Someeone heard that Steve Laffey was seen breaking bread at Fleming's a few weeks back with Buddy Cianci and Joe Paolino.

Buddy (on whose radio show I am an occasional guest) yesterday told me that, as he recalls it, the chat took place during "Meatball Mondays," one of the weekly events held at former aide Artin Coloian's Sidebar bar & grill.

He happened to stop in there. We didn't talk much about the governorship. We talked about being mayor. We exchanged mayor stories [with John Lombardi, a former interim Providence mayor, also in the house] ... It was a social event. Steve Laffey, he's very opinionated, and at least he has a theory and a philosophy. And he's a Republican, and I think he can get the Republican nomination, if he wants it. The question is, can he win [the governor's office]? And anyone can win in Rhode Island. We don't know what's going to happen with this economy, and that is a big question. I think he's a formidable candidate. I think he's a guy who can lead the Republican Party. Whether he can win or not is another story.  

I asked Buddy to handicap a 2010 gubernatorial race featuring Laffey, Linc Chafee as an independent, and some Democrat, such as Frank Caprio, who seems to be the favored son of Rhode Island's Italian-American political establishment. (For an update on David Cicilline's possible gubernatorial aspirations, check next week's Phoenix.)

I think Caprio wins that, if he's the Democrat, and he gets the support of the Democratic Party. He fits that mold I was telling you about, not close to the unions. He's south of Division Street, Harvard graduate, clean cut, strong political family.

Chafee running as an independent has a problem. There are three ingredients you need in order to win as an independent, because I've done it three times, four times. Number one, you need strong name recognition; Chafee has that. Number two, you need money; I imagine his wife [Stephanie] has got a lot of money, so they could put it in if they were so inclined to. Could they raise money otuside of their own? Yes, but I don't think it would be phenomenal. Number three, you need something to make an independent candidacy work, and that is an organization. And that he does not have.

Does he have any charisma? Not necessarily. Is he going to walk into a restaurant, or is going to walk into a hall, and everyone's going to yell and scream? Not necessarily true . . . He better think twice about running. I think if he runs as a third-party candidate, he ensures Caprio's victory. So if I were Frank Caprio, I'd be praying for him to run.

Chafee, IMHO, would be a strong gubernatorial candidate and assembling an organization would not be particularly difficult for him.

And considering how even six months can be an eternity in politics, it remains to be seen which of any number of Dems will lead the party in 2010.

7/3/2008 1:50:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

 

Popping back into public view with an op-ed in today's ProJo, Steve Laffey resumes the mantra for his forthcoming 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

While there are some good things in the budget, that it is balanced on over $100 million in savings from Medicaid and personnel that are unlikely to be attained means that elected officials continue to manage the decline of this great state. With a poor economy and a frighteningly high unemployment rate, Rhode Island has yet to turn the fiscal corner with this budget.

To turn the corner we need to reinvent Rhode Island. We need real structural change to lift us from the bottom rung of states and transform Rhode Island into a place where our kids can stay and prosper, and where new businesses can locate and thrive. If our state legislators had the courage to solve just one of our major structural problems this year we would be on our way to being a state that could start to compete.

Let me give you an example: solving our state pension disaster. The problem: Rhode Island ranks 49th out of 50 states in funding its state pensions. We have an unfunded liability of over $4.3 billion and are scheduled to spend $397 million this year alone on state pension benefits. One out of every eight dollars we are taxed is going to the pension system!

Now, the legislature could fix this problem. Under state law, without any negotiations with the unions, it can change the pension system. In 2005 there were much-heralded “reforms” to the system. However, the changes only affected younger workers. Thus, a large majority of the workers were not affected at all. These “reforms” only got the legislators through the 2006 election cycle.

7/1/2008 3:08:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [1] |  

UPDATE: It's a done deal. 

WPRI-TV's Tim White broke this news last night:

The Target 12 Investigators have learned a plea deal is in the works in a case against the brother of Providence Mayor David Cicilline.

John M. Cicilline and three others were charged last year with obstructing justice and making false statements. The U-S Attorney's office in Boston says the case alleges Cicilline and disbarred Rhode Island attorney Joseph Bevilacqua, Jr., conceived a scheme to set-up a drug deal so their clients could get a lighter sentence.

A criminal trial at federal court in Boston is scheduled for Monday.

But an attorney for one of the defendants, Juan Giraldo, tells Target 12, the government has offered the four defendants in the case, a plea deal.

"There is discussion to put all these things to rest to possibly get a favorable result," says attorney William White. "But I'm not aware of a defendant accepting anything."

Cicilline and Bevilacqua were law partners when they represented John and Jacqueline Mendonca of Massachusetts in a drug trafficking case.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the scheme required the Mendoncas to pay Cicilline and Bevilacqua one-hundred thousand dollars. In return, their legal assistants would set-up drug deals that the Mendoncas could then share with federal investigators for a lighter sentence.

According to documents filed in federal court last week, the government plans on playing several conversations between the attorney's and the Mendoncas, who were wearing a wire.

White tells Target 12, it's unclear if the deal with prosecutors has to be taken by all the defendants in the case.

6/6/2008 10:43:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Who owns the Chafee for Governor URL?

None other than RI GOP activist Bob Tingle, a Huckabee supporter who has also talked up Steve Laffey in the past. (Click the first link in this sentence to see the details on the Chafee Web site registration.)

One supposes that Tingle, a pit boss at Foxwoods, is covering his bets.

6/3/2008 4:22:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Adding to the Chafee shell game (Mayor of Providence? Governor?), a Daily Kos diarist (h/t RI's Future) pegs the former senator as a likely EPA administrator in an Obama administration.

Btw, some visionary soul is looking to sell the URL of chafeeforgovernor.org.

6/3/2008 10:54:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline also stopped by the Newsmakers' set for a taping of this week's broadcast. The show is broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox Providence.

He denied that his budget revenue projections are overly rosy, asserting that Worcester has enjoyed success in tapping a multi-million dollar cash stream related to trash and recycling. He defended Police Chief Dean Esserman's out-of-town travel for conferences and such, citing it as an indication of the quality of his work, although he was unable to answer Arlene's question of just how much time Esserman spends out of town.

I asked about Mary Sylvia Harrison's observation that Providence's schools are controlled by a culture that is "potent, formidable, and toxic." Is is true, and if so, what will the mayor and incoming superintendent Tom Brady do to overcome it?

Cicilline danced around the question a bit, but his response suggested a measure of agreement.

Some of our more interesting dialogue came on the set after the show ran out of time.

I asked what criteria Cicilline will use in deciding whether to make a gubernatorial run. He said it comes down to balancing whether he feels his job is done in Providence and whether being in the governor's office would make it possible to get more done. No doubt there are other considerations, such as the field of candidates and how that would affect the mayor's prospects.

Cicilline said he will put "some" political capital behind the notion of adding at-large seats to the Providence City Council -- a measure that the council needs to act on by August 6 for it to be placed on the November ballot. He expressed disappointment that Common Cause of RI seems reluctant to lend its imprimatur to the concept, but talked up efforts by citizens to build momentum.

5/23/2008 11:47:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [2] |  

Charlie Bakst has an engaging farewell today to Darrell West, who, as we know, is leaving Brown to take a post with the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. West's status as perhaps the top pundit in Rhode Island stems not just from his knowledge and ability to offer concise quotes, but also how he quickly returns calls from reporters. Anyway, this is the part I found most interesting in today's article:

In West’s office there are photos showing the professor with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during visits to Brown.

He says Obama will be the next president of the United States.

“She’s not going to be the Democratic nominee,” West says. “She seems to be the only one who doesn’t recognize that fact.”

He also says Clinton has too much baggage for Obama to offer her the vice presidency.

Obama spoke at Brown in October 2006. “He gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard,” West recalls. “Very smart. Very charismatic. People love him. I think he needs to fine tune his message. Primary after primary, he’s lost the blue-collar vote to Hillary Clinton, and I think he really needs to focus more on economics and focus on working people and what he would do for them. I think they’re a little suspicious of all the lofty rhetoric that he uses. They want to know what he’s going to do about bread and butter issues.”

In John McCain, West says, Republicans are putting up their strongest candidate, but it’s not enough.

“McCain does well among independents, and that’s going to be a plus. People like him personally. They think he’s honest and ethical. But I think the big albatross around his neck is George Bush.”

With the unpopularity of the war, with worry over the economy, and with people’s “hate” of the incumbent, West says the Democrats’ chant that McCain is running for Bush’s third term will be lethal.

In calling Bush the worst president he has ever seen, West asserts, “He doesn’t learn from past failures.”

Most politicians make adjustments, West says, noting, for example, that Ronald Reagan was rocked by the Iran-Contra scandal but made personnel and policy changes. “By the time he left office, he had regained a fair amount of his popularity. Bush is going down with the ship. He refuses to admit any mistakes, hasn’t made any significant policy changes, hasn’t really made major changes in personnel. He’s not a real politician in the good sense of the word.”

5/18/2008 10:46:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [1] |  

Cranston Mayor Michael T. Napolitano seemed a bit surprised during a taping of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers this morning when I asked him to evaluate the accomplishments and mistakes of his colorful predecessor, Steve Laffey. Napolitano responded by saying he is correcting some of Laffey's mistakes, but he was reluctant to get into detail.

Laffey's record in Cranston can be expected to get considerable attention during his all-but-announced 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Closer to home, Napolitano faces a mayoral challenge this year from Republican Allan Fung and possibly a Democrat.

In other news, Napolitano defended the city's $1.9 million buyout of the Cullion concrete plant at a time when Cranston's schools face a $4.9 million shortfall to close the year.

Also appearing on Newsmakers this week are Representative Joe Trillo (R-Warwick) and former lieutenant governor Charles Fogarty, who talked about the state budget, corruption, and the presidential race. The show will be broadcast Sunday at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64.

5/16/2008 11:31:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |