Incumbent R.I. GOP chair fends off challenger in drama-filled party election
Warwick police officers were called to The Event Factory Saturday at around 10:30 a.m. for a disturbance. The Rhode Island Republican Party was holding an election for party chair at the time. (Courtesy of Warwick Police Department)
From allegations of voter disenfranchisement to a police escort out of the room, drama dominated the Rhode Island Republican Party's reorganization meeting Saturday.
Chairman: 111 votes for Joe Powers, 45 votes for Jessica Drew-Day
Vice Chairman: 129 for Niyoka Powell, 29 votes for Angelo Kapsimalis
Secretary: 118 votes for Mary Lou Sanborn, 36 votes for Patricia Morgan
Treasurer: Linda Jamison, elected unopposed
'It was the worst meeting I've been involved in for 15 years,' Steve Frias, former Rhode Island Republican National Committeeman and one of nine delegates for the city of Cranston, said in an interview Sunday. 'People were constantly disrupting the meeting.'
The chaos came amid a contested election for GOP chair, which featured the first challenge to an incumbent seeking reelection in 30 years. Incumbent Joe Powers beat out challenger Jessica Drew-Day in a decisive 111-45 vote. Two other candidates who ran on a slate with Powers, Niyoka Powell and Mary Lou Sanborn, also won their elections for vice chair and secretary, respectively, over opponents aligned with Drew-Day. Linda Jamison ran and won her unopposed bid for treasurer.
Powers acknowledged there were 'theatrics' during Saturday's two-and-a-half hour meeting at The Event Factory in Warwick, but insisted he was focused on the job of advancing the state's minority party.
'My intent is to get as many people to want to be part of the Republican Party as I can,' Powers said in an interview Monday. 'I want to remain as positive as possible, to remain united and continue to do the work we have already begun.'
Powers, a Cranston resident and business consultant, was elected to his first term as party chair in 2023, alongside Drew-Day, who was chosen as the first vice chair. They were meant to work hand-in-hand to recruit candidates, raise money and grow the party's Republican presence in the state. But the duo diverged, with Drew-Day turning her frustrations with Powers into a challenge for the party's top, unpaid leadership job.
Drew-Day, a South Kingstown resident who owns a video production company, framed her candidacy around grassroots organizing, focused on building local Republican town committees and candidates for municipal offices and school committees. Powers touted his success in earning a spot in Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley's kitchen cabinet. Being a part of Whatley's informal advisory group, he said, would bring in big returns.
What began as a rivalry rooted in contrasting leadership styles devolved into a dispute over the state party's bylaws after two local Republican committees were not allowed to vote in the election.
Eleven people representing the Pawtucket and West Warwick Republican town committees were not recognized as delegates at the reorganization meeting, and were therefore not allowed to vote in the party's leadership elections. Frias, a member of the state GOP's Credentials Committee, said the appointed panel decided in a meeting Friday that Pawtucket and West Warwick Republicans were not credentialed delegates because they had not filed the requisite state elections paperwork.
State law requires anyone who wants to be recognized as official members of their town, city, or district party committees to file paperwork with their local boards of canvassers biennially. In 2024, the submissions were due within the last three days of June.
Local party committees must then meet in January of odd-numbered years to elect officers, submitting a list of officers and members to the Rhode Island Secretary of State's office within 10 days of their meeting.
Of the 36 Republican town or city committees in operation, 17 filed their organization paperwork late this year, according to information from the Secretary of State's office. Another three — Burrillville, North Kingstown and West Warwick — never submitted the paperwork to the state at all. However, only Pawtucket and West Warwick's town committee members were not allowed to vote in party elections Saturday.
'As long as they had what we felt was substantial compliance with the law, we determined they were eligible,' Frias said.
Pawtucket and West Warwick's town committee members failed to meet credentialing requirements because they also did not submit forms declaring their candidacy last year, Frias said.
The two municipalities whose members were excluded from Saturday's vote are also towns in which the candidates running alongside Drew-Day live.
It was the worst meeting I've been involved in for 15 years. People were constantly disrupting the meeting.
– Steve Frias, former Rhode Island Republican National Committeeman and a Cranston delegate
Angelo Kapsimalis, who ran with Drew-Day as vice chair, lives in Pawtucket. Patricia Morgan, a former state representative now running as secretary on a slate with Drew-Day, lives in West Warwick.
Morgan sought to postpone the elections Saturday in order to give time for the Pawtucket and West Warwick committees to submit the required paperwork to participate in the vote. Her proposal was denied, causing a ruckus that prompted the venue's security team to call the Warwick Police Department.
The police responded to a call about a disturbance at the Event Center shortly after 10:30 a.m., Steve McMullin with the Warwick police department's records division confirmed Monday. Alan Palazzo, a member of the West Warwick Republican Town Committee, was escorted out of the venue by police, but not arrested.
Palazzo did not immediately return inquiries for comment on Monday.
Tammy Collins, chair of the West Warwick Republican Town Committee was upset to learn that she and the other three town committee members would not be allowed to vote Saturday. If she was able to participate, Collins would have supported Morgan, Kapsimalis and Drew-Day, she said.
She acknowledged she had not filed the required paperwork last year to make her candidacy official. However, Collins said that in previous elections, the GOP chair had authorized her and other town committee members as delegates, even without the paperwork.
Party bylaws give discretion to the Republican Party chair to appoint 'ad hoc' local party committee members even if they don't submit the right paperwork to the state. Powers did just that for two other committees, Cumberland and Warwick, which asked him to do so months before the election.
Powers said credentials for Pawtucket and West Warwick had not 'come through.'
He instead shifted blame onto Morgan, Palazzo and other dissenters for their behavior on Saturday.
'We had established rules and regulations in our executive meeting that both candidates had agreed to, and part of that was decorum in the room,' Powers said.
Referring to Palazzo, Powers said, 'The gentleman from West Warwick was being loud and belligerent.'
Drew-Day refers to Palazzo as 'the man who had his voice silenced.'
She described her concerns in terms of fairness.
'There was no election integrity,' Drew-Day said.
The 11 people disqualified from voting would not have swayed the outcome of any of the leadership elections. But Drew-Day said she was also denied access to the list of names and contact information for delegates, preventing her from meeting with them before the vote.
'No one heard my voice, which is why I lost,' Drew-Day said. 'If I had an opportunity to go and speak with people beforehand, I would have been able to answer their questions, hear their concerns, let them get to know me.'
Powers declined to comment on Drew-Day's allegations, saying he did not discuss internal party information. But, he said, Drew-Day has access to all town party committees, which are posted on the state GOP website, along with a name and phone number for each committee chair.
Powers pledged to try to unify the party, despite the fractures on display at the recent organizational meeting.
'My sole goal as a businessman is to get everyone to work together,' he said. 'I am just going to keep moving forward and do what I can to make the Rhode Island Republican Party thrive.'
Drew-Day also said she does not intend to file a complaint with the Secretary of State or national party over the election.
'What I am doing next is just going back to work,' she said. 'What I hope is we can come together, and if I decide to run again, this won't be used against me.'
Members of the Pawtucket Republican City Committee did not respond to inquiries for comment on Monday.
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