Man in the middle He has a conservative voting record, but Joseph Montalbano’s consensus-building style enabled him to rise to the head of the state Senate BY STEVEN STYCOS

SITTING IN Senate President William V. Irons’s outer office in January 2002, state Senator Charles Walton (D-Providence) knew he had big problems. Thanks to a decision by voters to downsize the legislature, Walton was months away from running in a new, larger district. And the proposed district, drawn by the state redistricting commission, included a formidable opponent, Juan Pichardo. Taking advantage of a booming Hispanic population in South Providence and the city’s West End two years earlier, Pichardo had barely missed upending incumbent state Senator Robert Kells in the Democratic primary in an adjacent district.

The proposed district created another problem for Walton, then Rhode Island’s only black senator. It cut South Providence in half, depriving him of a large portion of his African-American political base. Instead of being linked with the area around his home, between Rhode Island Hospital and Roger Williams Park, upper South Providence had been attached to the Senate district encompassing Federal Hill. In its place, in what Walton calls "racial gerrymandering," his district was extended west to include heavily Hispanic Elmwood. Without changes, Walton would likely lose his seat to Pichardo, simply because of ethnic voting.

This was why Walton had been waiting 20 minutes to talk with Irons and his right-hand man, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Montalbano (D-North Providence). Each senator had a chance to plead their case for different district lines, and Walton hoped to convince Irons to restore upper South Providence to his district, giving him a fair chance to beat Pichardo. His strongest argument, he felt, was not personal, but rather a plea not to pit blacks against Hispanics. Walton, however, had another big problem. When Irons unseated state Senator Paul Kelly as majority leader in November 2000, Walton had backed Kelly. Now that Irons was in charge, and the Senate had to shrink by 12 members, Walton, Kelly, deposed Senate Whip William Enos (D-Tiverton), and other Kelly stalwarts were facing major redistricting problems.

Finally, a secretary informed Walton that Irons was ready to talk. But instead of bringing him into Irons’s office for a private conversation, the secretary led Walton to Senate hearing room 313, where reporters and other people were milling about, waiting for a redistricting hearing. Sitting at a table in the middle of the room, recalls Walton, were Irons and Montalbano. "For the first time," says Walton, referring to his 18 years in the Senate, "I felt I was being discriminated against solely because of my color."

Conscious of being overheard, an upset Walton sat down to make his case, but Irons was unswayed. When someone wandered over and began talking with Irons, Montalbano took the opportunity to speak directly with Walton, saying, "Senator, I don’t like this disrespectful way Senator Irons is conducting this, and I told him."

In the end, the district lines were unchanged. Blacks residents of South Providence remained divided, and Pichardo defeated Walton, with 60 percent of the vote, in the 2002 Democratic primary. (A legal challenge to the redistricting, by the NAACP, the Urban League of Rhode Island, and others, is currently pending before the First US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.) The incident, however, illustrates the traits that perhaps most enabled Montalbano to ascend to the Senate presidency in January when Irons resigned over his business connections with drug store giant CVS. Although upset that Montalbano, the vice chair of the redistricting commission, "didn’t show a lot of sensitivity to the minority issues in the last redistricting," Walton was impressed that he tried to avoid the humiliating scene in the Senate hearing room. "At least he showed me the honesty," Walton says. "I had a sense Joe at least had this core of decency about him."

H. Philip West Jr., executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, who sided with Walton in the dispute, has a similar impression. Irons exploded in anger at West’s criticism, and refused to ever shake his hand again, West recalls. But Montalbano was more placid, "listened with incredible patience," and repeated his argument that four of the six proposed Senate districts in Providence would encompass areas whose population was more than 50 percent black, Hispanic, and Asian.

Even with 15 years in the state Senate, the North Providence lawyer has a fuzzy political image. His voting record is conservative, but he isn’t identified with legislation or causes. When it comes to sponsoring bills, Montalbano is far from ambitious. In past years, for example, he has authored proposals to increase pay for jury duty, regulate proxy votes in condominium elections, improve municipal tax sales, and allow Judge Bruce Selya of the First US Circuit Court of Appeals to perform a marriage.

Montalbano has consistently opposed abortion, but he is "not wearing it on his sleeve," Walton says, adding, "Joe doesn’t come in with a strong ideological bent. He likes to be part of the process."

Liberals and conservatives alike praise Montalbano for a calm style that respects other opinions and works for consensus. His reputation remains untarnished despite contentious events like redistricting and a failed attempt to dethrone the Senate leadership in 1998. In his new position as Senate president, Montalbano is certain to encounter more storms, but the past record suggests that he should remain steady. He knows where he came from, as the political cliché goes, and where he is going — the same small section where the borders of North Providence, Pawtucket, and Lincoln meet. This is the area where Montalbano played Little League baseball, where his father was brought up, where he opened his first law practice with his mother, and where he lives today.

MONTALBANO’S PRINCIPAL political asset, according to interviews with former Senate colleagues, is his ability to work well with other legislators. Unlike Irons (who didn’t return phone calls seeking comment), he does not have a volatile temper. "Joe’s good at sitting people down, listening, and helping them to reach whatever the decision is," says former state Senator Catherine Graziano of Providence, a longtime ally. "If they’re not happy with it, at least they know why it came out the way it did."

Adds former state Senator John Roney of Providence, "I would really characterize him as someone who will work hard to bring factions together."

Montalbano finds his former colleagues’ description fitting. "It’s a fair assessment that they don’t consider me a policy guy," he says. "I serve more of a role as a consensus-builder than a policy writer."

In one of his first moves as Senate president, Montalbano dramatically illustrated his desire to build consensus by selecting not one of his steadfast supporters, but rather state Senator Teresa Paiva Weed (D-Newport) for the Senate’s number two post. As Senate majority leader, Paiva Weed — the first woman to hold the post — will head policy efforts for the Senate leadership, Montalbano says. A Kelly loyalist, Paiva Weed had never been part of Montalbano’s faction. More liberal and certainly more identified with drafting complex legislation, Paiva Weed, however, shares one important trait with Montalbano — her colleagues generally consider her a fair person who listens.

The legislator also took some steps to remove the ethical cloud hanging over the Senate, meeting, just before his election as president, with embattled state Senator John A. Celona (D-North Providence). Montalbano told Celona, who was under severe criticism for receiving undisclosed consulting fees from CVS while chairing the committee considering pharmacy choice legislation, that he would remove him from the chairmanship if Celona did not resign that post (Celona yielded the position).

Although Montalbano has not joined other senators in calling on Celona to give up his seat, he received some positive attention for sponsored legislation to bar lawmakers from accepting gifts.

The policy stances coming out of the Senate should be interesting to watch. While Montalbano may not be known for his political positions, he has compiled a consistently conservative voting record. "Fiscally, I am conservative," he notes, "and probably for some of the social issues, I’d be considered conservative as well." The liberal Walton categorizes Montalbano as "a moderately conservative Democrat."

A practicing Catholic, Montalbano has been a consistent ally for the right-to-life cause, Graziano says. He voted three times to require women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion, and in 1998, he opposed weakening a ban on partial-birth abortions to allow exceptions to protect the health of the mother. He also opposed a bill to require health plans that pay for prescription drugs to cover contraceptives.

His votes on assisted-suicide and gay rights are consistent with the positions of the Roman Catholic Church. He voted for legislation establishing a 10-year prison sentence for someone who assists a suicide. And he opposed gay rights bills three times, including the 1995 bill signed into law by then-Governor Lincoln Almond. He also opposed repeal of the state law criminalizing sodomy, and opposed anti-discrimination legislation designed to protect cross-dressers and transgendered people.

On public health measures to prevent the spread of AIDS and other diseases, Montalbano has a mixed record. In 1994, he backed a state needle exchange program, but in 2000 opposed permitting the sale of needles without a prescription. In 1997, he opposed landmark legislation to limit the ability of for-profit hospitals to acquire hospitals in Rhode Island. The bill was vetoed by Almond, and its backers, including Kelly, pushed for an override. Senate Democrats narrowly collected the three-fifths vote needed to override, winning 32-18. Montalbano, however, voted to sustain the veto.

Montalbano also has a mixed record on labor issues. He sided with teachers’ unions in opposing charter schools, but sponsored an unsuccessful amendment to reestablish a residency requirement for Pawtucket and Providence teachers. In 1994, he voted to require prevailing wages for construction workers at the Providence Place Mall, and last year he voted to override Governor Donald L. Carcieri’s veto of a higher minimum wage. The new Senate president has also consistently supported large state subsidies for business, supporting a $72 million tax break for the Providence Place Mall, a controversial tax break for the executives of American Power Conversion, and higher state bonding limits to permit the construction of a new downtown hotel.

His support for large public works programs includes those bitterly opposed by environmentalists. In 1992, Montalbano supported the use of state funds to construct the Cross Bay Pipeline to bring Scituate Reservoir water to Bristol County. Environmentalists said the money would be better spent on conservation. Two years later, he opposed legislation to ban construction of a sewage sludge incinerator in Providence. More recently, by opposing an amendment to strip funds for an environmental impact statement from the state budget, he supported Almond’s proposal for a large container port at Quonset Point in North Kingstown

On crime, Montalbano supports longer sentences and stronger police powers. In 1994 and 1995, he voted to increase the time that inmates must serve before becoming eligible for parole, from a third of their sentences to half. He backed the eviction of families from their homes when a member is convicted of a drug crime, even if they were unaware of the illegal activity. In addition, he supported barring people with felony drug convictions from receiving food stamps for the rest of their lives. Finally, the senator voted to arm University of Rhode Island police and against barring police from searching a car stopped solely for the occupants’ failure to wear seat belts. A past recipient of campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association, he voted with the gun lobby and opposed the last gun control measure to pass the Senate, a bill requiring new gun purchases include a trigger lock.