RICHMOND — The wave of dissatisfaction with President Bush returned Democrats to power in Richmond for the first time in 16 years.

Democrats, absent from the current council, will now control three of the five seats.

“It’s a thrill for us,” said Dennis H. McGinity, secretary of the Democratic Town Committee. “We worked hard and we are going to try to work for the people to bring substantial changes.”

Committee chairman J. Thomas Dufficy isn’t shy about it. He acknowledges the Democratic victory is partly explained by the wave of dissatisfaction with national politics that swept across the nation, unseating popular Republicans, such as Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee.

But there was also a lot of hard work behind it, Dufficy said.

“And we were about due,” he said. “It’s been a long time, 1990, since we had the majority of the council.”

Local politicians didn’t place much importance on the party shift, noting in local politics party affiliation doesn’t amount to much. Roughly half of the eligible voters in Richmond are unaffiliated.

“In Richmond, I don’t think there is too much difference between Democrats and Republicans,” said Clyde “Jack” Gordon Jr., chairman of the Republican Town Committee.

“I don’t think our goals are very dissimilar,” Republican incumbent Henry R. Oppenheimer said of the five council members-elect.

The election results, said Democrat Erick A. Davis, “speak more about the people [elected], and not just party politics.”

The five, he said, can work in concert. Just last Tuesday, Davis said, he and fellow Democrats B. Joe Reddish and Douglas E. Tuthill campaigned next to Oppenheimer and fellow Republican Kevin R. Gosper, who also secured reelection.

Two other sitting Republicans and an independent did not seek reelection.

There were only four Republicans running after Jennifer P. Anderson, the top vote getter at the last election, withdrew from the race due to scheduling conflicts.

In the end, two incumbents, Oppenheimer and Gosper, and two newcomers, Brian P. Smith and James E. Walker III, were on the party ticket. “But obviously, this was a Democratic year and they didn’t fare too well,” Gordon said of Smith and Walker, who garnered the least votes.

Oppenheimer, the sitting council vice president who’s been on the council for 14 years, was the top vote getter Tuesday.

Issues related to the Chariho Regional School District, which accounts for the largest portion of the town budget, remain the focal point for the new council.

Budget increases in Richmond have been primarily driven by increases in the Chariho enrollment figures, Oppenheimer said, but that appears to have stabilized this year.

Also on their radar will be a proposed building plan that will go before voters on Nov. 30.

“There has to be a little balance to have a world-class school system,” Tuthill said, noting economic development would help soften the tax burden.

Voters have rejected four school-upgrade plans since 2000. While Richmond has traditionally supported the district’s building plans, they also have to be approved by the other towns in the district, Charlestown and Hopkinton.

Council members also talked of the need to move forward with Richmond Commons, a project that is in preliminary plan approval stages, and to promote development west of Route 138.

Democrats had criticized the previous Republican-led council for moving too slow.

Davis, chairman of the town Economic Development Committee, said development should focus in the Main Street area west of Route 95 to the Hopkinton town line, where the infrastructure is in place.

“We want to take advantage of where we sit in the state,” Davis said, noting its location by Routes 95 and 138.

“Richmond is basically the gateway to Newport,” said Tuthill.