Obama carries Rhode Island

NBC 10 NEWS
Published: November 4, 2008

PROVIDENCE—Rhode Island voters overwhelmingly embraced Barack Obama on Tuesday and returned three federal lawmakers to Washington but bounced a top General Assembly leader in a year of projected record-breaking turnout at the polls.

Obama carried the heavily-Democratic state over Republican rival John McCain. Sen. Jack Reed and Reps. Patrick Kennedy and Jim Langevin, all Democrats, beat back challengers with little name recognition or political experience to earn new terms in Congress.

Election Returns

“This is a great night for Democrats in Rhode Island,“ Reed told supporters at a Providence hotel. “It is a night to celebrate our victories here and across the country. But tomorrow the work begins - not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans.“

All three members of the state’s congressional delegation were widely expected to win since Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 4-to-1 in Rhode Island. But the most closely watched legislative race proved an upset as Democrat Joseph Montalbano, the powerful president of the state Senate and a two-decade member of the General Assembly, fell to independent Edward O’Neill.

“People are worried about this fiscal crisis we’re in,“ O’Neill told The Associated Press. “Neither the Senate nor the House seems that concerned.“

State election officials had projected a record turnout of more than a half-million voters and expected the total to surpass the mark set in 1992 of nearly 453,500 votes. With 97 precincts reporting late Tuesday, the state said that 435,261 votes had been cast.

Mail ballots were being counted Wednesday along with ballots from select precincts, said Robert Kando, the executive director of the state Board of Elections.

The election comes as the nation remains stuck in an economic crisis with Rhode Island’s unemployment worst in the country. Exit polling conducted for The Associated Press revealed that 9 out of 10 state voters are concerned about the state of the economy over the next year and that Obama, who lost the Democratic primary in March to Sen. Hillary Clinton, carried voters in every income group and enjoyed broad support from women in the general election.

“I think he’ll be more for the people,“ said Kathleen Provost, 46, a medical biller from Cranston who voted for Obama.

Dan Dziadosz, 22, an unaffiliated voter from Lincoln, also voted for Obama.

“I think we need a change in this country,“ he said. “I’m just not happy with the way it’s running with Bush running it. And I believe McCain’s going to do the same stuff that Bush is doing, having the same opinions as him.“

Also Tuesday, voters approved borrowing $87 million to fix highways and bridges, buy new buses and extend a commuter rail line. They also approved borrowing $2.5 million to preserve farmland from development under a referendum approved by state voters.

Rep. Jim Langevin, a staunch supporter of stem cell research and the first quadriplegic to serve in the House, beat Republican fiscal conservative Mark Zaccaria to win a fifth term in Congress. Zaccaria pledged to run again.

Kennedy, the son of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and scion of a storied political dynasty, breezed past Republican Jonathan Scott and independent Kenneth Capalbo to win an eighth term.

Kennedy, who has been outspoken about his past struggles with depression and substance abuse, has said he would use his new two-year term to work on mental health care issues.

“These are issues that don’t get a lot of attention and are enormous,“ Kennedy told AP Tuesday night.

Reed is one of the state’s most popular politicians and was mentioned just months ago as a possible running mate for Obama.

A West Point graduate and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Reed is regarded as a leading Senate critic of the Iraq war and visited the country with Obama last summer. His name has also been floated as a possible cabinet member in an Obama administration.

Rhode Island’s junior senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, is not up for re-election until 2012.

Elections officials reported scattered minor problems Tuesday. Voting was extended by one hour at a polling place in East Providence after it was temporarily closed so emergency crews could check an unidentified white powder found under a table.

And in Smithfield, some ballots had to be counted by hand because they included the name of a local candidate who already had dropped out.

NBC 10’s Dan Jaehnig reported that some ballots at precinct 708 in Cranston were counted twice after a machine shut down.  The ballots will be counted again Wednesday.

Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis has said nearly 90 percent of adults in the state were registered to vote.

State elections officials prepared for the turnout by opening roughly 100 more polling places since September - or nearly 550 total - and printing up tens of thousands of additional ballots.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.