Councilman John J. Lombardi, a longtime Cicilline critic, is convinced that the mayor will not run for governor. Paul Doughty, president of the Providence firefighters’ union, offers a similar view, saying, “I don’t think he’s going to have enough support . . . I think he wouldn’t even come close.”
Cianci, less acerbic than during his radio show, tells me, “When it’s all said and done, I don’t think he’ll be a candidate [for governor]. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Over the past year or so, he’s had to make certain decisions and distinguish his philosophy as a mayor, as opposed to being a statewide candidate. This is a problem that confronts every single big city mayor, because certain issues come up sometimes [and] you can’t make the decision that you’d make if you were governor.”
Cianci calls the case of Riz, the illegal immigrant charged in the carjacking and rape “a perfect example,” since people, particularly in suburban Rhode Island, but also working class communities, associate it with the more liberal immigration policy advocated by Cicilline.
In an interview in his office at City Hall, Cicilline reiterated his view that US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) dropped the ball by failing to deport Riz when it had the chance after having been notified about his status in 2003.
Yet on Monday, when the mayor had a chance to go head-to-head on the issue with Carcieri during a nationally broadcast appearance on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, “O’Reilly said Cicilline declined to appear on the show,” the ProJo reported. “He said the mayor was ‘hiding under his desk.’ ”
Time on his side
Cicilline, who suffered an expected dip in his approval rating, to 51 percent, in the most recent Brown survey, can be thankful that he has time in which to strengthen his footing in the run-up to 2010.
Maureen Moakley, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island, believes whether Cicilline will run for governor remains an open question. “I think all of the candidates are going to have to explore what the field looks like, because there could be a complicated [Democratic] primary and an interesting general election,” Moakley says, featuring a Democrat, a Republican (presumably Steve Laffey), and possibly an independent (Lincoln Chafee).
In the prelude to 2010, Cicilline, like Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, has a high-profile job that brings lots of media attention, but also the likelihood of nettlesome issues. General Treasurer Frank Caprio and Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts (and former LG Charles Fogarty), by contrast, have to struggle to get press coverage, but they generally need not worry about exposure related to contentious topics.
Moakley, who credits Cicilline with mostly doing a favorable job as mayor, notes that Providence offers an important geographical base that could aid him in a gubernatorial primary. “I think that he’s in a good position insofar as while he has suffered some setbacks,” she says, the redevelopment of land being made available by the relocation of I-195 offers a good opportunity.
Similarly, if Cicilline could make lemons into lemonade with an innovative response to the foreclosure crisis, he could benefit politically.
