It’s common for Republican officials in heavily Democratic Northeastern states to be moderates. What makes Rhode Island stand out is the number of conservatives within its Democratic legislative supermajority. The median Democrat in Rhode Island was more conservative than in all but 13 state legislatures, scoring directly between Georgia and Indiana and far to the right of those in Connecticut or Massachusetts.
“Lots of Democrats here would be Republicans somewhere else, but they don’t feel they can win without a ‘D’ next to their name,” says Representative Brian Newberry, the minority leader of the six Republican members of the state’s 75-seat House of Representatives. Observers on the left agree. “In Rhode Island, the Democratic Party not only has a big tent, it has a circus tent,” says Robert Walsh, who leads the Rhode Island affiliate of the National Education Association.