By Peter Cohn
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 4

Delegates: 14

Chairman: Robert A. Watson

Hotel: Sheraton Suites Philadelphia Airport (215) 365-6600

1996 Election:
Clinton – 60%
Dole – 27%
Perot – 11%

Republican moderates are a bigger factor in most New England states than elsewhere in the country - perhaps even more so in Rhode Island, one of the most Democratic-dominated states in the nation.

And as in most of the Northeast, the centrist posture of Arizona Sen. John McCain held powerful sway against the party front-runner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who ran to the right during the nominating campaign.

McCain won the March 7 Rhode Island presidential primary with 60 percent of the Republican vote, entitling him to all 14 of the convention delegates under the state GOP's winner-take-all rule.

"I got to know John [during the campaign for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary], and we developed a friendship," said state House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson, who was McCain's campaign chairman in Rhode Island. "He's a great man and would have made a great president."

But Watson said the delegation would rally behind Bush, who dominated most of the other contests on the crucial March 7 primary day and knocked McCain out of the race.

The archetype for Republican success in Rhode Island is the late four-term Sen. John H. Chafee, who had a moderate to liberal record on many social and environmental issues. His son, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, is cut from the same ideological cloth. The younger Chafee, who was appointed to the Senate following his father's unexpected death last October, is running this year for a full term in the Senate.

Chafee is not a convention delegate, but two-term Republican Gov. Lincoln C. Almond is.

Also going as a delegate is 30-year-old Scott Avedisian, who succeeded Chafee as mayor of Warwick - Rhode Island's second-largest city - after Chafee moved on to the Senate.

Avedisian, who classifies himself a Chafee-style Republican, said he would like to see the national Republican Party move toward the center. He said he believes the party platform should contain "good environmental protection planks" and "shy away from social issues."

"We should concentrate on issues that unite us," Avedisian said, echoing the concerns of many Northeastern moderates in the party who see more controversial issues as a pitfall.

Not all Rhode Island delegates agree. Eileen Slocum - a self-described "12th-generation Rhode Islander" referred to by another delegate as "the queen of Newport high society" - is one contrarian.

"I'm very conservative," said Slocum, who has been the state's Republican national committeewoman for eight years. "I'm pro-life and pro-death penalty."

The Rhode Island delegation contains another rarity, a strongly Republican labor union official: Michael Traficante, governmental affairs liaison at the Laborers' International Union of North America. He was also the mayor of Cranston for 14 years and has been Rhode Island's Republican national committeeman for the past decade.

Traficante, a strong Bush supporter, obtained a delegate seat despite the delegation's tacit pledge to support McCain. Traficante was the Rhode Island coordinator for Republican presidential nominee George Bush in the 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns, and hopes the 2000 nominee will avenge his father's 1992 defeat by Bill Clinton.

"Getting a Bush back into the White House will be our revenge on the current administration, which is a disgrace," said Traficante.

RHODE ISLAND NOTABLES: Gov. Lincoln C. Almond; state House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson, the delegation chairman; Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian; Republican National Committeewoman Eileen Slocum; Michael Traficante, governmental affairs liaison for the Laborers' International Union of North America.