The ruling blocks an investigation of campaign spending by the Republicans in the 2002 gubernatorial race.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, April 5, 2006

BY BRUCE LANDIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The Board of Elections voted unanimously yesterday to appeal a court decision that blocked its investigation of charges that Governor Carcieri's campaign and the Republican Party broke state election law in 2002.

Board members said they never got a chance to investigate the accusation that $250,000 the Rhode Island Republican Party got from the national party was used illegally to pay for a television ad in the last days of Carcieri's successful campaign for governor.

"There really hasn't been an investigation," said board member Frank Rego, urging the appeal to the state Supreme Court.

On March 27, Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato ordered the board to drop the investigation and said it has created an "unfortunate and chaotic situation" by failing to adopt rules and procedures for handling complaints. The result, the judge said, violated the Republicans' First Amendment and due-process rights.

Thomas V. Ianitti, the board's vice chairman, said yesterday that he thought the board has spent upwards of $100,000 on legal bills in the inquiry, and "we still don't know if the law in Rhode Island was broken in that last election."

Also yesterday:

Roger Begin, the board's chairman, discounted, at least for the moment, continuing rumors that he plans, or planned, to resign from the board. Ianitti, a longtime and vigorous Begin critic, said that "prominent people" he would not identify told him that Begin had said he planned to resign as of last Friday.

That didn't happen, and Begin chaired part of yesterday's meeting. He left, saying, "You'll see me the next time" the board meets. "I am here until I'm not here." Begin has been the target of two votes of no confidence by the board, most recently in December. He has withdrawn from participating in the Carcieri investigation and left early when that item came before the board.

Secretary of State Matt Brown attacked the board in a letter to its members, listing a series of problems leading up to Fortunato's ruling, quoting the judge's sharp criticism of the board's actions and saying the board's "leadership" should be replaced.

Brown, who is running for U.S. Senate, mentioned problems including former Executive Director Robert Fontaine's 2004 resignation subsequent to a guilty plea to obtaining money under false pretenses.

Board members, meanwhile, added to the criticism of Brown's recent controversial effort to clean up the state's voting lists through a statewide mailing to registered voters, which has been described as misleading and invasive of voters' privacy.

Rego said the mailing should have been done last year, not in an election year. He said it could cause candidates' nominating petition signatures to be rejected, possibly costing them a place on the ballot. He dismissed the mailing as "a great PR move."

The complaint against the Republicans and the Carcieri campaign was filed just before the 2002 election by William Lynch, the state Democratic Party chairman.

Board members said yesterday that Fortunato's decision leaves major election issues unsettled when they need resolution, particularly this election year, when a contested U.S. Senate seat is attracting national attention -- and money.

Ianitti said the state needs to know whether the law allows "taking federal dollars and pumping it into a state campaign. Everybody should be concerned about that." There are two outstanding issues, he said: whether the advertisement the Republican Party bought was really an ad for the Carcieri campaign, and whether there was "coordination" between the Republican Party and the campaign.

The hearing before Fortunato revolved around what procedural rules the board had, or lacked, rather than the central issues of the investigation.

In October, H. Reed Witherby, the board's special counsel, had said that by using money from the national committee on a state campaign, the state party had apparently violated Rhode Island law. He recommended that the board refer the matter to the attorney general for civil prosecution. The board never did.

Ianitti pointed out that the board never concluded that "a crime took place."

blandis@projo.com / (401) 277-7487