[PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND]
If history repeats itself first as tragedy, and second as farce, then what happens the third time around?
Come November 4, the residents of this hip, but rough-around-the-edges city could very well find out, as they go to the polls in one of the most entertaining, and frankly most bizarre, mayoral elections in modern American history.
What started off as a crowded field of ten candidates has whittled itself down to three: Democrat Jorge Elorza, a slim, sharp Guatemalan-American housing judge; Daniel Harrop, an eccentric Republican long-shot; and, of course, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, Jr., the twice-serving, twice convicted ex-mayor—a man who presided over a regime of old-school political intimidation and lurid corruption, drove opponents out of town, and, according to some, transformed Providence from a threadbare, toxic heap on the Narragansett Bay to a trendy artistic hub.
“I like to call this whole race the Buddy Cianci Show with Jorge Elorza and Daniel Harrop!” said the Republican, a self-described “sacrificial lamb,” in his office in the historic Fox Point district.
Some, especially in the city’s wealthy, academic East Side, say Cianci’s an embarrassment—others, many within the well-pensioned police force and tight-knight Italian community, say he’s a savior. But however effective or ineffective his policies as mayor will be, one thing is clear: “Buddy,” the ‘Prince of Providence,’ has a very good shot at winning his old job back.
Hundreds of Cianci signs adorn the Federal Hill district in the middle of the city, and recent polls have shown the candidate seesawing back and forth for the lead with Mr. Elorza, rattling journalists, politicians, and many residents across the region.
For more than a week, the Providence Journal has been bashing the candidate, in both its news and editorial sections. On October 14, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) and former governor Lincoln Almond (R), went so far as to hold a joint press conference condemning Buddy, an event which Brown political science professor Wendy Schiller called “unprecedented” in an interview.
Harrop, the Republican contender and the only candidate who agreed to be interviewed for this story, has come up with perhaps even more novel methods for taking down ‘the Prince,’ acknowledging that he “is not going to win,” and offering support to the Democrat in more ways than one.
“I donated $1,000 to Elorza, the maximum amount. I don’t think Mitt gave much to Barack,” he says with a laugh. “But the real question is ‘Who am I going to vote for,’ and the answer is ‘I don’t know.’”
To be sure, Buddy’s record does lend itself to suspicion—and 63 percent of Providence voters are “very” or “somewhat” concerned that Cianci will let his seedy past bleed into the present.
In 1974, he won the mayoralty for the first time, “on what was, believe it or not, an anti-corruption platform,” as then-campaign manager Bruce Melucci puts it.
Buddy quickly began prying the city from the grip of postindustrial decay and doing away the monstrosities of urban renewal, literally unearthing rivers, and terraforming the city into its current form. Undergirding it all, critics say, was a pay-to-play system, in which those that didn’t abide by Buddy’s rules found themselves quite literally run out of town.
At no point was this loyalty more on display that one night in 1983, when Raymond DeLeo, who Cianci believed was romantically involved with his then-estranged wife, Sheila, pulled up to Buddy’s home in Providence in his Oldsmobile at the request of the mayor.
Then, in a scene that reduces mid-80s Providence to any kitschy stereotypes one might have of the place, Patrolman James K. Hassett escorted Mr. DeLeo inside, where Joseph DeSanto, a public works director, William McGair, a former probate judge, and, of course, Buddy himself, awaited.
What exactly happened afterwards remains murky, as Buddy pled nolo contendere to the charges arising from the incident, but DeLeo, McGair, and DeSanto would later say they passively witnessed a night of terror, intimidation, and death threats in which Officer Hassett was complicit in a number of abusive acts involving a lit cigarette, a log, and Buddy’s fists.
Buddy would later say that he was merely tossing said log into the fireplace—(and not, apparently, at DeLeo)—that the evening was merely a conversation, that the whole row was overblown. Much to everyone’s confusion, he also clarified on record that “nobody urinated on anybody,” raising, of course, speculation that urine might have been involved in the evening’s theatrics.
“I actually never heard anything about that,” said interviewer Andrew Goldman at the time.
In any case, Buddy was forced from office and slapped with a five-year suspended sentence. He ran again in 1991 and won again, only to be convicted in 2002 under the RICO statue for federal racketeering conspiracy and “running a corrupt enterprise”—which in this case was the entire government of Providence.
“Not only was he a felon, but he was also an incompetent administrator,” opines Harrop. “Thirty people in his administration were convicted, and 22 went to jail.”
In 2007, Buddy was again released upon Providence, promptly taking to the airwaves on his own primetime political radio program, The Buddy Cianci Show. And it was on air that he declared his latest candidacy—in dramatic fashion—17 minutes before the deadline.
That program, analysts say, played a significant role in keeping Buddy on the minds of Providence’s electorate, after a series of controversies that would send a lesser politician to an early retirement in, say, Boca Raton or Palm Springs.
“He got the best ratings, so he got the best time slot,” says Tony Pesaturo, a veteran Rhode Island pollster. “He didn’t come out of this as the convicted felon, out there in the forest, licking his wounds.”
But by far the most important factor keeping Cianci in the race, most agree, has been his wit, charisma, and a personability which is equal parts pompous and self-effacing, hilarious, and—at times—terrifying.
“He’s a very charming guy, so he’s been going out and about in the city,” says Roger Williams University political science professor, June Speakman, referring to Cianci’s frenzied campaign schedule. “On this scale, politics is very face-to-face.”
Over the past month, Cianci’s stops have varied between a night with the NAACP Providence Branch to an evening playing bingo with the state’s most famous drag queen in a gritty postindustrial park south of the city. All of them have featured hordes of adulating fans.
As an example of Cianci’s charm and magnetism, Melucci, the former campaign manager, mentions an ACLU event Cianci spoke at during the ‘70s, at a time when the organization was actively campaigning against the display of the Biblical manger scene in Providence’s public places. “Buddy went up there, and said, ‘I know why you guys don’t like me: because there’s not three wise men and a virgin in the entire organization!”
“Everyone broke out into laughter!” Melucci recounted.
Earlier this month, when Chris Matthews interviewed Cianci on “Hardball,” even he proved susceptible to Buddy’s charm. “I would love to go to dinner with you,” the television host gushed. “I would love to hang out with you!”
Also buoying Cianci’s shot at the mayoralty are the police, fire, and teachers’ unions, who still support Buddy with same apparent ferocity that Patrolman Bassett did during that fateful evening in 1983—mainly, Schiller and other observers opine, because of the generous union contracts Cianci dished out in the ‘70s and ‘90s.
European ethnicities still being a salient category in Providence, Cianci also enjoys overwhelming support within the Italian-American community, analysts say. But the paisano slice of the pie has been shrinking over the past two decades, and now the residents most in play are Latinos who comprise about 38 percent of the city’s population. While one might think that Elorza, the son of Guatemalan immigrants, would have a significant leg up in that category, Schiller and Melucci note that Latino voters, especially in Providence, can’t be clumped together as one bloc.
“We have a very diverse Latino population, and identification is complex,” Schiller says. “That group’s divided—between Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Guatemalans. Some of those groups will support Cianci more than others.”
So, for the time being, the un-unified Latino chunk of Providence’s voters—whose views are complex, evolving, and variable—remains the central, deciding question mark in the race.
What’s no longer evolving, analysts agree, are people’s views toward Buddy’s checkered past. At this point, they say, you’re either you willing to give the man a third chance, or you’re not. Very little during this campaign has realigned this fault line—and very little will in the coming days.
For Cianci, this may be a good thing, as his campaign hasn’t been without improprieties in recent months. Back in August, the Associated Press reported that the former mayor’s brand of marinara sauce, which is advertised as “Benefiting Providence’s School Children,” had no philanthropic connection whatsoever. Earlier in October, the state police launched an investigation into the actions of two police officers, also volunteers of the Cianci campaign, who entered homeless shelters and tried to convince its temporary residents to vote for their man, before collecting mail-in ballots.
Pesaturo argues that these actions likely weren’t illegal, though he doesn’t condone the practice. (“Put a stamp on it, and mail it in you cheap son-of-a-bitch!”)
But perhaps just as importantly, Pesaturo, like most observers, says this kind of malfeasance hardly matters to many of the voters in this city, where cheesy politics, cronyism, and corruption are the norm.
“So what else is new?” Pesaturo asks. “Who gives a shit? I mean, come on. It’s Providence!”
Editor’s note: Daniel Harrop’s name has been corrected. It was previously incorrectly written as “Harrup.”
