Correction: There will be six more women in the General Assembly next year. A story in the Wednesday Journal had an incorrect number.

Repelling a bipartisan backlash to his four-year reign in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello on Tuesday survived another tough reelection fight in his Cranston House district, defeating Republican Steven Frias as Democrats across the state extended their dominance over the General Assembly.

Dissension within his Democratic House caucus and a series of scandals involving members of his leadership team did not bring the Election Day reckoning many predicted for Mattiello, as he beat Frias by 141 votes in unofficial results that did not include mail ballots. Two years ago, Frias was ahead of Mattiello in Election Day votes, but Mattiello flipped the race when mail ballots were counted.

As he declared victory at his campaign headquarters Tuesday night, Mattiello confirmed that he planned to hold a closed-door Democratic caucus Thursday in which he expects to reset his leadership team and secure the votes necessary to be reelected speaker in January.

The taint of scandal did claim one of Mattiello's top lieutenants — House Judiciary Chairman Cale Keable, who was rocked by allegations of sexual harassment two weeks before the vote, lost to Republican David Place.

Place, a Burrillville Town Council member and a former Army tank commander, took 58 percent of the vote to Keable's 42 percent. Keable enjoyed a massive fundraising advantage over Place, but was placed on administrative leave by his law firm after a leaked email from a lawmaker to Mattiello accused Keable of harassment.

Keable was the only incumbent Democrat out of 98 in the 113-member General Assembly to fall Tuesday. Three incumbent Republicans — Rep. Robert Lancia, Cranston, Rep. Kenneth Mendonca, Portsmouth, and Rep. Anthony Giarrusso, East Greenwich — were defeated.

Pending any change in results from recounts or mail ballots, the number of Republicans in the House when lawmakers return in January is expected to drop from 11 to nine. In the Senate, Republicans lost one of their open seats, picked up one formerly Democratic open seat and retained the seat vacated early this year by Nicholas Kettle after his arrest on extortion charges. That should bring them back to the five seats they had at the start of this year.

Although Mattiello will return to the House in January with a larger majority than he had this year, the progressive Democrats that have become an increasingly vocal thorn in his side also had a good night Tuesday and could challenge his bid to remain speaker on Thursday.

In East Greenwich, Justine Caldwell emerged with an 82-vote edge over Giarrusso (pending mail ballots) in one of the most contentious campaigns of the year.

In Portsmouth, Democrat Terri Cortvriend defeated Mendonca 54 percent to 46 percent.

And in a seaside Senate district, Democrat Bridget Valverde took 54 percent of the vote to knock off Republican Dana Gee, who was trying to retain the seat now held by her retiring husband, Mark Gee.

Lancia, who was mulling a run for lieutenant governor earlier in the year, lost to Democrat Christopher Millea, a lawyer for the legislature who was backed by Mattiello.

After Mattiello's narrow 2016 victory, which left a trail of Republican accusations of dirty tricks and a Board of Elections campaign-finance investigation, he passed a promised car-tax phaseout and moved to consolidate the Democratic caucus.

But the Assembly's increasingly aggressive liberal wing chafed under his business-friendly, socially conservative leadership, and tensions flared.

In addition, the House's decision to rewrite gender pay-equity legislation passed by the Senate to make it more agreeable to businesses angered female lawmakers already frustrated by the lack of movement on abortion-rights bills.

By Monday, 14 House Democratic incumbents and four candidates had said they wouldn't vote for Mattiello as speaker if they won their elections — which they all did.

A partnership between the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence papered Mattiello's district with fliers accusing him helping his friends while ignoring "equal pay for women and justice for child sex abuse victims.”

At the same time, building trades unions picketed Mattiello's campaign events over the collapse of plans to build a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox.

As he celebrated his victory, Mattiello blamed "outright false negativity" for the late push to unseat him.

"It was a pretty coordinated false attack from ultra left-wing progressives and special interests,” Mattiello said. "A minority voice needs to be heard, but can’t control the day."

The last speaker to lose his House seat remains Arthur Dennis in 1906.

In a phone interview after the results came in, Frias said the "help" he received from Democratic-aligned groups may have actually hurt his cause.

"Basically, I was offering the voters of Cranston a dramatic change, and they decided to stick with the status quo. For the most part in the state of Rhode Island, you can see Democrats were reelected, so people seemed to be satisfied with the status quo," Frias said. "I think that the involvement of some of the more liberal groups in my race hurt me."

Of course, help from fellow Republicans didn't seem to help either. On the night before voters went to the polls, a robocall featuring Cranston Mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate Allan Fung — who had a close working relationship with Mattiello over the years — was made to voters in Mattiello's District 15 endorsing Frias.

The Rhode Island Working Families Party was not involved in the Mattiello race, but supported Caldwell, Valverde and other liberal candidates who won Tuesday, and claimed that the results were a mandate.

“Today’s results proves that a $15-an-hour minimum wage, protecting a woman’s right to choose, Medicare for All are mainstream values in Rhode Island and good politics all around,” said Working Families State Director Georgia Hollister Isman, who noted that there will be six more women in the General Assembly next year.

Adding to Republicans' woes Tuesday, state Party Chairman Brandon Bell's bid to unseat Democrat Rep. Alex Marszalkowski fell flat as the incumbent took 59 percent of the vote.

There were a few GOP successes, including newcomer Jessica De La Cruz, who took 56 percent of the vote against Democrat Kevin Heitke to win the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Fogarty in Burrillville, Glocester and North Smithfield.

And former GOP state senator John Lyle Jr. won the House seat being left by Democratic Rep. Jeremiah O'Grady in Lincoln and Pawtucket with 46 percent of the vote over ex-Rep. and Democrat Mary Ann Shallcross Smith.

— With reports from Amanda Milkovits and Katherine Gregg