Oster held a 174-vote lead over Stallwood, with 355 absentee ballots outstanding. The state Board of Elections is expected to count the ballots by late today. In Warwick, Republican Mayor Scott Avedisian, who was elected to succeed U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee in a special election in February, breezed to reelection over a political novice, Democrat Michael Woods. Other than the bizarre mayoral campaign in Johnston, the elections in Lincoln and Warwick were the most high-profile municipal races in Rhode Island. Oster, a Democrat, received 4,899 votes to Republican Stallwood's 4,725, according to results from the Town Clerk's office.
More attention has to be given to planning for the future.
Avedesian won 68.6 percent of the Warwick vote, to 31.4 percent for Woods. Woods, the brother of actor James Woods and a former owner of a video store, said it was possible he would run again. Because he is a Democrat, Woods argued, he could hold sway in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly on T. F. Green Airport issues. He was trying to become the city's first chief executive never to have held either a City Council or General Assembly seat. In Lincoln, Stallwood has been the state's longest-serving municipal official and was seeking his 15th consecutive term.