Robert Correia

On January 21, 1977, Representative Kuss[7] died in office, and a special election was held for the rest of Kuss's term on June 7, 1977, which Correia won without opposition.[8] While this first election was to the 12th Bristol District, redistricting would see Correia running for the 7th Bristol District in 1978[9] to succeed Henry S. Gillet, Jr[10], which is the district he served for the rest of his time as a State Representative.[11]

Robert Correia first ran for Mayor of Fall River in September, 1991 preliminary against incumbent John R. Mitchell (D), who had only just won a special election to that office four months before. After placing a distant second in the preliminary, Correia dropped out of the race, calling his run "premature" and leaving Mayor Mitchell token opposition on the ballot in the November general election.[12]

In 2007, sixteen years after his first campaign for Mayor of Fall River, Correia again ran for the office against seven other candidates; including his fellow State Representative, David B. Sullivan. Correia led Sullivan in the September preliminary, and on November 6, 2007, Correia was elected Mayor with 54% of the vote.[13] Taking office on January 7, 2008; Correia had demanded the resignation of all city department heads the very next day, but rehiring all but one, signifying the beginning of a tumultuous relationship with city employees which influenced the rest of his term.[14][15]

In 2009, Correia ran for a second term, however he was eliminated from contention after placing third in a field of six in the September 15th preliminary election, losing to Attorney William A. Flanagan by just 271 votes.[16][17] This made him only the second Mayor in Fall River's history to be eliminated in the preliminary during a reelection campaign; the first being Mayor Nicholas W. Mitchell who faced a similar loss in 1971. Flanagan would go on to win the November runoff election with more than 60% of the vote and succeeded Correia as Mayor in January, 2010.[18]