OK, so technically I grew up in the town of Smithfield, but I always considered myself a resident of Greenville. And while I’d certainly heard of Esmond, which the maps also include within Smithfield’s borders, I rarely saw a good reason to venture way over there. Because here in the smallest state, you don’t have to go to parochial school to be parochial.

Just ask House Minority Whip Nicholas Gorham, who lost on Election Day after getting hammered for proposing that Exeter, Foster, Glocester, Scituate, West Greenwich and western Coventry merge into a single town called Westconnaug.

Gorham, R-Coventry, will leave office in January after a decade in the House of Representatives. But to me, he’ll always be the Mayor of Westconnaug.

It’s a mythical land that will never become a reality. But Gorham, a little guy at 5-foot-5, had a big idea. And Rhode Island should pay attention to the concept — if not the exact details — now that the economy is tanking and the state budget is bleeding red ink. If we’re going to talk about cutting school programs, slashing society’s safety net, hiking taxes for some or handing out tax breaks to others, by all means, let’s talk about regionalizing and getting beyond our deeply ingrained parochialism.

Gorham broached the subject in February when he proposed uniting 42,000 people in rural western Rhode Island into Westconnaug — the historic Indian name for the region. He predicted savings and lower taxes. A “working group” of residents focused on consolidating the administration of schools, police and public works, rather than a complete merger of the towns.

But soon it was “silly season,” Gorham said. And his opponent, Democrat Scott M. Pollard, began running ads that warned Westconnaug would be a “mammoth town” that could have “devastating consequences for our communities.” He predicted “unimaginable legal costs in transitioning all town-owned property to the new entity.” Plus, he said, “The town would need all new street signs.”

As Gorham went door-to-door, some voters asked: What’s with this Westco-macallit idea? “By the time I started to realize this was a problem, it was mid-October,” he said. “And I was knee-deep in quicksand.”

Gorham tried to explain that bigger school districts didn’t mean bigger schools; that the bill was meant to spark discussion; and that if rural towns don’t pick regional partners now, the state might pair them “with urban partners who have a different set of priorities.”

“But people had made their minds up that I had a terrible idea,” Gorham said. “I felt like Davy Crockett at the Alamo. It was pretty clear things weren’t going well.” On Nov. 4, Pollard beat Gorham by 116 votes.

Just two days later, 100 business leaders, academics and state officials convened, at Governor Carcieri’s invitation, to brainstorm solutions to the state’s ailing economy. Among the ideas: Consolidate school districts and municipal services in Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns.

“The fact is, we have an awful lot of towns for 1 million people, and consequently we have an awful lot of government for 1 million people,” Gorham said. “And we are getting to a point where we can’t afford it.”

Gorham said he learned — the hard way — that consolidation plans must preserve local identity in some fashion. And he acknowledged he underestimated parochialism. But, you know, as a guy who lives in the town of Coventry, has a Greene mailing address and is within the Rice City historic district, he might have seen that one coming.

efitzpat@projo.com