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By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Scott Avedisian is at ground zero in a battle for "the heart and soul" of the Rhode Island Republican Party.
As mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island's second largest city, Avedisian, 44, is one of the state's highest-profile Republicans. State Republican Party Chairman Giovanni Cicione has been trying to persuade him to run for higher office, such as state treasurer.
But as the volume rises at the state and national level over efforts to make GOP candidates take Republican 10-point "purity" tests to separate true Republicans from RINOS -- Republicans in Name Only -- Cicione is battling calls for his resignation, and Avedisian says he would have to "give a lot of thought ... [to] whether or not I can be a part of something where you can't express your own views."
As Avedisian sees it, a big-tent political party that once had people from "all across the spectrum" in Congress and high state office -- "Ron Machtley, Claudine Schneider, Ed DiPrete, Lila Sapinsley, Susie Farmer and Arlene Violet" -- is now insisting "you all have to look alike and act alike and think alike."
Avedisian isn't sure what to do.
But with term-limited Republican Governor Carcieri on his way out, and the GOP holding only 10 of 113 legislative seats and no other major offices, conservative Republican activist Raymond McKay says the only hope for the GOP here -- and in Washington -- is to tell people what it stands for. "If you are pro-abortion and pro-choice, if you are pro-bigger government and if you are pro-union, there are Democrats for you. If you are somewhat of a fiscal conservative but don't care about any of the social issues ... then you have the moderate party."
But, "if you are pro Constitution, you are pro-life, you are pro-Second Amendment, pro-state's rights ... where do you go?" asks McKay, a Warwick town employee who also heads the Rhode Island Republican Assembly, an affiliate of a national group that calls itself the Republican wing of the Republican Party.
"If the Republican Party doesn't carry that banner ... where is the Republican Party? So, it is an identity issue and it is a leadership issue, and we have to define our own destiny," he argues. Asked what is at stake, he argues it is no less than "the heart and soul and the direction of the Republican Party."
This philosophical fight for the party's soul has been playing out in recent weeks in a series of skirmishes over the wording of the party platform, and whether to have a closed primary in September. The current fight pits conservatives, who want to restrict primary voting to registered Republicans, against moderates, who believe that allowing independent voters to participate could help the party discern who might have the most appeal to voters in November.
The moderates backed a party platform that said that in "the longstanding tradition of New England Republicans," the state party respects "the right of all of our candidates to hold and express their own considered views on social issues." The conservatives sent it back for a rewrite.
The possibility that former Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey may run for the party's nomination for governor has added to the intrigue.
In 2004, Laffey trounced union-backed candidate Garry Reilly in a Republican primary, after a battle that led his next Democratic opponent that year, John O. Mancini, to suggest that the union push to draw party outsiders to the polls backfired.
In 2006, however, Laffey lost his bid for the U.S. Senate to then-Republican incumbent Lincoln D. Chafee in a GOP primary, a loss that some in Republican circles still attribute to Chafee's efforts to woo independents and convince Democrats to disaffiliate to vote for him.
The fur began to fly this week after the state GOP's executive committee voted 26 to 10 on Tuesday to urge Cicione to call a meeting of the party's 200-plus member Central Committee on Jan. 19 to consider limiting all future Republican primaries to registered Republicans.
As of Thursday, Cicione had no plans to do so.
Cicione acknowledges that "voters are not thrilled" with either party right now, so for the GOP to "convert an anti-incumbent wave into a pro-Republican wave requires us to redefine ourselves." But he is not convinced that limiting the primary to "disciplined conservatives" is the way.
Cicione said Republican Governor Carcieri told him "we should not even consider closing the primary ... [and] he supports my decision not to fast-track the meeting schedule to accommodate a 2010 primary change."
Former Republican Gov. Lincoln Almond and former state GOP Chairman John Holmes agree. "Why in God's name would the Republican Party of Rhode Island want to change the primary process and to close it when, respectfully, there's a handful of Republicans in Rhode Island?" Holmes mused. Had there been a closed primary in 1994, Almond doubts he would have been elected, and suggests in-fighting over primaries and the purity test may "define the party, but you would make yourself a very insignificant minority."
But Cicione's stance won him this angry e-mail from former South Kingstown Republican Chairman David Cote: "As the RIGOP chairman, what precedent are you setting to dismiss Democracy within the State Republican Party? As a loyal Rhode Island Republican, I urge you to gracefully step aside if you cannot honor clear directives from your/our own RIGOP Executive Committee."
Cicione says there is no mechanism to force him to step aside in mid-term.
Warwick's McKay agrees, but says the executive committee "can take a no-confidence vote that would render the chairman worthless ... Do I like the infighting? Absolutely not. ... but this is a fight the chairman started when he goes against the wishes of the... majority."
The debate is playing out at a time when the party has only one candidate lined up for statewide office: Republican attorney general candidate Erik Wallin.
The number of registered Republicans stands at 72,801, compared with 287,470 Democrats and 335,288 unaffiliated voters. The last time Republicans controlled the General Assembly was in 1939-40, when Republicans held 93 of the 143 seats in the House and Senate at the time. They are down to 4 in the 38-member Senate and 6 in the 75-member House.
kgregg@projo.com
