Projo Politics Blog

Longtime Rep. Peter Palumbo, D-Cranston, may have his future political sights set closer to home.

The House Democrat and ice cream shop owner says he’s weighing a primary challenge to Cranston Mayor Michael T. Napolitano in September.

“I’m not saying it, but I’m not denying it either,” the House legislator told Political Scene last week.

Palumbo, who served on the Cranston City Council for six years before heading to the State House in 1994, said he is “testing the waters now.”

Driving all that thinking is the recent publicity Palumbo received with regard to a bill submitted to the Assembly that seeks to crack down on illegal immigration by tightening state laws regarding issuance of driver’s licenses and to make it unlawful for businesses or individuals to harbor undocumented immigrant workers.

“Because of that, people have been coming up to me that I’ve never seen in my life saying you should run,” he said.

Despite spending more than a decade away from city politics, Palumbo says his focus never strayed far from the community where he grew up.

Cranston, he said, could benefit from the firm hand of a businessman –– not that of former Mayor Stephen P. Laffey but of a local small-business owner like himself.

Sounds a bit like he’s already on the campaign trail, does it not?

Napolitano did not return calls to his office for comment Friday afternoon.

---