State Sen. Rhoda Perry P'91 will begin her eighth term in the Capitol after beating independent challenger Barry Fain in Tuesday's election with 61.5 percent of the District 3 vote. "I feel elated," Perry said, as campaign volunteers and supporters celebrated the victory over meatballs and soda at her campaign's headquarters.
Perry spent the day alongside her volunteers, visiting each of the 23 polling stations. She lost only two of the polling centers - Edoch, by 157 votes, and the Jewish Community Center, by three votes. The final vote count recorded Perry winning 6,052 votes and Fain 3,796.
As Perry staffers called in from polling stations with vote counts, the mood relaxed. "We have no worries," said volunteer and Rhode Island College student Jennifer Stevens. At 9:45 p.m., less than an hour after the polls had closed, supporters broke into cheers as State Representative Paul Moura congratulated Perry on her victory. Perry thanked a few people by name and then asked, "Who wants to dance?"
Several Rhode Island officials called to congratulate Perry, among them Secretary of State Matt Brown and Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty.
Most people present at the celebration, including Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal and Providence Mayor David Cicilline '83, said the results were what they had expected, but the race was one of Perry's most competitive.
The general election began Sept. 15, after Perry emerged from the Democratic primary with 80.9 percent of the vote against Christopher Young, who previously ran against Cicilline in the 2002 mayoral race. Although Perry and Fain held similar positions on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, Fain emphasized his stance as a political newcomer while Perry promoted her senate record on a host of issues.
"What we tried to do, and I think we succeeded, was present my record and what he said about each issue that differed," Perry said.
Fain, publisher and co-editor of the East Side Monthly, acknowledged that the race heated up as it progressed. "It got, unfortunately, a bit more unpleasant," he said. "I still maintain that the current system - in terms of Brown votes - is stacked against independents." He added that literature alleging he opposed Brown students' right to vote in Rhode Island was circulated around the campus on Tuesday, too close to the election for him to respond.
Kelly Hall '06, chairman of the Brown Democrats' legislative committee, said the information was distributed by the Perry campaign and reflected a statement Fain had made in a debate with Perry last week at a neighborhood association meeting.
Several residents who were at the meeting told The Herald that a citizen asked Fain if Brown students should be allowed to vote. Fain responded by saying that though he previously believed they should, he's recently changed his mind. He cited a Herald endorsement of his opponent and a Herald guest column written by Segal in support of Perry.
Fain said the statement was made "facetiously."
Still, Hall said, "disenfranchising Brown students is not something he should be joking about."
Hall added that the Brown Democrats assisted the Perry campaign by phone-banking, distributing literature, "dorm storming" and standing outside polling places for 14 hours on Tuesday.
"I think Brown students had a huge impact on her victory," Hall said. "They really put their time and energy into Rhoda Perry, and it paid off."
Fain, a former president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, maintained that he did not have equal access to the Brown community.
"My hope is that in the future the Brown student body will make more of an effort to allow Independents the opportunity ... to their get message across," Fain said.
According to Perry, her campaign communicated her State Senate record through door-knocking and local outreach. "I didn't have the luxury of doing poll after poll," she said.
Fain had a professional pollster, but he said his campaign was a novice effort compared to Perry's.
"(Perry) marshaled the total resources of the Democratic party against an independent like myself," he said. "(My campaign) was really eight or nine of us who got around a table and decided to give it our best shot. ... We knew from the get-go that it would be an uphill struggle."
Fain said he will remain involved in politics, though he is not certain in what capacity. "I think the bug has bitten me," he said.
In the meantime, Perry said she looks forward to continuing to work on legislation regarding public transportation, health care and gay marriage after recovering from the stress of the campaign. "The molten lava in my chest is no longer there," she said. "It's such a relief."
