JOHNSTON — Senate candidate Christopher Maselli doesn't sound much different than every other "fed up" challenger out there, Republican or Democrat.
"As a Johnston homeowner, taxpayer, and father of three children, I am fed up by the rising cost of living," he tells potential voters in a mailing in which he pledges "to lower the price of gas, cut taxes, and put more money in your pocket during these difficult times."
But Democrat Maselli, 50, is unlike any other candidate seeking a $17,626.63 seat in the Rhode Island legislature this year.
He had a Senate seat. He resigned it in November 2010 on his way to U.S. District Court to plead guilty to falsifying bank statements and tax filings in an elaborate scheme to obtain $1.7 million in loans. He went to prison.
Now he wants his old Senate seat back.
Maselli is running for the Senate District 25 seat held since he left by Frank Lombardo, a heating and air conditioning contractor whose daughter is marrying Senate President Dominick Ruggerio's nephew.
The race — and the whisper campaign around the two men and their families — has gotten weird, even by Johnston standards.
A few decades back, a convicted Johnston town councilman, Joseph Voccola, refused to resign so he could continue to serve — from prison. Current Rep. Edward Cardillo and his challenger-nephew are at each other's throats.
And now Johnston voters have: Maselli v. Lombardo.
"When we talk about a convicted felon running in Johnston, the conventional wisdom...
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