Rhode Island gubernatorial election, 2010

State Executives
Current Governors
Gubernatorial Elections
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014
Current Lt. Governors
Lt. Governor Elections
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014

In the Rhode Island gubernatorial election of 2010, held on November 2, 2010, Independent Lincoln Chafee, who left the Republican Party following a term in the U.S. Senate, defeated Democrat Frank T. Caprio, Rhode Island's General Treasurer, and Republican John F. Robitaille. Incumbent Governor Donald Carcieri, a Republican, was term-limited.

In the September 14, 2010 primary elections, Caprio would have faced the Attorney General of Rhode Island, Patrick Lynch, but Lynch had withdrawn his candidacy in July. Robitaille faced off against former State Representative Victor G. Moffitt and became the Republican nominee, but was never seriously expected to win. In the end, he placed second to Lincoln Chafee.

On Friday, September 10, 2010, news broke that Democrat Frank Caprio,whose party has marked Rhode Island's governorship as a prime target and who is facing serious third party competition, had approached Robataille about dropping out of the race and backing his candidacy.

Robataille's camp alleged that a former Republican officer holder approached him on behalf of Caprio, with the offer of, “anything, anything you want to get out of this race.”. Caprio's camp never addressed the story directly, though the National Journal confimred that, as far back as February, Caprio met with the Republican National Committee to ask for their support.

Robataille was, at the time, still adamant that he could win the race; with a credible third party candidate and no law requiring a candidate to take a majority of the vote to win, Rhode Island's governor can theoretically enter office with less than 40% of the vote.

Inauguration and transition

Inaugural date

Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee was sworn in on January 4, 2011, at which time he became be America's only sitting governor not ot belong to one of the major parties.

Transition team

Governor-elect Chafee's transition site was at Governor Elect Chafee. Graham Vyse served as the point of contact, available at [email protected]. and at 401-535-8834. Mike Trainor continued his campaign role as spokesman for Chafee, with the title of Deputy Transition Director.

The first round of names announced for the transition team included Chairman Patrick Rogers, aided by Stephen Hourahan as Transition Director, Michael Trainor, Director of Transition Policy Jonathan Stevens, and Judge Stephen Erickson as the Transition Legislative Liaison/Legal Adviser.

Additionally, a transition advisory committee was named, with Helena Buonanno Foulkes, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer at CVS Caremark; Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, Associate Chair for Community Relationships in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women and Infants' Hospital, and CEO of Women's Care; Meg Curran, former U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island; and Robert A. Walsh, Jr, Director of the National Education Association Rhode Island.

On November 17, 2010, Governor-elect Chafee added Margaret Holland McDuff, Claire Richards, and John Simmons.

November 2, 2010 general election results

As of November 8, 2010, 100% of precincts have reported and results are final.

Governor of Rhode Island, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Frank T. Caprio	23%	78,896
	Republican	John F. Robitaille	33.6%	114,911
	Independent	Lincoln Chafee	36.1%	123,571
	Moderate	Ken Block	6.5%	22,146
	Independent	Ronald Algieri	0.2%	793
	Independent	Todd Giroux	0.3%	882
	Independent	Joseph M. Lusi	0.3%	1,091
Total Votes				342,290

Race ratings

See also: Gubernatorial elections 2010, Race tracking

2010 Race Rankings Rhode Island
Race Tracker		Race Rating
The Cook Political Report		Toss-up
Congressional Quarterly Politics		Toss-up
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball		Leans Independent
Rasmussen Reports Gubernatorial Scorecard		Leans Independent
The Rothenberg Political Report		Leans Independent
Overall Call		Independent

Changes

5. Rothenberg moved race from "Pure Toss-up" to "Leans Independent" on October 28th.

4. Larry J. Sabato moved race from Leans Democrat" to "Leans Independent" on October 28th.

3. Larry J. Sabato moved race from "Toss-up" to "Leans Democrat" as of October 24th.

2. Rasmussen moved race to "Leans Independent" following October 21st polling.

1. Rasmussen moved race from "Toss-up" to "Leans Democratic" following August 17th poll.

Polling

2010 Race for Rhode Island Governor - Fleming & Associates
Date Reported		Robataille (R)	Caprio (D)	Chaffe (I)	Block (M)	Don't Know
September 22, 2010		18.6%	32.38%	29.8%	-	14.6%
(Sample)		n=500	MoE=+/- 4.38%	p=0.05

2010 Race for Rhode Island Governor - Rasmussen Reports
Date Reported		Robataille (R)	Caprio (D)	Chaffe (I)	Block (M)	Don't Know
October 21, 2010		25%	28%	35%	6%	6%
October 6, 2010		22%	30%	33%	4%	10%
September 16, 2010		23%	30%	33%	5%	9%
(Sample)		n=500	MoE=+/- 4.5%	p=0.05

Candidates

The November Ballot – Who Made It? Rhode Island Governor
Nominee		Affiliation
Frank T. Caprio		Democrat
John F. Robitaille		Republican
Kenneth J. "Ken" Block		Moderate
Lincoln Davenport "Linc" Chafee		Independent
Ronald Algieri		Independent
Todd Giroux		Independent
Joseph M. Lusi		Independent
This lists candidates who won their state's primary or convention, or who were unopposed, and who were officially certified for the November ballot by their state's election authority.

The official lists of certified candidates are maintained by Rhode Island's Office of the Secretary of State.

Democratic

• Frank Caprio, serving as the General Treasurer for the state at the time of his candidacy.
• Patrick C. Lynch, the term-limited Attorney General, left the race, endorsing Mr. Caprio

Independent

• Ronald Algieri
• Lincoln D. Chafee, a former Senator who made national news when he switched his party affiliation from the GOP to Independent
• Activist Todd Giroux entered the race on June 1, 2010.
• Joseph M. Lusi who chose to gather the signatures needed to petition onto the ballot.
• Christopher Reynolds

Moderate Party

• Kenneth J. Block, a software engineer and business owner

Republican

• Victor G. Moffitt, businessman and former State Representative
• John F. Robitaille, former U.S. Army paratrooper and business owner

Race background

48 hours before the one state where serious race trackers gave a third party a strong chance at moving into the governor's mansion, the race potentially got a lot harder for the outsider. In this case, the 'outsider' was former Senator - and former Republican - Lincoln Chafee, whose Independent effort at winning the state's highest office was causing a fair amount of trouble for the state's Democratic party.

Rhode Island's governorship had been in GOP hands for seven of the past nine cycles, and consistently since 1994. Term-limited incumbent, Donald L. Carcieri, gave Democrats some hope when he eked out re-election by a mere two points in 2006. Then, what had been projected to be a crowded primary field got a lot easier to navigate when several Democrats took themselves out of contention before the campaign season truly got going. Democrats eventually put up two candidates, Attorney General Patrick Lynch and General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio against Republican John F. Robitaille, himself a senior staffer to Gov. Carcieri. Robitaille has nominal primary opposition in former State Representative Victor Moffit, but polling numbers in 2010 weren't favoring any Republican in Rhode Island.

Chafee certainly looked as if he might pull off a coup and join a small club of successful third party candidates for high office. But, on Wednesday, June 14, 2010, the Providence Journal reported that Patrick Lynch would be exiting the race. The story ran just before the end of the business day and suggested Lynch would formally announce the cessation of his candidacy the following day, a prediction the flashed across the morning news blasts out of Washington..

Lynch leaves the race

Indeed, on the afternoon of July 15, 2010, Lynch addressed his supporters in a speech entitled, 'The Push for Unity Begins Today”, in which he formally ended his campaign and called for a show of Democratic party unity. In making an endorsement of his former rival for the Democratic nomination, he remarked: “Therefore, today I am announcing that I am withdrawing my name from consideration to become the next Governor of Rhode Island. do so without hesitation. And as I do so, I wholeheartedly offer my enthusiastic endorsement of my friend and fellow General Officer, Frank Caprio."

Lynch trailed, in fundraising and in polling, behind his former primary opposition, General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio. Lynch was also passed over by the Democrats when they endorsed Caprio in June, saying in a statement that they perceived him to be the stronger candidate. Shortly after leaving the race, Mr. Lynch endorsed Frank Caprio, the state's General Treasurer.

With the campaign's formal announcement, Lynch's exodus boosted Democratic hopes in Rhode Island's fierce race to succeed term-limited Donald L. Carcieri. Lincoln Chafee, running as an Independent, continued to poll strongly and third party candidate Ken Block, on the Moderate Party ticket, was still in the race. The GOP nomination was not yet sewn up at that point, as John F. Robitaille and Victor Moffitt were sparing ahead of their September primary.

Remaining primary candidates face altered field

Without the hope that a drawn-out primary would deplete Democratic resources and exhaust the eventual victor, Chafee's bid could have hit a stumbling block. Democrats were intent on re-taking the governorship this fall and had an intimidating operation on the ground to back their sole remaining candidate. Caprio was beating Chafee 4-to-1 in cash on hand. Republican candidates also trailed in fundraising, as did Moderate Ken Block.

Just after Lynch left the campaign trail for good, Chafee was leading Caprio by a slight margin – 37% to 30%. Key to Chafee's hope was turning Rhode Island's large population of unaffiliated voters to his advantage.

Gubernatorial Election history

2006

• 2006 General

Governor of Rhode Island, 2006
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Charles J. Fogarty	49%	189,562
	Republican	Donald Carcieri Incumbent	51%	197,366
Total Votes				386,928

2002

Governor of Rhode Island, 2002
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Myrth York	45.2%	150,229
	Republican	Donald Carcieri	54.8%	181,827
Total Votes				332,056

Presidential electoral history

2008 Presidential Results
Candidates		Percentage
John McCain (R)		35.06%
Barack Obama (D)		62.86%

2004 Presidential Results
Candidates		Percentage
George W. Bush (R)		38.67%
John Kerry (D)		59.42%

2000 Presidential Results
Candidates		Percentage
George W. Bush (R)		31.91%
Al Gore (D)		60.99%

1996 Presidential Results
Candidates		Percentage
Bob Dole (R)		26.82%
Bill Clinton (D)		59.71%

1992 Presidential Results
Candidates		Percentage
George H.W. Bush (R)		29.02%
Bill Clinton (D)		47.04%

See also

• Gubernatorial elections, 2010
• Rhode Island lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2010

External links

• Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State
• Rhode Island Governor's Race at CQ Politics
• Rhode Island 2010 Gubernatorial Candidates at www.FollowTheMoney.com
• Rhode Island Governor at www.OurCampaigns.com
• Election 2010 - Rhode Island Governor at www.RasmussenReports.com
• 2010 Rhode Island Governor's Race at www.RealClearPolitics.com

• Frank Caprio at PolitiFact
• Lincoln Chafee at PolitiFact
• Patrick Lynch at PolitiFact
• John Robataille at PolitiFact

Candidate pages

• Ken Block for Rhode Island Governor
• Caprio for Governor
• Lincoln Chafee, Independent Candidate for Rhode Island Governor
• Giroux for Governor, November 2010
• Patrick Lynch for Governor
• Victor Moffitt for Governor
• John Robitaille for Governor 2010