BY JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — The already tiny Republican presence in the General Assembly was crushed even smaller by a Barack Obama-led Democratic romp in the Ocean State Tuesday, diminishing the Grand Old Party by more than half in the House of Representatives and snatching away one of the party’s five seats in the Senate.

As a result, there will be only 10 Republicans in the entire 113-seat legislature when it reconvenes in January, six (down from 13) in the 75-member House and four among 38 senators.
About the only good news Republicans got on election night came from North Smithfield, where newcomer Brian Newberry ousted Democratic incumbent Raymond Church in a three-way contest. Senate President Joseph Montalbano was ousted by voters in his Lincoln-Pawtucket-North Providence district, but he was beaten by an independent, Ed O’Neill of Lincoln.
House Speaker William Murphy of West Warwick now commands a caucus that controls 69 of the 75 House districts.
House Minority Leader Robert Watson managed to remain philosophical.
“Republicans will live to fight another day,” Watson said Wednedsay.
He chalked up his party’s humiliation at the polls to “the Barack Obama movement” that he said “was felt very strongly in our state.
“We fell victim to events well above our heads,” Watson said. When something like the Obama phenomenon sweeps across the country, he added, “we experience it on steroids” here in Rhode Island.
House Speaker William Murphy said the statewide Democratic sweep cannot account for all of the results, however. He notes that “some communities voted in Republican town councils but elected Democratic newcomers to the Statehouse. We had a slate of excellent candidates who worked hard and campaigned the old-fashioned way, one door at a time.”
At the same time, he added, “People are tired of having Republican caucus always point the finger and the Republican Party not accept any of the blame for what is taking place in the state right now. We’re in a very difficult economic position and for the Republican caucus to say ‘It’s not our fault,’ I think the public doesn’t buy it because we’re all in this together.
Pawtucket Rep. Peter Kilmartin, who as majority whip is responsible for keeping track of Democratic votes and enforcing party discipline, had a similar explanation.
“Honestly, I think the Republicans hurt themselves,” Kilmartin asserted. “With all the sniping that they bring to the chamber and the lack of cooperation, not wanting to have a meeting of the minds and having a political agenda rather than a state agenda — I think people got sick of it.
“For them to lose the whip of their party (the often combative Rep. Nicholas Gorham, who lost narrowly in his Foster-Glocester-Coventry district) I think people saw their tune in the chamber as negative. I think they looked at it as an overall reflection of what the Republican Party has been standing for the last couple of years.”
Watson disputes that voters targeted Republicans rather than making district-by-district decisions.
“I can’t believe the public truly does want a legislature full of nothing but Democrats,” the minority leader said. “I can’t believe that’s what the public really wants. A chamber with 69 Democrats and six Republicans? I don’t believe the public is going to find that acceptable.”
He acknowledges that the lopsided margin “creates a challenge for House Republicans” but says it will also affect citizens and taxpayers.
“Generally speaking,” he said, “Republicans are the party of government reform and tax cuts and, generally, the Democrats are for spending more money. The absence of Republicans is going to be felt.”
Doesn’t there come a point when too big an imbalance of power becomes a negative force?
Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch isn’t ready to concede the point. “No,” he answers emphatically. “The Republicans try to use that every campaign cycle, I think it is overblown. And obviously the people of Rhode Island don’t buy it.”
Despite his best efforts, Lynch joked, “just because you are at the Statehouse and have a D (for Democrat) next to your name, doesn’t mean you are in lockstep on every single issue that matters to people.”
Asked how the Democrats engineered such a sweep yet still lost the President of the Senate, Joseph Montalbano, to a self-funded, independent newcomer to state politics, Lynch pointed to a redistricting plan Montalbano himself helped to draw up to settle a lawsuit over minority representation. The new plan added a minority district in Providence, but moved part of Montalbano’s district out of his hometown and into less-friendly territory in Lincoln. Opponent Ed O’Neill’s wide margin of victory in his hometown of Lincoln, which  now contains 43 percent of the district’s voters, gave him the victory Tuesday.
Montalbano’s loss has already signaled the beginning of a leadership battle in the Senate, with some veteran members elbowing for position and cajoling colleagues for their support. A new president will be elected in January when the new Senate reconvenes.
Meanwhile, the House Democratic Caucus will meet tonight to nominate Murphy for another term as Speaker and to re-elect the current slate of leaders: Majority Leader Gordon Fox; Whip Peter Kilmartin; Speaker pro-tempore Charlene Lima and Deputy Whip Elaine Coderre of Pawtucket. The election for Speaker, in which all 75 members vote, will also be held on the first day of the new legislative session in January.