The Narragansett Democrat succeeds Rep. Robert E. Flaherty, the Warwick Democrat ousted last week by the House speaker.

01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, November 23, 2005

BY KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- House Speaker William J. Murphy has appointed Democrat Donald J. Lally, a low-key South County lawyer and loyalist, as the new chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.

Murphy chose Lally, 50, of Narragansett, to replace Robert E. Flaherty, the Warwick Democrat he ousted last week from his decadelong perch as chairman of the high-profile committee that presides over an array of social and legal issues from drunken driving to abortion, gun control and this year's top-ranked GOP priority: voter initiative.

Murphy announced at the same time his elevation of his fellow West Warwick Democrat, Timothy A. Williamson, from co-vice chairman of House Judiciary to Lally's former spot as senior deputy majority leader.

Even a sometime critic of some of Lally's follow-the-leader votes in recent years hailed his appointment as the new committee chairman.

"If you are asking me the question: Am I happy to see the change from Flaherty to Lally -- absolutely," said H. Philip West, executive director of the citizens advocacy group Common Cause.

While House Judiciary was "the killing ground for virtually every reform we supported" during Flaherty's reign, West said, Lally as a member of that committee was not only willing to listen but also "inquired frequently of me: 'So where is Common Cause on this?' That matters to him and I am glad for that."

Said Lally yesterday in an interview: "I support the leadership," but "contrary to the way it is usually reported in the papers," he had no marching orders.

"Naturally, I will discuss legislation with the speaker and majority leader," he said. But "I come here with my conscience . . . [and] I feel it's my committee and I will have a large input and quite a bit of freedom as to what is reported out of my committee."

A 1977 graduate of the University of Rhode Island and 1980 graduate of the New England School of Law, Lally has been a state lawmaker since he was first elected in a 1989 special election to replace newly named judge Gilbert V. Indeglia.

In 1998, Lally was at the center of a firestorm over an eleventh-hour move to dilute a bill that would have toughened Rhode Island's drunken-driving laws by dropping the state's legal blood-alcohol limit for motorists from .10 to .08.

In what was described at the time as a substantial victory for the liquor and restaurant lobby, the House approved a Lally-introduced amendment that hinged the new standard on the unlikely event that year that the federal government adopted the same .08 threshold.

Angry critics denounced Lally for "gutting" the bill. Said then-executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Dave Russell: "The score is special interests one, the public interest nothing, in the game that was played today at the State House."

Yesterday, a rueful Lally said: "I think I misread the public's perception of the bill at the time." Lally said he supported .08 legislation when it finally won passage two years ago because "by then I realized it did send a message that people are not going to tolerate people drinking and driving."

Lally said it is too early to commit to any one version of the legislation House leaders are supporting, for the first time, to close the so-called drunken-driving loophole that rewards drivers who refuse a Breathalyzer test with reduced penalties.

But he promised the issue will get "serious consideration" this year: "I think it's time that we did something."

On abortion, he describes himself as generally "pro-choice."

In recent years, he cosponsored a bill sought by the gun lobby to ease restrictions on the transport of guns from one location to another. But, he said he also backed efforts to require abusers under domestic restraining orders to surrender their guns.

As a committee chairman, Lally said he feels an obligation to give every bill a "fair hearing." But he said he remains wary of "voter initiative" because it does an end run around representative democracy as he thinks it should work.

Allowing proposals to reach the ballot by petition gives too much clout, he said, to big-spending corporations to "go door-to-door to sell the thing to people without telling them the whole truth." Lally said he "prefers hearings where everyday people can come in and give their views."

Lally's loyalty to the Murphy leadership team ranked him somewhere below the 74.4 percent House average on Common Cause's 2003-04 legislative scorecard.

Lally's 65.5 percent score was dragged down by his end-of-session votes in favor of several leadership initiatives that Common Cause viewed as "outrages."

They included the eleventh-hour budget move that freed the Judiciary from the spending, hiring and purchasing rules that apply to the rest of state government and a proposed $20-million subsidy for a hotel promoted by former Rep. Vincent J. Mesolella.

Murphy yesterday said he chose Lally as the new chairman, in part, because he had been vice chairman for several years but also because he is "an experienced attorney [who] faced the issues year in and year out."

Of the committee's vice chairman, Fausto Anguilla, D-Bristol, he said: "Fausto is a very, very bright individual. He is an excellent attorney . . . and a person who has a promising future in the House of Representatives. We felt at this point, given Don Lally's seniority, that he was the choice."