Booze, strippers, & cash

October 24, 2012

 Booze, strippers, & cash- that’s the talk of the 1st District House race in Rhode Island.

Yesterday, David Cicilline was exposed for accepting more than $12,000 in campaign cash from strip club owners and houses of prostitution.

Now the Providence Journal and WPRO are reporting new questions of whether Cicilline, as Mayor, engaged in a “pay-to-play” scheme with a strip club owner – trading a liquor license for campaign cash.

As you cover these troubling revelations, consider the following:

NRCC Comment:   “As a lawyer David Cicilline got rich fighting for rapists and pedophiles, and as Mayor he funded his campaigns with cash from the sex industry.  Now we learn of these new potential pay-to-play allegations.  We’ve heard of dirty politics, but with these latest pay-to-play allegations Cicilline is taking things to a new low.”  – NRCC spokesman Nat Sillin

WPRO:  “…three months after Shappy wrote a last contribution check to Cicilline the Providence License Board voted 2 to1 to give the license to the club. The Doherty campaign says that the two members who approved the license were Cicilline appointees.”

PROVIDENCE JOURNAL:  “…lounge owner Richard Shappy “made a series of contributions to the mayor from 2002 to 2005. Subsequently, the city awarded the club a liquor license,” despite concerns raised by “two city attorneys.”

PROVIDENCE JOURNAL:  U.S. Rep. Cicilline accepted donations from strip club owners and ‘houses of prostitution