The former speaker of the House says his Democratic opponent in the primary is being backed by the current speaker of the House.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 4, 2004

By JOHN CASTELLUCCI
Journal Staff Writer

PAWTUCKET -- The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "There are no second acts in American lives."

John Harwood is trying to make him a liar.

Two years after his political career was left in tatters by sexual-harassment charges by a former employee, Harwood is seeking reelection, not only as a state representative, but as House speaker, the powerful legislative post that the sex scandal forced him to resign.

The decision has confounded political insiders, who weren't expecting Harwood to run, in part because he has been ill, in part because Harwood himself told them he was planning to bow out of politics.

"I was going to retire. I threw away my signs," Harwood, 52, confirmed in an interview last month. "I was contemplating retirement because of my illness and because no one in any way was doing anything detrimental to the city of Pawtucket. And then that changed."

Harwood declined to be specific. But he made it clear that he feels that the city's interests were somehow betrayed by Rep. William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, whom he supported for House speaker and whom he now accuses of backing his opponent in the Democratic primary, J. Patrick O'Neill.

Harwood pointed out that it was only in May that O'Neill, a criminal defense lawyer like Murphy, moved to the Oak Hill section from Providence and registered to vote. "I don't think he's voted here in the district and I've also been told he doesn't live in the district."

"People have informed me that he was sent by the leadership," Harwood declared.

O'Neill, who denied being put in the race by Murphy, said he was born in Oak Hill, and has strong roots in Pawtucket.

His grandfather, the late John A. O'Neill, was the city solicitor for two decades. His aunt, Marie E. Custer, ran as a Republican against Harwood for House from Pawtucket in 1980. She lost.

O'Neill, 33, said he always wanted to run for political office, but couldn't, as long as he was working as a special assistant attorney general.

That changed in 2002, when Attorney General Patrick J. Lynch was elected and let O'Neill go, along with more than a dozen other lawyers.

"My brother said to me, 'Now you can actually run for office. What better place to do it than the place where the family used to live?"'

Whether Murphy put O'Neill up to running against Harwood or not, the House District 59 race is taking place against a much larger political backdrop: the fight for control of the House speaker's office.

Two days after Harwood said in an interview he was planning to run for reelection as a state representative, he went on the air and announced that he would try to wrest the House speaker's post from Murphy, his former ally.

"He's like an aging boxer who doesn't want to leave the spotlight," House spokesman Larry Berman said.

Harwood's chief motivation for running, Berman said, seems to be his irritation at not being able to pass the baton to his second cousin, Brian H. McKinnon, who was rumored to be his handpicked successor for the House District 59 seat.

McKinnon, who was deputy chief of administration under Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., is now helping out with Harwood's campaign.

In an interview in his office at the State House on Friday, Murphy denied putting O'Neill in the race against Harwood, and said there is no truth to the charge that, since he took over as speaker, Pawtucket has gotten the short end of the stick.

"I've been very good to Pawtucket," Murphy said, citing increases in state aid and a first-time $50,000 appropriation for the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center.

Murphy also disputed Harwood's charge that the House has lost power and status under his leadership, saying that the place was in such bad shape when Harwood stepped down, he had to scramble to put things in order.

"We had to restore the integrity of the House of Representatives," said Murphy. "The House was under siege."

As House speaker, Harwood was the second most powerful official in state government -- after the governor.

But he lost much of his clout when he was accused in 2002 of sexually harassing a former aide, Wendy Collins, then easing her out of her job at the State House with a $75,000 workers' compensation case settlement and the promise of a new job at Rhode Island College.

Harwood has always denied the sexual-harassment charges. He said he felt vindicated on May 25, when Collins, 31, in a separate matter, recanted a statement she gave to Cranston police, admitting in District Court that she lied when she told the police her boyfriend, Scott Morinville, had struck her in the face during an argument.

Harwood said one reason he is running is to reclaim his political reputation now that, he said, the sexual-harassment charges have been discredited. Another is to make up for time lost due to the illness that he suffered after he developed complications from gallbladder surgery on May 3.

"I also didn't want to leave because I missed the last 10 weeks [of the legislative session]," Harwood said. "I feel I didn't get a chance to promote all the things that are important for Pawtucket."