Murphy

PROVIDENCE — House Speaker William J. Murphy intends to leave the House — and the speaker’s rostrum — after he completes his term next year.

In an interview with The Journal Wednesday, the West Warwick Democrat said he conveyed his decision at a dinner meeting with his House committee chairmen at the Capriccio restaurant last Wednesday, along with his endorsement of House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, D-Providence, to succeed him.

“I will be the speaker in 2010,” he said. “I will not be seeking reelection in 2011.”

Murphy said the seeds of his decision were sown nearly seven years ago when he first took the helm.

While he does not favor term limits for rank-and-file legislators, Murphy recalled saying then “that eight years was a good term for a speaker. In fact, I introduced legislation during my first term that would limit the length of time that a [House] speaker and Senate president could serve as being eight years,” in part, because it coincided with the term limits for the governor and other top state officers.

With Fox and others — including Representatives Gregory Schadone, D-North Providence, and Stephen Ucci, D-Johnston — openly campaigning to succeed him, Murphy’s announcement is not a surprise. But his comments mark his first public acknowledgement that he will not be returning after 2010.

Asked if he was concerned about lame-duck status, Murphy said: “I hate that term,” but “I am not worried about it at all. I have had members over the summer ask me to run again, but I said to myself eight years would be a great term. Eight years went by in the blink of an eye ... and I will stick to what I said. Eight years.”

Murphy also sought to dispel the many rumors that have spun around his anticipated departure. He said he went to Rome on a family vacation, and returned to rumors he was there job-seeking, “which I never did.”

One of the busiest criminal-defense lawyers in Rhode Island, Murphy said: “I have a law partner and a law office in Providence, R.I., and I will continue to practice law.” Beyond that, he said, he has no plans and “no one has offered me anything.”

Murphy, 46, has served in the General Assembly since 1993. He has been House speaker since he succeeded John B. Harwood on Jan. 7, 2003.

Harwood was convinced not to run for reelection to the top House post after a bruising summer and fall, in which he was forced to again publicly defend his wife’s state job, his law firm’s ties to the state’s greyhound racetrack, the multimillion-dollar surge in legislative spending on his watch and to explain a $75,000 payment to a former State House worker who had alleged she had been sexually harassed by him. He adamantly denied the harassment charge, but did not survive the political fallout.

When Murphy first won election to the House in the 1992 aftermath of the state’s devastating banking crisis, he was a 29-year-old lawyer promising to help bury the image of lawmakers as self-serving politicians.

In an interview shortly before he took his new House seat, he said: “No longer can we be part of the old political process. We have to respond to our constituents’ needs more.”

When he emerged 10 years later as the consensus candidate for speaker with Fox at his side as majority leader, he promised “a change in leadership style.” He also promised to “restore public confidence” in the legislature. In his traditional opening day speech, the late Rep. Paul Crowley, D-Newport, marked the occasion with this statement: “The days of blind power politics are over.”

“Those of you who will call yourself leaders remember this: A true leader is not someone who keeps people in line, a true leader is a person whom people willingly line up behind,” Crowley said that day.

In the years since, Murphy cleared long-standing obstacles to the passage of bills banning smoking in most public places and lowering the state’s drunk-driving standard to the .08 blood alcohol level.

He championed the state’s controversial flat-tax option for the state’s wealthiest taxpayers through to passage, despite qualms among many in his Democratic caucus who feared the loss of revenue. In pursuit of new economic development dollars from Hollywood, he also championed the state’s film-tax credit program.

He also cleared the way for the failed 2006 public referendum on a Harrahs’ Entertainment-backed proposal to open a Narragansett Indian casino in his hometown of West Warwick.

Unlike Harwood, who won the speakership after an open leadership fight with then-Rep. Russell Bramley, Murphy and Fox won their 2002-03 campaign behind the scenes. Others tried, including David A. Caprio, D-Narragansett. Harwood reportedly backed Rep. Robert Flaherty, of Warwick. But the votes weren’t there.

In a brief interview on Wednesday, Schadone said he was aware that Murphy was now publicly backing Fox as his successor. But he said it would not make a difference in his own pursuit of the post.

Murphy commented after a report about his Capriccio dinner announcement surfaced on the RIFuture.org blog.

kgregg@projo.com