Man in the middle (continued)

On poverty and taxes, Montalbano sometimes votes more like a conservative Republican than a liberal Democrat, supporting a repeal of the capital gains tax in 2001, and opposing higher taxes on the wealthy in 1993. In 1994, he cast the deciding vote to kill a Senate amendment designed to restore cuts to the General Public Assistance program for low-income adults. On the other hand, he voted in 1997 to require more public schools with large numbers of low-income children to serve breakfast. And Walton recalls working with Montalbano to secure more funds for legal aid for the poor. That effort, Walton says, shows that "he has some sensitivity to what real folks are about."

On government reform issues, the new Senate president last year backed separation of powers legislation and sponsored a bill requiring court magistrates to be approved by the same process as judges. "My sense is, as he has moved up in leadership, his support for reform has increased," comments Common Cause’s West.

Finally, Montalbano’s relationship with the tobacco industry is mixed. Unlike now, small cigarette tax increases were controversial in the mid-1990s. In 1995 and 1997, he opposed cigarette tax hikes, but in 1994, he opposed an attempt by then-state Senator Paul Tavares to cut a cigarette tax increase from 12 cents to seven cents. Also in 1994, he voted against banning smoking in public places, but he last year supported a similar bill.

Montalbano’s voting record, however, does not define him. Graziano has a hard time associating him with a specific spot on the political spectrum, noting that as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, "He didn’t show any effort to favor one point of view over another."

The key to understanding Montalbano lies elsewhere, she says: "If anything moves him, it’s his family. That’s what keeps him going."

MONTALBANO’S WORLD has always revolved around the Fairlawn section of Pawtucket and the adjacent Marieville section of North Providence. Both areas are just north of Providence, along Charles Street and Mineral Spring Avenue. The second oldest of seven children, Montalbano grew up in Fairlawn in one of the large Catholic families that were common in the 1950s and 1960s, but less frequent today.

His mother, who died in 1995, was a graduate of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. His father, who runs his own mortgage and title guarantee company in Providence, grew up in Marieville before going to Providence College and Georgetown Law School. The two met in Washington, DC, while working together in low-level jobs at the CIA.

Later, his parents moved to Francis Avenue in Fairlawn to raise their family. Montalbano’s uncle and eight cousins lived down the street, and his grandmother lived next door. Once a week they gathered at her house for a Sunday meal. With 15 kids running around, Montalbano recalls, "It was a madhouse."

It was also a simpler time. "Basically, life was going to school and hanging out with your friends," he says. Montalbano played baseball in the Fairlawn Little League and received guidance from the Sisters of Mercy who ran his parish elementary school, St. Edwards School (now Woodlawn Catholic Regional School). "There was a little discipline there that I don’t think is always there today," he says. His parents believed strongly in Catholic education, and when he finished at St. Edwards, Montalbano relates, they sought the best Catholic high school for their children. Some of his sisters attended Bay View Academy, but he and his brothers were sent as boarders to Portsmouth Priory School. "Instead of taking vacations and buying a bigger house," Montalbano says of his parents, "they were paying for education."

Next, Montalbano attended the University of Pennsylvania before returning to the Catholic education system, receiving a law degree from St. John’s School of Law in New York City. After graduating, he opened a family law practice with his younger brother, John, and his mother, who earned a law degree by attending night classes at Suffolk Law School in Boston while her youngest children were still in elementary school. Located today in Marieville, the law practice primarily involves real estate closings, mortgage refinancing, evictions, and probate work. According to his financial disclosure forms, Montalbano works as counsel to the Pawtucket Housing Authority and he has regularly been paid to conduct municipal tax sales for Central Falls, Pawtucket, Warren, and other municipalities. He also serves as a part-time North Providence municipal judge.

Montalbano remains close to his brothers and sisters. Five live within a mile of his home, he relates, and the sixth is 20 miles away in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Between them, they have four law degrees.

The senator says his upbringing "translates into wanting to give something back to the community." In addition to his work in the legislature, last year he chaired the capital campaign at Presentation Church in Marieville, and his wife and he three years ago co-chaired the Catholic Charities campaign at the parish. He also sponsors a team in the Little League where he once played and occasionally provides the league with pro bono legal services. His background, he says, makes him sympathize with struggling immigrant families: "You try to keep the less fortunate in mind when you legislate, especially with budget issues — things like paying for RIte Care and educational issues, especially in places like Providence and Pawtucket, where I grew up."

Montalbano began his political career when he ran unopposed for the state Senate in 1988. Two years later, his younger brother, Mark, was elected to represent the same neighborhood in House of Representatives.

The freshman senator’s first vote was one of his most important. In 1988, Senate Majority Leader Jack Revens ran for general treasurer, leaving what was then the Senate’s top post vacant. Senate Democrats were sharply divided. Old-school Democrats like Dominick Ruggerio and John Orabona of Providence backed John Bevilacqua of Providence, a lawyer and son of Joseph Bevilacqua, chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, who had just resigned after being accused of having ties to organized crime figures. Senate reformers like Kelly, Irons, and Jack Reed, now Rhode Island’s senior US senator, backed David Carlin of Newport, a sociology professor at Community College of Rhode Island.

As a freshman senator, Montalbano says he "was fairly meticulous about staying out of the fray in the leadership fight," until he cast his vote for Bevilacqua. His sister and Bevilacqua’s attended high school together, he explains, and his father and the chief justice had been friends as lawyers. "I didn’t have a clue about what the significance of the vote was," he admits.

Neither did Carlin.

Carlin won 22-19, but the victory was illusionary. Making what critics called "an unholy alliance" with Senate Minority Leader Robert Goldberg, Bevilacqua seized effective control of the Senate. The relationship marked a windfall for Republican Governor Edward DiPrete, who had no vetoes overridden during the next two years, despite an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. The arrangement produced an incredibly tense and polarized Senate, as parking spot and office space assignments led to major confrontations. "There were times I was frightened to start my car up for fear it would explode," recalls state Representative William Enos, a Carlin supporter who served in the Senate at the time. Carlin calls the time "a miserable period in my life."

IN THE WAKE of the financial collapse of Rhode Island’s credit unions, the legislature was filled with calls for reform. In lopsided floor votes, Montalbano supported revolving-door legislation to bar lawmakers from lobbying or taking state jobs within a year of leaving office, and legislation to tighten eligibility for state pensions. But through it all, he stuck with Bevilacqua. "John didn’t ever do anything to merit not hanging in there," Montalbano says. The Bevilacqua forces made gains in the 1990 elections, and seven senators, including Orabona, Montalbano, and John McBurney of Pawtucket, immediately called for a new caucus to elect Bevilacqua majority leader.

Despite Montalbano’s role in the leadership fight, Carlin speaks favorably of the new Senate president. "Apart from the fact I thought he made the wrong choice, I was impressed," Carlin says, calling Montalbano, "soft-spoken, polite, respectful and intelligent." More recently, his opinion became even more favorable, he adds, when Montalbano selected Paiva Weed (who is Carlin’s next door neighbor) to be majority leader.

In 1992, the voters reversed course, defeating several Bevilacqua allies and enabling Kelly to become majority leader without formal opposition. Ethics problems continued, however. Former state Representative Thomas Fay, who had succeeded Bevilacqua’s father as chief justice, became embroiled in controversy over a court fund tapped to pay for limousines, liquor, Boston Red Sox tickets, and tuxedos. Led by Kelly, 23 senators called for Fay to temporarily resign as chief court administrator as the charges were investigated. Irons, Walton, Tavares, and then-state Senator Charles Fogarty signed the letter, but Montalbano did not. The letter was premature, Montalbano says in a recent interview, because, "Tommy Fay hadn’t had his day in court yet."

Bevilacqua retired in 1994, and Montalbano became the leader of the Senate opposition, running against Kelly in 1998 and losing by four votes. Although some of his supporters, like Graziano, wanted to switch majority leaders because of Kelly’s arrest on a domestic assault charge, Montalbano says he ran to make the Senate "more inclusive," especially in allocating legislative grants, assigning office space, and making legislative decisions. Although he backed Kelly, Walton is sympathetic to Montalbano’s criticism. "Kelly should have reached out to Montalbano," Walton says, "and a lot of the friction in the chamber might have been dissipated."

Following the 2000 election, Montalbano combined his supporters with those backing Irons to unseat Kelly. In making decisions afterwards, they worked as a team. The new Senate president says he will continue this practice, representing the Senate with Paiva Weed during top-level meetings, rather than by himself.

His style will represent a change for the State House. Common Cause’s West says past legislative leaders have gotten angry when he differed with them. At other times they would duck or stonewall, but Montalbano never cuts off communications. "He doesn’t fight back. He listens," says West, "There’s a certain political maturity that I see in him that I didn’t see sometimes in Irons."

As he tries to lead the Senate past controversy toward calmer days, Montalbano recognizes that one day he, too, will be replaced as the chamber’s president. "There’s a shelf life to leadership," he says. "At some point, it’s going to happen to me." For now, he considers himself honored to be one of the three most powerful leaders in the state. "I’ve never had aspirations to run statewide," he acknowledges. "The Senate has always been where I want to be."

Steven Stycos can be reached at stycos1@yahoo.com.