Voters in Rhode Island on Tuesday
decided in favor of allowing Providence Mayor David Cicilline to join
three openly gay House members.
Cicilline easily trounced his
Republican rival John Loughlin in his bid to represent the people of
Rhode Island's First Congressional District.
He now joins Democratic incumbents
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Jared
Polis of Colorado, all of whom kept their seats in Tuesday's
election.
A fifth gay candidate, however, won't
be joining the party.
Stephen P. Pougnet lost his bid to
unseat California Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, a Republican who
recently voted to keep the military's ban on open gay service, known
as “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.” If
elected, Pougnet, the mayor of Palm Springs, would have become the
first openly gay family man.
In July, the
Young Republicans of Dane County claimed Baldwin should be eliminated
from the race because her paperwork, which lists her campaign office
as her address instead of her voting address, is invalid.
Baldwin, however, overcame the objection, arguing that she has faced
threats of violence in the past, and went on to trounce her opponent,
businessman Chad Lee, with 62 percent of the vote.
In Massachusetts, Frank, 70, defeated
Republican Sean Bielat, who had defended “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
“Men under the height of 5 feet, 2
inches can't serve – I don't see anybody protesting. Where are the
people standing in front of the White House, the short guy standing
in front of the White House? You don't see it,” the
thirty-five-year-old candidate who enjoyed the endorsement of Tea
Party favorite Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, said.
Claiming victory, Frank blasted the
rhetoric of many Republican candidates.
“The campaigns run by most
Republicans were beneath the dignity of a democracy and I'm delighted
that they were repudiated,” he said.
Colorado voters decided to return
millionaire Polis to Washington, shunning his Republican rival,
Stephen Bailey.