The Richmond Town Hall includes a state drop box for ballots for the upcoming Nov. 5 election. (Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
Dogs bark furiously from inside a car parked outside a rural Richmond home as Rep. Megan Cotter strides up the long driveway.
Their owner, Jennifer Peltier, stands in the driveway with arms crossed, face unreadable.
Cotter, an Exeter Democrat, introduces herself and presents a quick recap of her first-term achievements: more money for local schools; a federally-funded van to take residents without transportation to and from appointments at Wood River Health; dedicated bond funding for open space preservation; and a legislative panel to study forest management and fire prevention after a massive brush fire scorched hundreds of acres in Exeter’s Queen River Nature Preserve in 2023.
Then Cotter asks Peltier if she can count on her vote.
“Yes,” Peltier answers, smiling.
Peltier also says she will also be voting for Republican Donald Trump for president.
Rep. Megan Cotter rides from door to door while campaigning in Richmond on Oct. 3, 2024. (Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
In a polarized political climate, split-ticket voting is scarce. But Cotter needs conservative voters to win Rhode Island’s highest-profile legislative contest this year. She is facing a rematch against Republican Justin Price, who held the District 39 House seat for four terms, losing to Cotter by 32 votes in 2022.
“Trump is going to win our towns so I need to appeal to those voters,” Cotter said.
Price made headlines as the only state lawmaker to attend the Washington, D.C. rally that turned into a riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — he claims he did not enter the U.S. Capitol. Price remains an open Trump supporter, winning a spot as a state delegate for Trump representing Rhode Island at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
(Source: Rhode Island Department of State)
Cotter avoids mentioning Price, or national politics, as she campaigns door to door. She is running on her record of making a difference in this western, rural Rhode Island district spanning 100 square miles of Richmond, most of Exeter and a sliver of Hopkinton. Here, being a Democrat is not the guaranteed advantage it is for candidates elsewhere in this solidly blue state.
“All of the available evidence suggests for the most part, voters don’t know about the State House races,” said Adam Myers, an associate professor of political science at Providence College. “They tend to vote based on party. My guess is that the ultimate partisan breakdown in the race is going to pretty closely resemble the presidential level.”
Winning the fundraising war
In 2016, voters in Richmond and Exeter backed Trump over Hillary Clinton by nearly double-digit percentages. In 2020, Trump edged out Joe Biden in Exeter, with Biden pulling ahead slightly among Richmond voters. Biden captured the state overall by 21 percentage points in 2020.
The 2022 election saw a three-way race for the District 39 seat. It included independent candidate Sean Comella, a Providence police sergeant, who captured 10% of the vote. Comella isn’t running this year, citing conflicts with his job.
Price did not respond to a half dozen calls and emails for this story.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran who later worked as a fisherman and carpenter, according to his campaign website, Price served on the House committees for veterans’ affairs and small business during his eight years on Smith Hill. He sponsored bills to update terms of municipal agreements for the regional school districts in Chariho and Exeter-West Greenwich, and to create a legislative panel to study state regulation of geoengineering.
Price’s website does not mention his legislative accomplishments at all, instead touting a pledge to “fight for personal rights, lower taxes and more simplified government.” The “coming events” section has no scheduled campaign events, though there is a separate link to the state GOP calendar.
Cotter’s war chest is nearly 10 times larger than Price’s.
In the three month period ending Oct. 7, Cotter received more than $19,000 in donations, with a nearly $24,000 cash pile after spending $22,000 in the same period. Price raised $1,350 in the same time period, spending less than $600. He reported $2,502 cash on hand as of Oct. 7.
The Rhode Island Democratic Party has called in the calvary to help Cotter. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed appeared at a recent fundraiser for Cotter. Secretary of State Gregg Amore and Attorney General Peter Neronha knocked on doors with her.
Trump is going to win our towns so I need to appeal to those voters.
– Rep. Megan Cotter, an Exeter Democrat
Liz Beretta-Perik, state party chair, considers the race a top priority.
“She is everything a community leader, a district leader, a state representative should be,” Beretta-Perik said of Cotter. “We need her, and this district needs her. It would be a huge loss if she didn’t win.”
Rhode Island GOP Chairman Joe Powers did not answer questions about the party’s support for Price, despite multiple inquiries.
Rhode Island House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale donated $500 to Price’s campaign in June — one of five donors to do so. Chippendale was unavailable for an interview.
“As the Republican House Minority Leader, it is my job to encourage more Republican voices to serve in the Rhode Island House,” Chippendale said in an emailed statement.
Richmond resident Jennifer Peltier (left) speaks with Rep. Megan Cotter outside Peltier’s home on Oct. 3, 2024. (Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
Personal is political
Mark Trimmer, Richmond Town Council president and lifelong Republican seeking reelection to his fourth term – now as an independent candidate — voted for Price in 2022 and still considers Price a friend.
“But I don’t think it’s mutual anymore, now that I have a Megan Cotter sign in my front yard,” Trimmer said.
What changed?
“I’ve had more conversations with Megan in a year and a half than I had with Justin all the time prior to that,” Trimmer said. “I am voting for Megan because she has done so much for this town. She collaborates and communicates with me.”
Trimmer, 63, said he has grown disenchanted with the Republican Party though he will likely vote again for Trump, as he did in 2016 and 2020, in November.
So will fellow Richmond Town Council member Michael Colasante, who also heads the Richmond Republican Town Committee. Unlike Trimmer, Colasante is backing Price, who he feels more closely aligns with his moderate views.
“Megan Cotter is aligning herself with more progressives, which is why I personally left the Democratic party,” Colasante said. “We used to be more moderate.”
Colasante was first elected as a Democrat to the Richmond Town Council in 1991 at age 30, then the youngest person ever to win a seat on the town’s governing board. He served one term before entering hibernation, reawakening to run for the same seat, this time as a Republican, in 2022.
Now 63, Colasante wants to make Richmond better for his own family, and people like them.
“When I see the cost of home prices, inflation, what is going on for the average family of four, I think of my beautiful granddaughters,” Colasante said. “I could take the easy way out, go fishing, take them out for ice cream, just ignore everything in the world. But I am not doing this for myself.”
One topic Colasante and Trimmer agree on: the benefit of tax breaks to The Preserve, a luxury residential development and sporting club in Richmond where memberships run half a million dollars.
Cotter introduced enabling legislation for the proposed controversial tax break in June 2023 on behalf of the Richmond Town Council, a customary practice for legislators obliged to work with municipal officials. After reading the bill, Cotter then helped stop it from being voted on, essentially killing the bill, amid objections from town residents.
I’ve had more conversations with Megan in a year and a half than I had with Justin all the time prior to that.
– Mark Trimmer, Richmond Town Council president
The Town Council is now pursuing the same deal through a judge instead, according to Trimmer.
“They are exactly the kind of development a rural town like ours is looking for,” Trimmer said. “They are not a strip mall.”
The Preserve’s tax payments comprise a fifth of the tax base that funds Richmond’s annual, $30 million budget; by the time the development project is finished, Trimmer estimates the 178-acre property will account for 40% of the town’s tax revenue.
The Preserve did not return multiple inquiries for comment.
Rep. Megan Cotter, an Exeter Democrat, leaves campaign materials at a home in Richmond after no one answers the door. (Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
Second Amendment rights a priority in Exeter
Rep. Larry Valencia, a Democrat and former Richmond resident who served as the District 39 representative from 2010 to 2014, thinks his sponsorship of failed state legislation seeking to remove the powers of town clerks to authorize concealed carry permits cost him reelection in 2014.
The 2013 bill drew swift criticism from Exeter residents, who also unsuccessfully attempted to recall four members of their Town Council from office, outraged over the perceived infringement upon Second Amendment rights.
Cotter personally supports stricter gun laws, but recognizes that many of her constituents do not. She doesn’t want to alienate district voters on either side of the issue.
She was absent the day the House voted on mandated safe storage requirements for firearms during the 2024 session because one of her children was sick.
Exeter, a 6,000-person town, stands firm in its no-frills, hands-off approach to government. There’s no town police department — hence why the town clerk has power to approve concealed carry permits. Until 1995, there was no town zoning ordinance, making Exeter the last municipality in the state to have one.
“People always say, we’re getting along well enough as it is,” said Calvin Ellis, Exeter Town Council member and lifelong resident. “Our expenditures are minimalist, and that’s what people like about Exeter.”
Ellis, 80, who heads the Exeter Democratic Town Committee, insists quality of life issues don’t have a partisan bent. The council, split between three Republicans and two Democrats, votes in agreement more often than not, Ellis said.
In contrast to the national scene, town politics seem less contentious than they used to, said Paul Lacouture, Exeter town moderator. Take the annual financial meeting, where residents vote on the town’s annual budget.
“Some of the hotheads have gotten older,” said Lacouture, who runs the meeting. “Having a high school, a town library, I think these things have also created a sense of community.”
Even when a chorus of state and federal Democratic lawmakers called for Price to step down following the Jan. 6 rally, Exeter Democrats stayed silent.
“I was disappointed that someone that represented part of my town behaved that way,” Ellis said. “But I didn’t really give it a lot of thought.”
Many of the voters courted by Cotter in a recent night of door-knocking were unaware of Price’s participation in the rally or didn’t seem bothered by it.
Lacouture wasn’t surprised.
“Probably, half of the people here would say it’s terrible that Justin was there, and the other half would say they agree with it,” Lacouture said.
A palm card for Rep. Megan Cotter sits outside a Richmond home where no one answered the door. (Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
‘I want everyone’s voice to be heard’
Cotter ran for office because she wanted to see people like her in office — a working mom whose family has struggled to afford basic needs.
“I needed Kamala Harris to say, ‘You are struggling right now, groceries are too expensive,’” Cotter said. “She didn’t say that during the debate and I thought that was a real miss. I understand people here not feeling heard. If I were to sum it up, that’s how my community feels. They don’t feel heard.”
She continued, “I want everyone’s voice to be heard, even if it’s not like mine.”
Patti Houston, a Richmond resident who volunteers to drive Cotter door-to-door to campaign, recalled a man on a tractor wearing a “Joe Biden is a clown” shirt who greeted them about two months ago. “We are Price fans here,” the man told Cotter.
Houston, stationed in the car, ready for a quick getaway, watched the man step closer to Cotter, his voice growing louder, the accusations harsher.
Cotter was “visibly shaken” when she got back in, Houston said.
“I wasn’t so much scared for my safety as I am tired of the bullies that want you to just go away,” Cotter said. “That’s what I was really upset about. Come at me for what I have done, don’t come up at me for whatever you hear on the news that’s not even about me.”
Then there are residents like Savannah Caruso, a mom of three who moved to Richmond in 2020. She looked frazzled, but paused her laundry duties and corralling her kids to get ready for sports practice to ask Cotter a few questions when the legislator dropped by.
Caruso spent most of her adult life moving from place to place for her husband’s job with the U.S. Coast Guard before they settled in Richmond.
“I didn’t feel invested in the community before,” said Caruso as her German Shepherds nudged her leg and dropped drool-coated tennis balls at her feet. “This is my forever home, so I want to be involved.”
When Cotter asked if she could count on the vote, Caruso readily answered yes.
At another door, a woman greeted Cotter with a smile.
“I remember you,” said the woman who declined to give her name, recalling Cotter’s knock on her door two years prior. “She was riding her bike up the road. Anyone who is willing to do that has my vote.”
Cotter doesn’t like to dwell on what happens if she doesn’t win.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen on Election Day,” Cotter said. “But I want to know I have done everything I can.”
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