Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
WPRO Newsroom and The Associated Press
The Associated Press reports that former Mayor Buddy Cianci has broken a campaign pledge not to accept money from city employees, a pledge Cianci says he never made.
Cianci’s campaign finance reports filed Tuesday show that at least five dozen city employees donated to Cianci’s campaign, with contributions totaling around $18,000.
The former mayor told WPRO News Wednesday he had only pledged not to take city worker contributions if and when he was elected mayor, not during his campaign.
“I’m a citizen running for the office of mayor, people can make contributions if they want wherever they work,” said Cianci.
The Associated Press reported that Cianci said during a mayoral forum Sept. 17 that he had not “taken a dime from any city worker” and did not intend to. While he could not recall his comments, Cianci said that perhaps at the time the campaign hadn’t received a city contribution yet.
“I think at that time maybe we didn’t have any contributions from the city workers, I don’t look at the finance reports except basically when they’re ready to be filed,” he said.
Cianci’s opponents pledged not to take money from city employees, saying it led to corruption during Cianci’s previous administrations. Cianci says he can’t be bought.
“I’m going to be bought for $25, $50 or $100?” Cianci said with a laugh. “I mean no, absolutely not, I’m running for office and that’s it.”
Democrat Jorge Elorza’s campaign refunded a donation it received from a city employee, and is now asking Cianci to return the city worker donations.
“Accepting contributions from city employees is a conflict of interest that fed a pay-to-play culture of corruption when Mr. Cianci was mayor,” Elorza said in a statement. “His decision to take money from city employees after recently telling the crowd at a public forum he had ‘not accepted a dime’ from city staff and pledging he would not is the clearest sign yet that the former mayor has not changed. With Vincent Cianci it is always important to pay attention to what he does, not what he says.”
Cianci said he will not return the contributions because it would insult the people who donated.
