CRANSTON -- Cranston Mayor Michael T. Napolitano told The Providence Journal today that he will not be running for re-election in the fall.

The mayor, in the middle of his first term, cited family obligations.

Journal file photo / Connie Grosch
Cranston Mayor Michael Napolitano.

“My wife is getting her husband back,” he said. “My children are getting their father back.”

The decision throws a nascent mayoral race into disarray.

The city was gearing up for a rematch between Napolitano, a Democrat, and Republican Allan W. Fung, a former City Council member who narrowly lost to Napolitano two years ago.

Now, the focus is on who will replace Napolitano at the top of the city’s Democratic ticket. City Council Vice President Paula B. McFarland and state Reps. Peter G. Palumbo and Charlene Lima voiced interest in interviews this afternoon.

Council President Aram G. Garabedian has ruled out a run for mayor.