Kelly still interested in running for Prov mayor

John M. Kelly, the president and CEO of Meeting Street, has quietly continued raising money (he's got $84K banked) for a Providence mayoral run, and he says he remains very interested in running for the position. Pressed on his expectation of what David Cicilline will do in 2010, Kelly (who has said he will not run against Cicilline) says he hopes the Providence mayor runs for governor.

He made the comment during a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers. The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12, and at 10 am on Fox 64.

The onventional wisdom remains that Cicilline, given some recent PR hits, is unlikely to run for governor next time out. Cicilline himself declined to shed light on his political future when he was asked about this off-camera during a recent visit to Newsmakers.

I asked Cicilline fundraiser Brett Smiley about the mayor's future when I met with Smiley a few weeks ago (this was before recent press about the tax office and the sewer mess). Smiley said that Cicilline remained torn between running for governor and seeking reelection as mayor. Smiley, who ran Charlie Fogarty's 2006 gubernatorial campaign, told me that he expected Cicilline to be making his decision shortly.

Kelly, meanwhile, says that Meeting Street is considering suing the state because of sharp cuts in its early intervention program. If the litigation goes forward, he says, other social organizations may also sue the state.

Also appearing on the show this week is Cranston Police Chief Stephen McGrath, who acknowledged that his department needs to do better in reflecting the racial and ethnic makeup of its community. He also described efforts by police departments in Rhode Island to dispel what he called an exagerrated sense of racial profiling.