PROVIDENCE — Democrat Angel Taveras, a 40-year-old Dominican-American lawyer, became the state’s first elected Latino mayor Tuesday, trouncing independent Jonathan P. Scott to assume the seat being vacated by Mayor David N. Cicilline, who won the 1st Congressional District seat the same night.
Taveras’ victory, which seemed all but assured after his September primary victory, came on an election that also marked a changing of the guard in the 15-member City Council. Seven new council members will take office in January, following the decision by a number of long-serving council members not to seek reelection and surprise losses by other incumbents in the primary.
Among the significant winners Tuesday was 21-year-old Democrat Davian Sanchez, who emerged from a three-way race in Ward 11 (Upper South Providence) to become the youngest elected councilman in city history.
At 10:25 p.m., with about 77 percent of polls reporting, Taveras announced his victory. With 98 percent of polls reporting at 10:55 p.m., he had more than 82 percent of the vote.
Speaking at the state Democratic Party gathering at the Biltmore, he thanked his mother, Amparo “Milagro” Ovalles, a Dominican immigrant who had raised him and his two immediate siblings largely on her own while working at local factories.
“Her example taught me that, through hard work and perseverance, anything is possible, and most importantly, that there are no insurmountable challenges,” said Taveras, who earlier this month said his mother was staying in the Dominican Republic and would not be in the city for the election night.
Reflecting on the historic significance of the election earlier in the day, Taveras said he was more focused on being the city’s best mayor , rather than being its first Latino mayor.
“I don’t want to take away from the honor. It is an absolute honor,” he said while making get-out-the-vote phone calls at the union hall of Local 328 of the United Food & Commercial Workers. “I need to focus more on being a successful mayor for the entire city.”
Scott, a 43-year-old East Side resident who owns a local public-relations and communications firm, acknowledged that his campaign, which had raised about $15,000, was outmatched financially by Taveras, who raised about $107,000 from Oct. 5 to Oct. 25 alone.
“We did everything we could with the budget we had,” he said while greeting voters at Nathanael Greene Middle School in Elmhurst in the evening. “I’ll stand by the fact that we worked hard on this given the resources we had.”
For some, Taveras’ victory represents a high point in the growth of Latino political power in the state. His ascendance to the mayor’s seat of the state’s capital and largest city comes less than two decades after Anastasia Williams became the first Latina elected to public office in the state as a Democratic state representative from Providence in 1992.
Taveras lays claim to a mayor’s office that has roughly traced the evolution of the city’s political and ethnic landscape, from the Yankee Republicans who ruled in the 1800s to 1930s, to the Irish-American Democratic Party machine that controlled the city from the 1940s to ’70s, and the unbroken chain of Italian-American mayors starting in 1975 with Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., according to City Archivist Paul R. Campbell.
Today, Providence is a city where about 38 percent identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino and about 8.4 percent identify themselves as Dominican, according to census data.
“I voted for Angel Taveras principally because he’s Hispanic,” Manuel Santos said shortly after voting at the Elmwood Community Center. “But he’s also a serious man, a hard-working man. We need a change and I believe he’ll be able to fix this town, which is very, very bad.”
Taveras, who served as a mayor-appointed judge to the city Housing Court but has never held elected office, campaigned on the promise of rebuilding the city’s economy and creating a more open and ethical government. He also campaigned on his life story of coming up from poverty.
When he takes office in January, Taveras will become just the second Latino mayor running a U.S. capital city, with Hartford Mayor Pedro E. Segarra, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
He also becomes just the third Dominican elected mayor, joining Segarra and Passaic, N.J., Mayor Alex D. Blanco, according to the Dominican American National Roundtable.
There were no other big surprises in the City Council races as 10 Democrats waltzed into office without challenge, including six incumbents. That left five competitive races, in which the heavily favored Democrat won.
pmarcelo@projo.com
Taveras’ victory, which seemed all but assured after his September primary victory, came on an election that also marked a changing of the guard in the 15-member City Council. Seven new council members will take office in January, following the decision by a number of long-serving council members not to seek reelection and surprise losses by other incumbents in the primary.
Among the significant winners Tuesday was 21-year-old Democrat Davian Sanchez, who emerged from a three-way race in Ward 11 (Upper South Providence) to become the youngest elected councilman in city history.
Speaking at the state Democratic Party gathering at the Biltmore, he thanked his mother, Amparo “Milagro” Ovalles, a Dominican immigrant who had raised him and his two immediate siblings largely on her own while working at local factories.
“Her example taught me that, through hard work and perseverance, anything is possible, and most importantly, that there are no insurmountable challenges,” said Taveras, who earlier this month said his mother was staying in the Dominican Republic and would not be in the city for the election night.
Angel Taveras greets supporters Tuesday outside the polling place at the Elmwood Community Center. Democrat Taveras easily won the race to become mayor of Providence, trouncing independent Jonathan P. Scott. The Providence Journal / Kris Craig
“I don’t want to take away from the honor. It is an absolute honor,” he said while making get-out-the-vote phone calls at the union hall of Local 328 of the United Food & Commercial Workers. “I need to focus more on being a successful mayor for the entire city.”
Scott, a 43-year-old East Side resident who owns a local public-relations and communications firm, acknowledged that his campaign, which had raised about $15,000, was outmatched financially by Taveras, who raised about $107,000 from Oct. 5 to Oct. 25 alone.
“We did everything we could with the budget we had,” he said while greeting voters at Nathanael Greene Middle School in Elmhurst in the evening. “I’ll stand by the fact that we worked hard on this given the resources we had.”
For some, Taveras’ victory represents a high point in the growth of Latino political power in the state. His ascendance to the mayor’s seat of the state’s capital and largest city comes less than two decades after Anastasia Williams became the first Latina elected to public office in the state as a Democratic state representative from Providence in 1992.
Taveras lays claim to a mayor’s office that has roughly traced the evolution of the city’s political and ethnic landscape, from the Yankee Republicans who ruled in the 1800s to 1930s, to the Irish-American Democratic Party machine that controlled the city from the 1940s to ’70s, and the unbroken chain of Italian-American mayors starting in 1975 with Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., according to City Archivist Paul R. Campbell.
Today, Providence is a city where about 38 percent identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino and about 8.4 percent identify themselves as Dominican, according to census data.
“I voted for Angel Taveras principally because he’s Hispanic,” Manuel Santos said shortly after voting at the Elmwood Community Center. “But he’s also a serious man, a hard-working man. We need a change and I believe he’ll be able to fix this town, which is very, very bad.”
Taveras, who served as a mayor-appointed judge to the city Housing Court but has never held elected office, campaigned on the promise of rebuilding the city’s economy and creating a more open and ethical government. He also campaigned on his life story of coming up from poverty.
When he takes office in January, Taveras will become just the second Latino mayor running a U.S. capital city, with Hartford Mayor Pedro E. Segarra, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
He also becomes just the third Dominican elected mayor, joining Segarra and Passaic, N.J., Mayor Alex D. Blanco, according to the Dominican American National Roundtable.
There were no other big surprises in the City Council races as 10 Democrats waltzed into office without challenge, including six incumbents. That left five competitive races, in which the heavily favored Democrat won.
pmarcelo@projo.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment