Last Call

Reading through Wednesday's Newport Daily News, I saw that another Democrat had entered the race -- Peter Martin, 67, a Newport native, software developer, and Chairman of the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission. At a quarter past four I strolled down to City Hall to get the final list of candidates for the 75th district, and learned that it was just Steve Coaty, Peter Martin, and me. Martin and I will be facing off on Primary Day, September 9, and the winner gets to face Coaty on Election Day, November 4.

In the afternoon I called Martin to say hello and wish him good luck. I was surprised to learn that we've met, and to my considerable embarassment I realized that I didn't remember him. It seems we met in the course of the 2006 Senate race, and that Martin knew me through my old political blog, Newport 9. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. Newport's not that big as cities go, so it makes sense that two people interested in local Democratic politics should be acquainted. (More proof that it's a small state is that I have a couple of friends in common with Steve Coaty, and my wife is related to State Senator Chuck Levesque.)

Martin told me that he'd thought about entering the special election last fall, but decided not to when Bud Cicilline entered the race. This time, he decided to take the plunge. I was sort of expecting the Newport Democratic City Committee to draft some high-profile local Democrat to run against Coaty, and I'm a little disappointed that they didn't. Come November, it'll be up to either Martin or me to face Steve the Giant-Killer, the man who beat Cicilline by 26%.

UPDATE: Martin tells me that our association actually goes back to early 2005, when the two of us took part in the creation of the Rhode Island Progressive League, and he was responsible for designing the RIPL website.