Daily Archive for October 16th, 2009

As of 4:00 PM today, there were 1 Democrat, 2 Independents, and 1 Republican candidate who had declared their candidacies for the House District 62 Special Election. The Republican candidate will be Tom Clupny of Rumford (who incidentally, is a neighbor of the recently resigned Rep. Betsy Dennigan). Because only 1 candidate from each party declared, there will not be a need for a November 24th primary (which is fine by us!). The election will be on December 29th.

The following is from the RI Secretary of State’s office:

Four candidates officially filed to run for Elizabeth Dennigan’s former House seat by today’s 4 p.m. deadline.

Filing for the House District 62 race are Democrat Mary Duffy Messier of Pawtucket, independents Brian Cinq-Mars of Pawtucket and Paul Dinsmore of East Providence, who challenged Dennigan as a Republican in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008; and Republican Thomas Clupny of East Providence.

State law gave the contenders until this afternoon to submit official Declarations of Candidacy. In order to file, the candidates had to be registered voters of the district, which stretches along the banks of the Seekonk River in East Providence and Pawtucket.

The next step begins this Tuesday, when the contenders can begin asking House District 62 voters to sign their nomination papers. The documents– including the signatures of at least 50 local voters – must be submitted to the local boards of canvassers by Oct. 27.

It won’t be known which candidates will qualify for the ballot until our office and the East Providence and Pawtucket boards of canvassers have certified that the contenders submitted the required 50 valid signatures. The certification of signatures generally takes several days.

The special election became necessary when Dennigan resigned Oct. 1. While there will be no primary, there are several other crucial dates leading up to the Dec. 29 election. Nov. 28 is the deadline for registering to vote and mail ballots must be requested by Dec. 8.