lombardi – RI Future

April 25, 2014April 25, 2014

Senator Frank Lombardi’s nightmare voter fraud scenario

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Voter ID is a reaction to the imaginary, nonexistent problem of in-person voter fraud. When Senator Frank Lombardi imagines the law’s repeal, he recounts a weird nightmare scenario in which sleazy politicians send imposters to the polls and forever alter the political landscape.

I heard echoes of the Ghostbusters’ Dr. Peter Venkman in Lombardi’s delivery, “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”

Senator Lombardi continues by inventing the statistic that 99% of politicians are ethical, which gets a great reaction from Republican Senator Dawson Hodges:

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013

Fine Line Between Hate Group And ‘Faith Alliance’

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Last week, while waiting at the State House in the long line that formed to give testimony at the Senate Judiciary Marriage Equality bill hearing, I decided to check out the website of MassResistance, a group instrumental in the loud, raucous anti-Marriage Equality rally held when the House took testimony on the issue back in January and who repeated that performance for the Senate.

MassResistance, for those who don’t know, is a Southern Poverty Law Center certified anti-LGBTQ hate group headed by bigot and homophobe Brian Camenker, who just this February compared school administrators who support LGBTQ students to “Nazi concentration camp guards” and claimed that homosexuals don’t actually exist.

Imagine my surprise when State Senator Frank Lombardi, a Democrat from Cranston who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and an opponent of Marriage Equality, was interviewed on the MassResistance website:

Last week MassResistance spoke with Sen. Frank Lombardi (D-Cranston), one of the committee members. Sen. Lombardi, who supports traditional marriage, predicted the vote of the 10-member committee would be a tie — meaning the bill dies. But he acknowledged that it’s is only his best speculation.

I was surprised that Lombardi would consent to an interview on the website of a hate group, and wrote up a quick piece about this for RI Future from my iPad. It’s tough to format blog posts from my iPad for this site, so I asked my editor, Bob Plain, to put the finishing touches on the piece and post it. He did so, but in the process we lost the link to the MassResistance website where Senator Lombardi’s comments could be found.

In the “middle of the night” Bob received a phone call from from Senator Lombardi’s office informing him that the article I wrote was inaccurate. Senator Lombardi was claiming that he never spoke to MassResistance. Bob pulled the post pending confirmation of my source.

I conferred with Bob and sent him the link to the MassResistance website, showing that the story was accurate insomuch as MassResistance was claiming Lombardi talked to them, which Lombardi denied doing. Obviously either MassResistance or Frank Lombardi was not being honest.

Lombardi denied talking to MassResistance, but acknowledged giving an interview to the Faith Alliance. The Faith Alliance has among its members a fair number of Evangelical churches, the Providence Catholic Diocese, the Knights of Columbus, NOM-RI and MassResistance. State Senator Harold Metts, a Democrat from Providence a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee with Lombardi, spoke at the January State House Rally in support of the Faith Alliance.

This raises some interesting questions.

Is the Faith Alliance merely an arm of MassResistance? If the unidentified writer of the piece on the MassResistance blog (I’m guessing it’s Camenker) can call people up and identify as the Faith Alliance for the purpose of interviews, doesn’t this indicate that MassResistance believes that it speaks for all Faith Alliance members?

If MassResistance in truth cannot claim to speak for its various members, such as the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Church, why resort to such a subterfuge when speaking to Senator Lombardi? Could it be that Camenker knows that being associated with his toxic hate group is politically poisonous and that no savvy politician would consent to talk to him otherwise?

I said way back in January, when MassResistance first entered our state and helped to form the Faith Alliance that aligning with such an odious hate group is “disgraceful.” I later called upon Bishop Tobin to repudiate the ugly comments and hateful views of MassResistance and Brian Camenker, something the Bishop or his spokesmen have declined to do.

It is obvious why religious groups and politicians have no wish to be associated with a group like MassResistance. Their opposition to marriage equality, they say, is based on his deep commitment to faith, not on anti-LGBTQ bigotry.

The problem, of course, is that they have aligned themselves with the Faith Alliance. And the Faith Alliance, it seems, is MassResistance.

I’m reminded of an old saying about laying down with dogs…

September 8, 2012September 8, 2012

Lombardi Campaign Tainted by Scandal

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The State Senate Race in District 26, Cranston took an interesting turn Friday as Sean Gately, Republican contender for the seat Democrat Bea Lanzi is voluntarily abdicating, issued a press release accusing Frank Lombardi, the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, of cronyism, backroom deals and wasting taxpayer money on “frivolous lawsuits for political cover.” Frank Lombardi is in a tight primary race with Rev. Gene Dyszlewski, a political newcomer with decades of experience working in the community.

Gately’s accusation comes after an examination of 187 pages of confidential Cranston School Committee executive session meeting notes that were leaked, accidentally or intentionally, online. According to Meg Fraser at the Cranston Herald, “DOCS LEAKED: 187 pages of confidential meeting details shared online“:

Caruolo is a common thread throughout the meeting minutes, and in the final meeting posted, the political implications of a Caruolo appeal are discussed. Former committee attorney Ben Scungio informs the committee that, should they appeal, the decision against the district would be suspended.“That would get the committee members through the election. If the committee says they will let it stand, they have to live with the lies in the decision. It hurts the committee more politically if they let it sit there.”

In 2007 the Cranston School Committee, of which Frank Lombardi was a member, decided to sue the State of Rhode Island under the Caruolo Act for the education money it felt it deserved but was not allocated. Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Judith Savage tossed out the lawsuit and blasted the school committee for not properly exhausting its options in balancing its budget before engaging in litigation. According to Gately, this lawsuit cost the taxpayers of Cranston $210,000 in legal fees paid to Attorney Ben Scungio. Behind closed doors, according to the leaked documents, Scungio advised the School Committee members that appealing the decision would get the committee members through the next election cycle, making it easier for them to keep their jobs in the wake of their shameful fiscal mismanagement.

In other words, the school committee was allegedly advised by Attorney Ben Scungio to risk further taxpayer money not because they had a winning case and could prevail on appeal, but because it would help the school committee members who incompetently wasted public funds to keep their jobs.

Worse, Ben Scungio is a contributor to Frank Lombardi’s present campaign for State Senate! The implication here is clear: Lombardi and the Cranston School Committee gave Scungio a $210,000 pay day, and Scungio is returning the favor by supporting Lombardi’s campaign.

Gately’s press release makes four demands of Lombardi:

1. Repudiate and disavow the advice that Attorney Scungio gave him to appeal a court decision for political reasons.

2. Return the multiple contributions that Attorney Scungio gave to the Lombardi campaign.

3. Pledge to stop the cronyism and special backroom deals by not taking any money from any vendors who have done work for the Cranston School Committee

4.Apologize to the taxpayers of Cranston for wasting their money on frivolous lawsuits for political cover.

Gately, I think, echoes the anger of many RI voters when he goes on to say, “This is simply outrageous. Here we have an example of politicians spending taxpayer money, claiming it’s to protect children, but in reality it is being used to protect their own political careers.”

Fortunately, Frank Lombardi is being opposed for the Democratic nomination by Gene Dyszlewski. Gene is not part of the politics as usual machine that cranks out shady insiders like Lombardi. Gene is new to politics, but not new to working for the community as a Reverend and as an advocate for the neediest among us.

Gene’s impressive list of endorsements include Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island, Ocean State Action, National Association of Social Workers Political Action for Candidate Election, Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America, Clean Water Action, National Organization for Women, Marriage Equality Rhode Island and the National Education Association of Rhode Island.

On Tuesday, September 11th, the people of district 26 in Cranston will have the chance to vote for Gene or Lombardi. They can vote for someone new, honest and untarnished by scandal, or they can vote for the same old tired politics that have plagued Rhode Island for decades.