Democratic incumbents largely coast to reelection

Outside of a contentious House District 42 race headed toward a recount, there was little drama to be found at the polls in Johnston on Tuesday.

State Rep. Deborah Fellela won another term at the State House by more than 16 points, defeating Republican challenger and first-time candidate Nick Grasso.

Fellela beat Grasso by a slim margin among voters who took to the polls on Election Day, but she put real distance between the two with a 3-to-1 mail ballot margin. She also won the early in-person vote by nearly nearly 200 ballots. All election results are still unofficial, as provisional ballots have yet to be counted.

“It feels great,” Fellela said Wednesday. “I’m happy to be back. I want to thank all the folks who supported me. I think they knew who to vote for, and as I told you before I’m part of the community and I think they know that and I try to get things done for them.”

Grasso garnered 2,823 votes overall, the most by a Fellela opponent since 2010. He congratulated the representative on the victory and noted how difficult it is to unseat an incumbent with her longevity.

“We put up a good race,” Grasso said. “We didn’t decide to do this until early June, so we were kind of behind the eight ball on fundraising … Overall, I think we were happy with the results we were able to get. That was our ultimate goal, to win, but for a first-time candidate and putting this campaign together, we’re pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Fellela, a long-time ally of Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, said she was “surprised” at his resounding defeat at the hands of Republican challenger Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung. She threw her support behind Dist. 23 Rep. K. Joseph Shekarchi, who is favored to become the next speaker.

“I didn’t expect that,” Fellela said of Mattiello’s ouster. “I didn’t see that coming, especially the wide margin. I feel bad. I’d be happy to support [Shekarchi]. I think he’ll make a good speaker.”

Elsewhere in town, the District 42 race to fill Rep. Stephen Ucci’s seat overseeing parts of Johnston and Cranston is well within recount range. Democrat Edward Cardillo Jr. trailed Republican Frank Ricci significantly on election night, but once mail ballots were counted the two became neck-and-neck. Cardillo leads Ricci by only 92 total votes, with the difference in Johnston sitting at just 55.

Incumbent District 5 Town Council representative Robert Civetti, a Democrat, faced a stiff challenge from independent Jim Florio Jr. The two-term councilman held a slim 891-751 edge after Election Day votes had been recorded, but he opened up a wide margin once mail ballots had been accounted for. Civetti won those, 584-234, and later took the edge in early voters, 503-344. He has prevailed by more than 20 points, a lead of greater than 600 votes.

Civetti said Thursday his victory was reflective of District 5 voters leaning toward moderate versus progressive politics.

“I appreciate the support of the taxpayers who went out here and vote for me and voted for the candidate and not necessarily the party think there some indeicsion as to what the Democratic Party is these days,” Civetti said. “What I consider middle-of-the-road Democrats versus socialist Democrats. I think we saw in District 5 there were a lot of people upset with the fighting at the federal level with the Democrats.”

In Senate District 22 – the only contested Senate race in Johnston, and without many voters in the town part the district – incumbent Democrat Stephen Archambault defeated Republican Paul Santucci and independent Stephen Tocco to keep his seat.

Archambault grabbed 145 votes to Santucci’s 118 in Johnston, while Tocco received just 24. Overall, Archambault won the race by more than eight points, 50.6 to 42.2 percent, thanks largely to an enormous advantage in mail-in ballots. He trailed Santucci by more than 700 Election Day votes, but picked up nearly 1,800 more voters by mail. Tocco earned 7 percent of the vote.

"I congratulate Paul Santucci on the good and positive campaign he ran,” Archambault said Thursday. “ I thank the voters of the 22nd district –  residents of portions of Johnston and North Providence and all of Smithfield –for their faith in me and pledge to continue to work hard on their behalf.” 

Santucci conceded to Archambault on Facebook and said he was “grateful” for the voters of District 22.

“I congratulate Senator Steve Archambault on his win,” Santucci wrote on his campaign page. “God has other plans for me at this time. Congratulations to all who won their races. I thank my Lord for Liz Resendes Santucci and for my good friends Joe and Grace Toppi, Frank and Nancy Luca and the Men of St. Joseph for being by my side during these last three months, especially. I will remain involved in this community that I love. Now, for cleaning out my truck…”

Former Dist. 13 Rep. Ramon Perez easily won back his seat, withstanding a write-in campaign from Tiana Ochoa. Perez claimed 80.6 percent overall, while write-in ballots accounted for 19.4 percent of the total vote.

Incumbent Dist. 44 Rep. Gregory Constantino, a Democrat and the only Johnston House member running unopposed, enjoyed an easy victory. Much like in the primary, the politician who received the most votes, local or national, was incumbent Dist. 25 Sen. Frank Lombardo III.

Lombardo earned 10,653 votes without a challenger, which was more than 2,500 votes than President Donald Trump received. Trump yet again triumphed in Johnston, but his margin of victory was only 9 1/2 points as opposed to more than 14 in 2016.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed proved popular again in Johnston, defeating Republican Allen Waters, 8,103 votes to 6,176. James Langevin faced a strong challenge from Republican Robert Lancia for the Second Congressional District seat, but ultimately defeated the former Cranston state representative. Johnston voters had the race very close, with Langevin finishing only three points ahead of Lancia in the town’s final tally. That figure was 13 points closer than Langevin’s statewide margin.

No other council races outside of District 5 were competitive, with incumbents Linda Folcarelli, Joseph Polisena Jr. and Robert Russo coasting to wins in District 1, 3, and 4 respectively. Lauren Garzone, the council’s only new incoming member, ran unopposed for the seat David Santilli Jr. vacated in District 2.

There was no fanfare for any of the three School Committee seats up for reelection, either. Chair Robert LaFazia won another term in District 1, while David J. Santilli in District 3 and Vice Chair Joseph Rotella in District 4 also faced no resistance at the polls.

The only question on the ballot, regarding the changing of the official state name to remove “Providence Plantations,” saw Johnston break from the majority. The town overwhelmingly rejected the idea by nearly 19 points.