PROVIDENCE — The new mayor wants to talk about the new Providence.

But the new Providence just wants to talk about the old mayor.

It’s the problem Mayor David N. Cicilline has faced ever since he took over the city from Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. in 2003 after Cianci’s conviction on federal racketeering charges. Providence’s recent good-government accomplishments are not nearly as sexy a story as its charismatic, deposed longtime mayor.

Journal photo / Ruben W. Perez

Cianci

After all, who wants to talk about business investment and community policing when there’s a tale this good: A mayor who ran Providence from 1975 to 1984 — until his conviction for assaulting his wife’s alleged lover — stepped down, became a radio personality, won reelection in 1990, and then ran the city until 2002, when he was pursued by the FBI and sent to prison on federal racketeering charges?

In Cianci’s absence, Cicilline has become a powerful force, one of the state’s top Democrats, a strong campaign fundraiser and the rumored candidate to beat in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He has little opposition in Providence, and he won reelection with more than 80 percent of the vote.

There’s only one wild card: how will his famous predecessor’s return affect his fortunes?

“Buddy’s return will change the public conversation about Providence. It creates another power center,” said Brown University political science Prof. Darrell West. “Buddy’s return empowers those who are unhappy with the current direction of the city.”

Cianci appears ready to throw himself right back into the world of Providence, saying Saturday that he had secured radio and TV deals, and will be announcing the stations shortly.

“A Cianci radio show could become a clearinghouse for information out of Providence City Hall,” West said. “People can drop a dime if they’re unhappy with any aspect of city government. They would find a receptive ear in the former mayor. That could pose a problem for Cicilline.”

Cicilline claims that a Buddy show wouldn’t bother him. He says he wouldn’t listen, but only because he’s busy during the afternoon, and never listens to talk radio.

That all sounds familiar to Joseph R. Paolino Jr.

PAOLINO knows exactly how far Buddy’s voice can carry.

In 1984, Paolino, the City Council president and a Cianci foe, won a special election for mayor when Cianci was forced to resign after pleading guilty to assaulting Bristol contractor Raymond DeLeo.

Paolino, then 29, worked hard to get out of Buddy’s shadow, but six months later Cianci was offered a radio show on WHJJ, and Buddy talked about what he knew: Providence.

Paolino became a favorite target.

Paolino tried to tune Cianci out. But it was hard not to listen. Occasionally, Cianci’s constant criticism would start to get under his skin.

“Sometimes it did — and I’d turn it off,” Paolino said.

Paolino also wanted the governor’s office. But Buddy kept hammering away at him, and Paolino thinks that the radio show may have contributed to his losing campaign in the 1990 Democratic primary for governor.

“He could have,” Paolino said, “he was pretty aggressive on the radio when I was mayor. If there was a hiccup in my administration, it was amplified.”

Paolino suffered in silence. His aides told him not to validate Cianci by going on the show, and so Paolino stayed away until Buddy’s last show.

Now, he looks back on that decision with regret.

“We were adversarial, and I didn’t think it would do anything to help me,” Paolino said. “At the same time, in hindsight, maybe I should have.”

If Cicilline is dreaming of higher office, the best thing he can do, Paolino said, is to meet Cianci head-on, on the first day of any potential radio show.

“Cicilline probably has advisers telling him, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it,’ but it would be better if he did.”

“Knowing what I know today, he should want to be his first guest,” Paolino said. “Buddy’s got no reason to be angry with him. There’s no ax to grind. I think David should go on his show.”

CICILLINE laughed when told of Paolino’s advice. “I’ll respond to him the next time I see him,” he said.

Cicilline doesn’t seem convinced that he should be Buddy’s first guest, or should go on the radio at all. He stays away from guest spots with the current top talkers, WPRO’s John DePetro and Dan Yorke, and said he wouldn’t listen to a Cianci show even if he was the subject.

“It’s hard for me in the middle of the day to listen to radio. I just don’t have a lot of time to do that. My focus will continue to be on the work that we have been doing for the last 5½ years. I can’t count a single day that I’ve stopped in the middle of my day to listen to the radio, so I can’t see why that would change,” he said.

But if Buddy asked him to guest star, Cicilline wouldn’t rule it out.

“Obviously that would be subject to schedule. I have not been on radio shows, but it hasn’t been because I don’t choose to be, it’s been just not a priority. I imagine there will be times I will be on the radio over the next couple years. It just really depends on how the schedule works here,” Cicilline said.

Cicilline and Cianci worked together in the late 1990s, when Cianci was mayor and Cicilline, a state representative, was head of the Providence delegation. The two were not close, but they had a working relationship, Cicilline said.

However, since Cianci’s departure, Cicilline has repeatedly invoked the failings of his predecessor.

He speaks often of the “new Providence,” and the changes his administration has wrought. He never, ever, mentions Cianci by name, instead calling him “my predecessor” or “the former mayor.” But in his speeches, such as his second inaugural address this winter, he slams the “old Providence,” and there is no question whose city that was.

“A culture of corruption had taken hold of our government and tied our hands. Great progress now lives up to great publicity… Those dark days are behind us. We will never go back,” Cicilline told a crowd of supporters.

But now Buddy is back.

“It’s always hard when the punching bag returns,” said West, the political science professor. “There’s always the risk that Cianci could start hitting back.”

Cicilline has never been afraid of Cianci, said Cicilline ally and Licensing Board Chairman Andrew A. Annaldo, who ran a losing mayoral campaign against Cianci in 1991.

“From watching him maneuver and operate, it wouldn’t bother him, I don’t think. He declared for mayor two years early — he didn’t care if he had to run against Cianci then, I don’t think he’s going to be affected by it now.”

But what will happen if Cianci starts to take credit for the new Providence, the one that Cicilline feels he has nurtured?

John J. Lombardi has been City Council president under both Cianci and Cicilline, and was close with neither man. He also served as the interim mayor after Cianci resigned, handing the office off to Cicilline in January 2003. Cianci again went on the radio, on WPRO, and regularly took shots at Lombardi.

Cicilline, Lombardi said, has to be thinking about Cianci’s impact.

“I think he’ll put his best face forward, but he’s certainly thinking about this,” Lombardi said.

And when Cianci gets on the radio talking about his accomplishments, Lombardi said Cicilline will seethe.

“You’re going to see a credit grab. I did this, I did that, I did the mall, I did the rivers,” Lombardi said.

Then, Lombardi said, Cicilline may have to react.

“We’ll see — will he bang away at him or not? Will he be a creature of his polls? They may tell Cicilline to hammer away at him a little bit,” Lombardi said.

But Buddy’s impact will not just be felt on the airwaves. He may command personal loyalty as well, Lombardi said.

“The guy must have put thousands of people to work over his 20-odd years here. Is there some loyalty among those people? Absolutely,” he said.

Buddy also had his political allies, many of whom have become Cicilline’s associates.

Peter S. Mancini is a 17-year councilman who succeeded Lombardi as council president this winter, and supports Cicilline.

When Cianci was mayor, Mancini was one of the so-called “Buddy 8,” the council majority that Cianci controlled until 1998. All four remaining Buddy 8 council members are now tied to Cicilline.

Cicilline has worked hard to build his own loyalties, Mancini said.

Cicilline, he said, treats the council better than Cianci did. Cianci would come to a public event, work a room, and get around to shaking hands with the council members at the very end. He would rarely interact with them personally, sending aides Frank Corrente or Artin Coloian to deliver his messages.

“I think he almost took council people for granted,” Mancini said.

Cicilline, he said, makes his council allies a priority, and always has a personal connection.

That said, Mancini recognizes Cianci’s allure.

“I run into a lot of people who are really happy that Buddy’s back,” Mancini said. “If he’s on the radio, I’m surely going to listen to him.”

And if Cianci is the same man Mancini remembers, then he’ll probably hammer at the current mayor.

“If it’s the Buddy of five years ago, I could see him on the radio doing a job on [Cicilline],” Mancini said.

“But is he going to do the same thing forever? Bang on the mayor? After a few months of that, it’ll get old. He’ll want to do something else. He’s a deep guy.”

SATURDAY night, Cianci held court at WaterFire, making his public return to the city he ruled for so long. Aside from his forgoing his famous hairpiece, it seemed as if nothing had changed.

He greeted dozens of visitors and well-wishers, and sat with family and friends on the balcony outside Café Nuovo from 7:45 p.m. until well after midnight.

During a break from his dinner, he gave a brief endorsement of Cicilline as a fellow elected official, and then vowed that he would have a lot to offer about Providence.

“The city is great. It was vibrant when I left. It’s vibrant now,” Cianci said.

“I’ll be talking in the future. I’m going to have a lot to say.”

dbarbari@projo.com