![]() What the group realized was Elorza had a remarkable talent for staying on message – some would call it a robotic approach – no matter what insult Cianci hurled at him. US Representative David Cicilline, a former Providence mayor himself, essentially played Cianci in debate prep, although that mostly involved explaining how Cianci would respond to questions rather than actually pretending to be Cianci. So campaign aides peppered Elorza with a mix of questions that ranged from important to asinine, like when the group spent time preparing his explanation to an article he wrote for the University of Pittsburgh Law Review arguing that it would be okay for a public school to teach that the theist God does not exist. ![]() “The thing about Buddy was you knew what to expect,” said Anthony Simon, who worked as a top advisor to Elorza’s campaign and then served as his first of chief of staff in City Hall. When a shoplifting charge as a teenager came to light during the campaign, the public sentiment was: Is this all they have on the guy? He was only 37, and as a part-time Housing Court judge and college professor, his image was squeaky clean. Twenty-four years and a federal prison sentence after the dipper debate, Cianci ran for mayor again in 2014, taking on a Democratic newcomer named Jorge Elorza.Ĭianci was 72 and had slowed down quite a bit, but he knew every fact and figure about city government and he could still deliver a performance, thanks largely to spending seven years with a daily radio show discussing Rhode Island politics.īut there wasn’t a lot of gum on Elorza’s shoes. “Buddy made the race about something else other than being a good administrator,” Annaldo said. ![]() That was an effective approach for Cianci. He pitched himself as the candidate who would tax Brown University in order to pay for more cops on the street, and he used much of his debate prep to hone a message that even though he was only 35 years old, he was ready to be mayor on day one.īiden’s age, 77, and experience as a former US senator and vice president, will make it difficult for Trump to paint him as unprepared to be commander-in-chief, so a mud fight could be more damaging. He was a sitting city councilor and had survived a bruising Democratic primary that year, so his grasp of the issues was just as strong as Cianci’s. Likewise, political observers say Trump may seek to attack Biden’s character - or target the former vice president’s family - as a way to divert attention from Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Īnnaldo said the piercing one-liner overshadowed his more substantive approach. “The appearance that both of them had done something unethical took away the moral high ground from them, making it more difficult for them to attack me because of my past,” Cianci wrote in his memoir. The race was defined by negative attacks on Cianci, who was labeled as unfit for office because of his previous tenure in City Hall that was rocked by corruption and his resignation. In his 2012 memoir, “Politics and Pasta,” Cianci explained that he loved debates “because they gave me the opportunity to rattle off statistics that I had memorized, statistics no challenger would know.”īut in that 1990 debate, the “Little Dipper” and “Big Dipper” line had a different purpose: to muddy the water. Those who did battle with Cianci have some advice for Biden: Be ready for anything. have more experience in debates than Biden, but he’s never faced someone like Trump, who skewered moderators he believed were biased, spewed tabloid gossip and rumors about his opponents, and landed insults with the precision of the veteran entertainer he was prior to running for office. The couple were engaged in December of 2015 but did not wed prior to Cianci’s death the following month.Few politicians in Washington, D.C. In addition to the compensation claim, Haywood is also looking for the court to legally recognize her as Cianci’s spouse under common law. John Harpootian, the attorney for Cianci’s estate, also did not respond to a request for comment. “The law is pretty clear that people are entitled to compensation as a result of those services rendered,” Lombardi said Friday in an interview at his Providence law office.īrad Turchetta, Cianci’s nephew and the executor of his estate, did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Haywood’s lawyer, Frank Lombardi, told Eyewitness News she served as Cianci’s caretaker during his final months and is therefore entitled to a portion of his estate. (WPRI) – The woman who was engaged to marry late Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci is now taking his estate to court to obtain potentially millions of dollars she says she’s entitled to receive.Ĭourt documents obtained by Eyewitness News show Tara Marie Haywood has filed a claim in Providence Probate Court against Cianci’s estate to receive “an amount to be determined.” The documents say she “provided services” to the former mayor “throughout their relationship.”
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