PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- Mayoral candidate David Cicilline is a one-man political rainbow: Italian, Jewish, liberal, wealthy and gay.
He is also setting the stage for Providence to become the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor.
Recent polls show him with a commanding lead over three other contenders in the race to succeed Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr., an old-school pol who held office for parts of four decades before he was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption. Cianci was a Roman Catholic in a heavily Catholic city and used to squire beautiful women around town.
"It's a fluke of history," says Brown University political science professor Darrell West. "David came along at a time when people were looking for something different. David is different from Buddy Cianci in just about every way."
The 41-year-old son of the state's best-known organized crime lawyer, Cicilline has tried not to be known as "the gay candidate." That led some in the gay community to revolt during the recent primary and back his chief opponent, former Mayor Joseph Paolino Jr.
"There are a couple of people who think I haven't stressed my sexual orientation strongly enough during the campaign," says Cicilline, a four-term state legislator. "I just don't think it's relevant. I'm running for mayor of Providence to represent all the people of this city."
If he is elected, Providence (population 174,000) will surpass Tempe, Arizona (pop. 158,000), as the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor, according to the Washington-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
The Victory Fund, which helped raise money for Cicilline, says he has shown gay candidates can appeal to a broad spectrum of voters.
"David's sexual orientation should define him no more and no less than the community he lives in or his ethnic or religious background," says Victory Fund spokesman Jason Young.
Cicilline emerged from a four-way Democratic primary, beating his nearest opponent, Paolino, by 20 points. As for the November election, a Brown University poll released Tuesday found that 70 percent of those surveyed favor Cicilline, while his three opponents were in the single digits.
Cicilline is a Providence native and a graduate of Brown, where he co-founded the College Democrats with two classmates -- the late John F. Kennedy Jr., and William Mondale, son of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
"He was smart and politically savvy even then," says West, who taught Cicilline at Brown in 1982. "He had star written all over him."
As a legislator, Cicilline fought for issues that were important to liberal East Side voters and the gay community: mandatory AIDS education in schools, adding sexual orientation to the state's hate-crimes law, establishing a hypodermic needle exchange.
His mayoral campaign has tried to broaden his appeal. He put his campaign headquarters in predominantly black and Hispanic South Providence, and has relentlessly sounded a message of better schools, safer neighborhoods and a City Hall free of corruption.
He says that he has received a handful of anti-gay and anti-Jewish letters but that most voters appear to have ignored or embraced his sexual orientation.
"Most voters make their decision based on the quality of your character and the strength of your ideas, not on your race or religion or gender or sexual orientation," he says.
According to recent polls, Mayoral candidate David Cicilline appeals
to a broad cross section of Providence, R.I., residents. Cicilline just happens
to be Italian, Jewish, liberal, and wealthy. But the tag that may distinguish
the candidate even more than the others is "gay."
If Cicilline wins the election, Providence will become the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor. And so far, the people from the state's capital city think that's just fine.
Recent polls show Cicilline holding a commanding lead over three other contenders in the race to succeed Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr., a career politician who held office for parts of four decades before he was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption.
Cicilline, 41, has tried not to be known as "the gay candidate," believing that that fact alone wasn't a qualifier for elected office.
"I just don't think it's relevant. I'm running for mayor of Providence to represent all the people of this city," says Cicilline, a four-term state legislator.
Cicilline beliefs, however, led some in the gay community to deem the candidate not "gay enough" during the recent primary and backed his chief opponent, former Mayor Joseph Paolino Jr.
Cicilline emerged from a four-way Democratic primary, beating his nearest opponent, Paolino, by 20 points. As for the November election, a Brown University poll released Tuesday found that 70 percent of those surveyed favor Cicilline, while his three opponents were in the single digits.
Cicilline says that he has received a handful of anti-gay and anti-Jewish letters but that most voters appear to have ignored or embraced his sexual orientation.
"Most voters make their decision based on the quality of your character and the strength of your ideas, not on your race or religion or gender or sexual orientation," he says.
If he is elected, Providence (population 174,000) will surpass Tempe, Ariz. (pop. 158,000), as the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor, according to the Washington-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
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