FOGARTY

GLOCESTER — Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty knew the gubernatorial race would go down to the wire.

A Democrat-financed poll in late January showed him 22 points behind incumbent Republican Governor Carcieri.

By early July, polls indicated Fogarty had halved that margin to 11 points.

A fiery series of TV and radio debates showed a more charismatic and impassioned Fogarty than most may have been used to.

The race would be close, even Carcieri would later admit.

But Fogarty believed the narrow margin of victory would go his way.

“We had no illusions about how difficult of a race it would be,” Fogarty said yesterday. “But I thought it was a winnable race. I felt the momentum at the end was with us. We fell a bit short. ”

In perhaps the closest governor’s race in the nation, Fogarty, a lifelong resident and Democrat, lost to Carcieri by slightly fewer than 8,000 votes, or 2 percent.

It was no small feat to come so close to beating a sitting governor with a high approval rating, and in many respects, it was no small feat for Fogarty to win his hometown.

Glocester, once a stronghold of GOP power, was a challenge for Fogarty’s Democrat uncle, former U.S. Rep. John E. Fogarty, who in his 26-year run won a majority in town only once.

But Glocester is increasingly showing a tendency to break from straight party votes, making the town’s choice in major races less certain and giving Democrat candidates hope.

This year, residents turning out in record numbers for a mid-term election voted into power a Democratic majority on the Town Council, the first time Democrats had ever captured a majority in back-to-back elections.

And then there was Fogarty, who captured 55.5 percent of town voters to Carcieri’s 44.5.

A significant margin, considering just four years ago Carcieri, running against Democrat Myrth York, enjoyed his largest plurality of the election in Glocester.

Yet in the nationally significant U.S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee captured 54.5 percent of the 4,268 votes cast in town. Glocester Town council member and Democrat Patrick J. Carroll lost his bid for state House of Representatives, losing out to incumbent Republican Nicholas P. Gorham, of Coventry. In that race, Carroll claimed about 52 percent of Glocester voters to Gorham’s 48 percent.

Residents point to an influx of new families from out of state and suburban areas for the shift away from GOP party dominance, which began to erode in the early 1990s, which corresponds to the regional residential building boom.

The town contains the highest percentage of independents, or unaffiliated voters in the state, with 4,748 out of 7,041.

With 1,327 registered Democrats and 966 registered Republicans in town, independents are the ones to whom candidates must appeal.

“Party affiliations in town are not what they used to be,” said Fogarty. “It used to be that the party was first, and the candidate was second. It’s not that way anymore. That’s why you see split tickets.”

Because of the increase in independents, Fogarty’s brother, state Sen. Paul W. Fogarty, D-Glocester, said he expected a greater margin of victory for his brother in town.

Many unaffiliated voters, especially those with young families, tend to respond to Democratic platforms, he said.

And the fact that Charles Fogarty has been a familiar face in town for so many years, including three terms on the Town Council and a stint as a state senator, the very seat his brother now holds, should have meant a big win in town, said resident Molly Harrington.

But ultimately, some residents, like Milton Frazier, were too hard pressed to find fault in the current the governor.

“Carcieri was the incumbent, and he’s not doing a bad job,” he said.