PROVIDENCE -- With no mention of the ethics complaints pending against him or the FBI's recent inquiries about his law firm's financial dealings with the Town of West Warwick, Senate Democrats yesterday unanimously endorsed the reelection of state Sen. Joseph A. Montalbano to the top leadership position in their chamber: Senate president.

While the official vote will not take place until state lawmakers return to Smith Hill in January, Montalbano hailed the Nov. 7 election results which cemented the Democrats' 33-to-5 vote control over the Senate that as a vote of confidence by state voters, in the General Assembly in general and his leadership team.

Instead of voting for individual candidates, more than 61,000 Rhode Island voters took advantage of the opportunity to vote a straight-party ticket, a reported 23,000 more than the number that employed this option in the last midterm election a phenomenon seen by some as a sign of the huge drag that President Bush's unpopularity here placed on Republican candidates.

But, "I believe that the reason voters overwhelmingly returned every senator who sought reelection to office has absolutely nothing to do with George Bush," Montalbano told his colleagues at an open caucus in the Senate lounge last night. "I believe the reason is our tremendous record of accomplishment the real progress we have made on issues Rhode Islanders want to see addressed, issues like property tax relief, housing, health care and jobs."

In this air of post-election elation and self-congratulation, the senators also reelected Sen. M. Teresa Paiva Weed of Newport as Senate majority leader. Under Senate rules, Montalbano gets to name the other key members of his leadership team after his reelection as Senate president is official.

Relishing the moment, Senate Judiciary Chairman Michael McCaffrey of Warwick assailed Republican Governor Carcieri and the failed slate of Republican candidates he was unable to carry into office with him for "constantly attacking the legislative branch" with what McCaffrey called "half-truths" and "nebulous" allegations of corruption in the General Assembly.

"I can think of no better person to speak up and rebut those attacks on this legislative body than Teresa [who] brings the highest degree of honesty and integrity to this Assembly," McCaffrey said of Paiva Weed.

For her part, Paiva Weed signaled some of her priorities in the two-year session that begins the first Tuesday in January, among them: focusing on the findings, due by March 15, of a commission that has been looking into "establishing an equitable school funding formula." Montalbano talked about putting the Carcieri administration's spending practices and heavy reliance on the use of consultants under a microscope.

Left unmentioned were the ethical controversies dogging Montalbano.

In June, the citizens group Operation Clean Government filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission about Montalbano's failure to mention on his annual financial disclosure statement the income his law firm had been getting since at least 2003 from the Town of West Warwick. Last month, the commission itself lodged a complaint against Montalbano for failing to disclose additional income derived in 2002.

Both stemmed from the disclosure by The Providence Journal on the day the Senate was poised to vote on placing the doomed West Warwick casino proposal on the ballot that Montalbano's North Providence law firm had been paid $86,329 including expenses by the town since 2003 for legal work that included clearing the titles on two parcels of land near the proposed Harrah's-Narragansett Indian casino.

By late last month, the FBI was involved.

The FBI subpoenaed records regarding his title work in West Warwick, a town councilwoman confirmed that she had been questioned by the FBI about how Montalbano came to be hired by the town, and Montalbano acknowledged the FBI "questioned several senators, members of my staff and they questioned me."

Montalbano said he welcomed the investigation because he had nothing to hide and had been assured he was "not a target."

Asked yesterday if he had taken any steps in advance of last night's Senate Democratic caucus to assuage any concerns his colleagues might have about his predicament, Montalbano said he saw no need: "To a person in the Senate, no one has questioned my determination that I will protect my integrity to the bitter end."

Last year, Montalbano's right-hand man in the Senate, majority whip Dominick Ruggerio, had his own surprise visit from state, local and federal law-enforcement officials.

Ruggerio's office within the New England Laborers International Union was one of those searched as part of a larger probe that touched on organized crime, a Cranston concrete company and the construction of the new Kent County Court House in Warwick. Ruggerio is the administrator of the New England Laborers' Labor-Management Cooperation Trust.