State Rep. Robert Quattrocchi (R-Scituate) was stripped of a committee assignment Thursday, after he recently asked a fellow lawmaker – a lesbian woman – whether she was a pedophile.
House Speaker Joe Shekarchi ordered Quattrocchi removed from the Committee on State Government and Elections.
The sanction was in response to comments made about a proposal by Rep. Rebecca Kislak (D-Providence) to take equity into account when considering new legislation.
According to a Shekarchi statement read by House Clerk Frank McCabe near the beginning of Thursday’s session, “While asking questions as a member of the committee, Representative Robert Quattrocchi made several references about the applicability of the legislation to ‘Satanists’ and ‘pedophiles’ and directly asked Representative Kislak, ‘Are you a pedophile?’”
The statement from Shekarchi continued, “Representative Quattrocchi’s statements to Representative Kislak during the March 17th hearing are not in keeping with the decorum or integrity of this body. Use of suggestive or offensive language and the disparagement of an esteemed colleague will not be tolerated in this chamber.”
Quattrocchi is serving his fourth term in the House. He remains a member of two House committees: Corporations and Oversight.
In a letter to other representatives, House GOP Leader Mike Chippendale of Foster said “the inartful exchange” between Quattrocchi and Kislak threatens to distract the House from important issues and is a “180-degree departure from the longstanding practice of the House.”
Chippendale said Shekarchi acted under pressure from “a mob,” and that the matter should instead be addressed by a House Committee on Conduct.
“That said, process aside, more fundamentally, if inadvertently causing offense to a fellow House member becomes grounds for ‘punishment,’ then we expect that standard to apply evenly to all members moving forward,” Chippendale wrote, adding that “a cloud of suspicion persists to this day over several Democratic leaders” due to sexual harassment allegations from 2017.
Shekarchi spokesman Larry Berman released a statement following Chippendale’s comment, saying that the speaker’s sanction “was a measured and fair response to uphold the decorum of the House.”
On the House floor, Quattrocchi said that in response to his calling out of an evil practice against children, “evil came for me, though my answering machine, in the most disgusting vile, I don’t even know how to describe it …” He said he received telephone messages and emails with threats and offensive images, “all this for asking questions, not making statements …. doing the job that my constituents asked me to do …. So if God put me here to be a lightning rod, so be it. ”
This story has been updated.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Follow him on Twitter @IanDon. Sign up here for his weekly RI politics and media newsletter.
