After his loss, Laffey said last night he would return to work the next day as Mayor of Cranston, where he still has four months left on his term.

Paul Grimes, Cranston's director of administration, said he'd spoken to the mayor several times today on city matters. Even during the campaign, Laffey never stopped working as the city's mayor, Grimes said. But now he will be refocusing his energy on wrapping up the rest of his term.

Nachama Soloveichik, a spokeswoman for Laffey's campaign, said the mayor had no public comments on Wednesday. At the campaign headquarters, campaign signs were stacked against a wall in the doorway.

"There's just stuff to do, people to call," Soloveichik said.

Najarian said the mayor told him it's going to take a little while for him to regroup, but he said he was glad he did not compromise on his integrity and felt he ran the campaign in an aboveboard way.

The mayor skipped his usual morning routine of reading a half-dozen papers, something he'd complete in about 45 minutes.

But he did have a cup of jumbo dark roast iced coffee, and a piece of apple pie, which Najarian said his sister had baked as a victory pie.

"He said, 'it looks like a victory pie, I'll have a piece'," Najarian said.