert Watson will face a Republican challenger and a second GOP primary is expected in the House.

Initial reports from the secretary of state’s office indicate that 14 incumbents in the Senate, and at least 21 in the House are running unopposed.

Some political observers anticipated that this year’s election would prompt a mass exodus not seen since 1992 when double-barreled pension and credit-union scandals precipitated a major turnover.

In that watershed year, incumbents did not seek reelection to 26 of the 100 House seats, and 8 of the 50 Senate seats in place at the time.

This year, only two Senate incumbents are leaving voluntarily: Warwick Democrat Jack Revens, a one-time Senate majority leader who has been a Rhode Island lawmaker for close to four decades, having won his first election in 1968 when he was a Providence College junior, and Paul Moura, of East Providence, a fiery union official who spent nearly half of his life in the General Assembly since his first election in 1984.

The House departures include veteran Democrats John Patrick Shanley, of South Kingstown, and Henry C. Rose of East Providence, and Republican-turned-Democrats Joseph H. Scott of Exeter, and Richard Singleton of Cumberland, and 4 of the current 13 Republicans: Tiverton’s Joseph N. Amaral, Scituate’s Carol Mumford, Victor G. Moffitt of Coventry and Susan A. Story of Barrington.

All of the legislature’s top leaders face races.

Speaker Murphy will face off in a Democratic primary against fellow lawyer Michael Lombardi who reportedly notified the West Warwick Board of Canvassers that he plans to run just moments before yesterday’s 4 p.m. dead-line.

Of his opponent, Murphy said: “I can say I know he is employed in the same law office as former state Rep. Joseph Voccola.”

Senate President Montalbano will compete against Edward J. O’Neill, running as an independent, who hails from the small slice of Lincoln that falls in Montalbano’s district. A one-time candidate for Lincoln town administrator, O’Neill also heads up a local taxpayer group.

Running against Fox, the House majority leader and Providence legislator, is education consultant David Anderson, a Republican. Anderson is chief executive of Asora Education and is involved with the Ocean State Policy Research Institute. He once ran unsuccessfully for the California state legislature.

Rounding out the leadership, House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino will run unopposed, though his counterpart in the Senate, Stephen D. Alves, faces two Democrats.

Others are seeking a comeback after years out of the political fray, including former Rep. Keven A. McKenna who has launched a Democratic primary challenge to Providence Sen. Maryellen Goodwin.

A three-term member of the House of Representatives, McKenna also made a name for himself with two failed bids for higher state office in the 1970s, an unsuccessful run for mayor against Joseph R. Paolino Jr. in 1984, and a leading role in a recall drive against Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. in the early 1980s.

Former state Rep. Rodney Driver, of Richmond, is also vying to return to the State House after running for Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District seat multiple times. He has wafted back and forth between the Republican and Democratic parties. Driver is one of six seeking the seat being vacated by Representative Scott.

Among the newcomers is a familiar name: Richard A. Picard is one of six Democrats seeking the House seat vacated by his younger brother Roger Picard who won a Senate seat in a special election this spring.

After starting his own political career as a candidate for Congress, Republican Edmund R. Leather is seeking a perch in the General Assembly. Two years ago, Leather sought the Republican nod to take on U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, but lost the GOP primary. This election season, he is running for the House seat being vacated by Democrat Henry Rose of East Providence.

In the congressional arena where Rhode Island is currently represented by Democrats only, Republican Robert Tingle is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, who also faces potential Democratic primary challenges from Chris Young of Providence and Vernon Craig of Newport.

Reed spokesman Chip Unruh yesterday said Reed takes any challenge seriously because “he loves his job and wants to keep it and is not going to take anything for granted.”

In the 1st Congressional District, Republican Jonathan Scott is a second-time candidate against U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who also faces Republican Joseph Zuccolo and independent Kenneth Capalbo. In the 2nd Congressional District, Republican Mark Zaccaria and Green Party candidate Jeffrey Johnson are challenging U.S. Rep. James Langevin.

kgregg@projo.com