Providence mayor faces new questions amid Congressional run; drug bust in police department

RI mayor faces new questions in Congressional run

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Mayor David Cicilline claims he has cleaned up Providence after the corruption of his predecessor, but his family relationships and connection to a former staffer could raise new questions about his reformer credentials.

His father is a mafia lawyer. His brother just got out of federal prison after serving time for a courthouse corruption scheme. Now, his former police driver, the husband of his longtime executive assistant, has been arrested as part of a state police bust of a cocaine dealing ring that also netted two other Providence police officers.

The bust comes as the Democratic mayor — the ultimate successor to Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, whose 2002 federal corruption conviction forced him to resign — is running to replace Rep. Patrick Kennedy in Congress. Cicilline says he believes voters will understand the criminal behavior of his brother and the allegations surrounding the police department are not connected to him.

“I have full confidence that voters will make judgments about me based on my experience,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

But Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, said the news of Thursday’s bust makes Cicilline’s job that much harder at a time when voters don’t trust elected officials.

“Even though he may be completely clean here, it’s an additional burden for him because he’s running for an election in an environment of high skepticism and doubt,” she said.

Kennedy said last month he would not run for re-election to represent the 1st Congressional District, which stretches from the state’s urban core in the north, and south through more affluent suburban towns down to Newport. Cicilline and former Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch soon jumped into the race, joining the sole Republican, state Rep. John Loughlin.

Cicilline, 48, was elected the city’s first openly gay mayor shortly after longtime mayor Cianci was convicted in a federal investigation into widespread corruption at City Hall.

Cicilline attended Brown University, where he co-founded the Brown Democrats with John F. Kennedy, Jr., and others, and got a law degree from Georgetown University. He became a criminal defense attorney like his father, John F. “Jack” Cicilline, and brother, John M. Cicilline.

The elder Cicilline is one of the state’s top criminal lawyers and has defended some of New England’s most notorious mobsters, including the late godfather Raymond L.S. Patriarca, whose family controlled organized crime in New England for decades. Jack Cicilline was acquitted in 1985 of coaxing a witness to lie.

John M. Cicilline was sentenced in 2008 to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to shaking down drug-dealing clients. He has since been disbarred and was recently released from prison.

The mayor’s brother’s actions in another case raised questions about the mayor’s own conduct. The brother wrote the city a check for $75,000 to cover a client’s tax bills, but the check was returned for insufficient funds. The mayor has said he didn’t know about it at the time, but his former chief of staff told investigators that the mayor instructed him in 2006 to “see what you can do to resolve it.”

The mayor says his brother’s actions have been talked about “ad nauseam,” and while he loves him, he has always condemned what he did.

“I’m not responsible for the behavior of a sibling,” he said.

Cicilline has condemned the officers arrested, calling them “three rogue officers.” One, Stephen Gonsalves, is accused of attempting to arrange cocaine buys for his own use, and worked as part of Cicilline’s security team after he was first elected mayor in 2002.

Gonsalves was reassigned after about a year-and-a-half, Cicilline said, and there were no problems with him as a driver. The mayor says the two did not have a social relationship, although he did walk Gonsalves’ wife, Cicilline’s assistant, Xiomara, down the aisle when the two were married.

The mayor said he did not know about Gonsalves’ alleged drug use.

Questions about the relationships could drag him down a bit with voters, but most aren’t going to condemn him for the actions of those around him, said M. Charles Bakst, retired longtime political columnist for The Providence Journal.

“It’s baggage. It doesn’t mean it can’t be overcome,” he said.

What may be difficult for Cicilline to overcome is the particular problems of being mayor of Providence, which has several failing public schools and high property taxes, Bakst said.

“A number of people outside of Providence look at Providence as sort of a den of iniquity. Any mayor that’s running’s going to put up with that,” he said.

In Cicilline’s favor are his ties to interest groups. He is gay, Italian and Jewish, and he can tap those groups for national fundraising, Bakst said.

Cicilline’s opponent for the Democratic nomination has so far stayed away from trying to connect Cicilline to the troubles of people surrounding him. When asked Friday to comment on whether the arrests put the mayor in a bad light, Lynch’s spokesman, Bill Fischer, said, “We’re not going to go there today.”

Cicilline says he’s focused on assembling a campaign team and getting out into the district to hear from voters. He’s touting his work reforming the city’s schools, making efforts to attract high-paying jobs, and other initiatives.

“My responsibility is to talk about the work that I’ve done as mayor,” he said. “What people are looking at is who has the experience and the skills and the passion and determination to fight for hardworking middle class families.”