Early in the Campaign Season

Even though it's early in the campaign season, the two candidates for Mayor of Cranston have already presented far different images to the public.

On the one hand, Councilwoman Cindy Fogarty announced her candidacy to 80 close friends and family at the Portuguese Club off Elmwood Avenue. She made very specific points about where the city is, and where it needs to go from here. Councilwoman Fogarty also made very clear that she doesn't want to waste the efforts that have been made to straighten out the city's budget -- and she has the record to prove it. It was interesting to watch the reaction from Democratic City Chairman Mike Sepe and former Mayor John O'Leary when Councilwoman Fogarty stated that she didn't want to return to the days of irresponsible budgeting -- Messrs. Sepe and O'Leary appeared irritated, to say the least.

(Maybe they should have considered how the taxpayers felt at watching Mr. O'Leary bail out of a run for re-election in 2004, leaving a fiscal crisis in his wake.)

On the other side is former Municipal Court Judge Michael Napolitano, whose sole qualifications seem to be the patronage job to which Mr. O'Leary appointed him in 1999, and a huge personal fortune which he is using to fund his campaign. Mr. Napolitano's campaign got off to a rocky start, to say the least, when the next day's Providence Journal coverage focused more on the fact that Mr. Napolitano had duct-taped a city flag to his podium than to anything he had to say that night.

In the meantime, as Councilwoman Fogarty has fought to keep Horton school open and worked on the city budget to keep taxes stable, Mr. Napolitano has placed high-cost billboards in the city promoting his candidacy "For All the Right Reasons," an insultingly vague slogan that avoids even the appearance of serious plans for Cranston's future. (It should also be noted that this exact slogan is used by NASCAR's charity organization, which raises funds for, among other causes, sick children and the homeless.)

Even more disturbing, though, are Mr. Napolitano's new cable television ads, which show him in judicial robes, in what looks like a courtroom, talking and smiling with a group of senior citizens.

Now, this might not be that objectionable -- except that Mr. Napolitano made a very public show of stepping down from his bench appointment to run for Mayor to avoid the appearance of unethical conduct!

It defies logic that, at the same time, Mr. Napolitano can step down to avoid looking like he's running from the bench, then fund a television ad that makes him look like he's still on the bench.

Compounding this already egregious conduct was the timing of the ads -- they started on television the same weekend that Peter Pastore, a very respected former City Councilor and true leader, died tragically. While the city flew its flags at half-staff in honor of Mr. Pastore (at Mayor Laffey's direction, no less), Mr. Napolitano apparently decided it was a good time to unveil his new campaign ads.

It was striking how Councilwoman Fogarty maintained a low profile during the city's mourning, while Mr. Napolitano seemed to see it as a political opportunity.

Not that this should be a surprise; Mr. Napolitano has fallen in with the very people -- John O'Leary, Mike Sepe, Joe DeLorenzo, etc. -- who ran Cranston into a deep financial hole and left it to Mayor Laffy (who now is taken seriously as a contender for a US Senate seat because of his time as Mayor) to clean up the mess. This group's judgment, to put it mildly, is highly suspect.

As the campaign rolls on, Mr. Napolitano and his crew are sure to engage in negative smear campaigning, since they have no real plans or platform. And especially when he appears before the public in the upcoming debates -- unscripted and forced to talk on his feet by himself -- Mr. Napolitano will surely find that his 'strategy' (vague slogans and poor choice of
advisors) will give him no cover from the voter discontent that is sure to follow.