Cicilline dismisses Loughlin’s call for probe of city finances
November 28th, 2011 at 1:51 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
Congressman David Cicilline says his 2010 Republican challenger is still fighting the last war by calling for a federal investigation into his handling of Providence’s finances when he was mayor.
Over the weekend, a spokesman for former State Rep. John Loughlin said federal prosecutors should investigate whether Cicilline knew about the capital city’s money woes, including the alleged mismanagement of the Providence Community Action Program and the high default rate on loans granted by the Providence Economic Development Partnership.
“I don’t believe Cicilline was unaware of the high default rate regarding the PDEP, or what was occurring at ProCAP,” Loughlin spokesman Mike Napolitano said. “He’s either severely incompetent or had full knowledge of what was going on, so which is it.”
Cicilline spokeswoman Nicole Kayner on Monday fired back at Loughlin, who is serving in Iraq through the end of this year and planning to challenge Brendan Doherty for the Republican nomination in the 1st Congressional District.
“The Loughlin campaign wants to rerun the last campaign but David Cicilline is now in Congress and working to create jobs and to save Medicare from efforts by some in Mr. Loughlin’s party to privatize or virtually eliminate it,” Kayner told WPRI.com.
“As for the ProCAP matter, David has every confidence that the new acting director, Frank Shea, with the support of the Mayor will hold the agency employees accountable and does not plan on superseding the mayor’s authority or board’s responsibility with a federal investigation,” Kayner added.
Earlier this month, Cicilline described the allegations about ProCAP “serious” but declined to call for the resignation of Frank Corbishley, who served as the agency’s executive director throughout the mayoral tenures of Cicilline and his predecessor, Buddy Cianci. The ProCAP board suspended Corbishley last week.
Unlike Loughlin, Doherty has not tied Cicilline to the ProCAP scandal directly, but earlier this month the former state police colonel issued a statement saying the problems at the agency are the sort that “have destroyed public trust in Congress and in our entire government.”
Tags: campaign 2012, david cicilline, frank corbishley, frank shea, john loughlin, ProCAP, providence, providence community action program, providence financial crisis
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
“Congressman David Cicilline says his 2010 Republican challenger is still fighting the last war by calling for a federal investigation into his handling of Providence’s finances when he was mayor.”
–I should be looked into! Sissylini left Providence in a mess. He is a selfish, sinister boy wo does not deserve his seat in congress.
Cicilline is crazy if he thinks 2010 battles are done. The fact is that this kind of behavior is emblematic of what is wrong with Rhode Island politics. I personally think Loughlin and Doherty should stay away from sniping at each other during the primary and instead try and focus all their heat on taking down DC. Whichever Republican candidate shows the most consistent firepower against the Dishonorable Genetleman is obviously the strongest canidate to beat him in the general. It also eliminates the possibility that two strong candidates wipe each other out.
but fat chance of that
Loughlin is right this needs to be looked at.Cicilline should be thrown out of office.Making people afraid they will loose their SS benefits will not win you another election.
Sissylini got into office by visiting nursing homes and manipulating defenseless elderly into voting for him–and men that frequent Providence’s “Alternative” clubs & bars (same way he got to be a Mayor. Everyone knows that most of the voters in RI are just state workers and the elderly=people that have no clue and have been helping in the deterioration of RI for years!
First, it’s fantastic that Cicilline felt the need to respond. It shows that he knows he is vulnerable on this (and about a million other issues). Nice of him to elevate Loughlin in the public eye too. Way to go David! Maybe you can do the same for Dougherty next week.
Second, how pathetic a response is that? The man is a freshman backbencher with the stench of political death about him who also happens to be in the minority party for the foreseeable future. Why on earth would we re-elect him? Hell, even Democrats shouldn’t vote for him. Hey Dems, at least give us a Democrat option that might find some respect in DC and wield some influence someday. Not this guy.
Cicilline tell me one job you created for a Rhode Islander
Cicilline needs to go.
He was only interested in looking good for his Congressional run by touting his Mayoral record but now that his legacy is being questioned he doesn’t want to talk about it?
Hey Dave what happened to that $75,000 check that your brother bounced?
He turns my stomach.
Disturbing that State law enforcement has not looked into this previously. What were the State Police and the Attorney General’s office doing when all of this occured? NOTHING! Who was running the State Police while this occured? Did he just look the other way. Perhaps they didn’t want to touch the connected people who gave campaign donations to Cicilline, and received Providence Economic Developement loans and defaulted on them. Too many connections in Rhode Island, especially to the Democrats! At least the Loughln campaign is going after Cicilline. All we hear in the Doherty camp is crickets.
I want to know if his brother ever paid for the bounced check? I think not! Why? Because Sissilini fixed it! Brotherely love is it? It is because of all the favortism and greed that has ruined our state and because of people like Sissilini we are the laughing joke to other states. I can not believe he is in congress. Who did he pay or sleep with to get in? I know I did not vote him in! RI needs to stop the ” who you know,” and “if I give you what will you give me” and ” I’ll turn my head if you turn yours!” When will it stop? We are struggling so bad and then to have elected officals, town and state workers doing sloppy illegal actions while on the clock has got to STOP!! He needs to be held accountable for his actions, he was on watch and hired his band of theives that stloe from the program. He is as guilty as the one’s involved! Charge him!
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