R.I. legislators OK Feb. primary

PROVIDENCE - In a bid to make Rhode Island matter more in presidential politics, lawmakers voted yesterday to move the state's presidential primary up to Feb. 5, joining 22 other states.

Lawmakers working during a special session scrambled to rewrite a bill that had died earlier in the year. It passed with little debate in the Democrat-controlled House and Senate.

A spokesman for Governor Don Carcieri, a Republican, said earlier in the evening he would not veto the bill if it passed.

Rhode Island is perennially overlooked in presidential races. It has just four electoral votes in the general election and rarely attracts presidential candidates for anything but trips to private fund-raisers.

Senator Leo Raptakis, the bill's sponsor, argued that Rhode Island would become politically irrelevant if it didn't move its primary up from March 4.

"If you wait until March 4, the race is over," Raptakis said.

The only states still scheduled to vote in March are Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, Mississippi, and Wyoming (Democrats only).