Now that the election is over, the real challenges are ahead — even more than might have been anticipated.
Gov. Lincoln Almond was a comfortable winner for reelection, but now is the lone Republican among general officers. His victory came because of a strong local and national economy, because he was able to convince voters of his role in improving the state’s economy, and because his opponent failed to develop an issue that would motivate voters to change course.
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Almond won support among Democrats because of his ability to seek consensus, to develop unlikely, but effective, alliances. Most noteworthy has been the marriage of labor and business to effectively deal with such issues as workers’ compensation. The cooperation has been beneficial to all Rhode Islanders.
Now comes a more difficult challenge, for all winners — working together to assure that our economy stays its course, that our state continues making the progress it has — progress that has been the result of cooperation between political parties that appeared more evenly matched, with Republicans dominating general offices and Democrats the legislature.
For the governor the challenge will be to continue to seek a road of cooperation. For the newly elected Democrats, the challenge will be to understand the importance of working together to resolve issues. That is not to say there won’t be differences, or that healthy debate is not productive. But it is to say that working together we can continue the progress that this state has made over these last few years because of the cooperation between the governor and the legislature.
Our congratulations go out to all winners — Gov. Almond, Senator Charles Fogarty (Lt. Gov.), Sheldon Whitehouse (Attorney General), Sen. Paul Tavares (General Treasurer), Secretary of State James Langevin, Congressmen Patrick Kennedy and Robert Weygand, and all the local winners.
