Cicione

PROVIDENCE — The state GOP appealed for help to the state Board of Elections yesterday after one community — and then another — rejected the Republicans that state GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione nominated as General Assembly candidates last week to fill holes in the party’s election-slate.

State law allows party chairmen to appoint candidates within 24 hours after the candidate-filing deadline. Under the aegis of that law, Cicione last Thursday notified the secretary of state that he was appointing three Republican candidates in Providence, a fourth in West Warwick, and a fifth in Pawtucket.

They included the state GOP’s director of operations and community outreach, Lammis Vargas, and two of Governor Carcieri’s stalled nominees to the state Board of Elections: John J. Clarke Jr. and Elaina Goldstein.

Vargas is seeking a Senate seat held for more than three decades by Pawtucket Democrat John McBurney. Clarke is trying again to unseat Senate Finance Chairman Stephen Alves, D-West Warwick, and Goldstein to unseat Rhoda Perry of Providence, the East Side Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Health & Human Services.

In addition: Kofua Kulah was appointed by Cicione to challenge Democratic Sen. Paul V. Jabour for his 5th District seat, representing Federal Hill; and Damien Baldino to run against the winner of the Democratic primary between Rep. Steven Smith and challenger John Carnevale. Providence has not sent a Republican to the Assembly since 1994.

But now election officials in Providence and Pawtucket are rejecting the candidates on grounds the nominations should have been filed with their local boards of canvassers, not the secretary of state. West Warwick may do the same after a special 4 p.m. meeting today.

The Republicans are blaming the snafu on advice from a staffer in the office of Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, a Democrat, who denies sending the GOP astray. “We dispute that we gave them any advice at all on how to file their declaration papers,” said Mollis spokesman Chris Barnett yesterday.

In the face of GOP insistence to the contrary, Barnett said: “We stand by our version of events.”

The Board of Elections yesterday agreed to include the matter on its already packed meeting agenda for Thursday.

In a letter to the state Board of Elections late yesterday afternoon, state Republican Party secretary and legal counsel Robert J. Coupe not only appealed the anticipated rejections of all three communities, he also noted the “strict time constraints to secure the required nomination paper to qualify for placement on the ballot.”

Candidates have 10 days to amass the requisite number of signatures to qualify: 50 for a House seat, 100 for a Senate seat. But the deadline for picking up the nomination papers is today, with Cicione’s nominees still in limbo. “Unless all nomination papers are issued [today],” Coupe asked for a “Board of Elections order that all candidates have a full, ten-day period to collect signatures commencing on whatever date their papers may be issued.”

The dispute apparently stems from a conversation that Providence Republican chairman David Talan had last week with Michael Narducci, the secretary of state’s deputy director of elections.

In a series of e-mails yesterday, Talan said he “made Mike aware of the applicable law … and went over what we needed to do. The only thing he corrected me on was that the letter from Gio had to be an original signed letter, and could not be faxed in. He did not correct me on where it was to be turned in.”

“When I turned in the letter Thursday at 3:00 p.m. to the Secretary of State’s office, it was accepted and time-stamped,” Talan said.

Barnett, the Mollis spokesman, acknowledged a conversation took place about a party chairman’s “authority to nominate candidates for races in which no one from their party has filed a declaration of candidacy.” But he said Talan “never asked us where the declarations of candidacy the chairman would file should be filed,” and “we did not give any advice.”

Now it is up to the state Board of Elections to sort through the dueling stories of who-said-what-to-whom, with Talan also questioning how Providence Canvassing Board Chairman Laurence K. Flynn could reject a candidate “unilaterally” without consulting with his board’s Republican member. In Pawtucket, the decision to disqualify Vargas was made by registrar Ken McGill, subject to appeal to the full Board of Canvassers at a meeting today.

Talan said the five candidates currently in limbo include “one of 2 black GOP legislative candidates (Kofua Kulah); the only Jewish female GOP candidate (Elaina Goldstein); and the only Hispanic female GOP candidate (Lammis Vargas).”

As for the stalled nominations of Clarke and Goldstein to the Board of Elections, the clock is still ticking. Were there no action within 60 legislative days, they would win automatic approval. But for reasons that are not entirely clear, the Senate never read their names into its official record or scheduled hearings on the nominations.

But when asked yesterday, Carcieri communications director John Robitaille said the governor sees no reason to withdraw their names now that they are would-be candidates with appeals pending before the board to which they have been nominated.

“If they should win, then the governor would have a reason to withdraw their names from consideration. Until that time, there is nothing prohibiting them from running for office nor is there anything prohibiting them from being considered for appointment to the Board of Elections,” Robitaille said.

kgregg@projo.com