State Republican Chairman Brandon Bell filed a complaint with the state Elections Board on Monday, calling on the board to investigate a possible campaign finance violation by House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello.
“First, as noted by Common Cause Rhode Island, there is no doubt Lawton’s endorsement mailer violated Rhode Island’s campaign finance law,” Bell said in a statement. “The mailer cost over $1,000. If it is a coordinated expenditure, it violated the law by exceeding the $1,000 limit. If it is an independent expenditure, it was not reported within 24 hours in violation of the law. The Board of Elections must immediately act on the R.I. Republican Party’s complaint and open an investigation in order to collect evidence as quickly as possible before it disappears.”
Mattiello called the complaint without merit.
I have never met Mrs. Lawton nor have I made any promises to her in return for her support of my candidacy,” Mattiello said in a statement distributed by his campaign. I am certainly proud to receive her endorsement, just as I am about gaining the support of many of her fellow Republicans. That said, I have stated that her interest in the HPV vaccine is an issue for the Department of Health, not the Legislature. I have called on Mrs. Lawton to disclose the funding source of her recent mailer.”
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State Republican Party Chairman Brandon Bell charged Sunday that a former GOP candidate’s recent endorsement of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello may have been conditioned on a legislative quid pro quo.
Bell said he plans to file a complaint Monday with the state Board of Elections related to Shawna Lawton’s support for Mattiello in a mailer distributed last week to Cranston voters in House District 15.
“Shawna Lawton’s endorsement of Speaker Mattiello was made in consultation with the Mattiello campaign, and as a result of the consultation, an endorsement mailer paid for by Friends of Shawna Lawton was mailed,” Bell told RI Public Radio. “This action appears to have violated Rhode Island campaign finance law. In addition, her endorsement of Mattiello was obtained as as a result of promises from the Mattiello campaign, presumably related to legislation. A quid pro quo arrangement involving a political endorsement in exchange for favorable treatment on legislation could also violation Rhode Island bribery laws.”
Bell was referring to comments made by Lawton in an online Google chat discussing advocacy by herself and others in a group called the Rhode Island Alliance For Vaccine Choice.
Mattiello’s GOP opponent in the November 8 election, Steven Frias, beat Lawton by a lopsided margin in the September primary.
The chat was first reported by The Providence Journal. RI Public Radio separately obtained a screenshot of the comments made by Lawton during the chat, including her description of how “I have been ‘promised’ we will get further with our issues” after she met with Jeff Britt, an adviser to Mattiello and longtime Rhode Island political operative.
The development comes with barely more than a week to go in the marquee legislative race of the year, Republican Frias’ challenge to Democrat Mattiello. The speakership is considered the state’s most powerful political post.
In a statement, Mattiello’s campaign spokeswoman, Patti Doyle, called Bell’s accusations of a campaign finance violation and possible quid pro quo baseless.
“All elections have endorsements of candidates,” Doyle said. “In this case, a former Republican candidate endorsed a Democrat and this must have had a tremendously negative impact on the Frias campaign. Last week, the Republican Party alleged that Shawna Lawton was related to Frank Montanaro,” a former state rep who now heads the spending arm of the General Assembly, “which wasn’t true, and this week they claim some promise was made when Shawna says there was not. Obviously, they are trying to make their fading campaign relevant.”
Doyle added, “Jeff Britt does not have anything to do with legislation. Additionally, Nick Mattiello has never met Shawna Lawton nor made any promises to her. The online chat conversation does not reflect the actual conversation between Jeff Britt and Mrs. Lawton and one can only speculate that the Republican Party may be exerting some pressure on Mrs. Lawton to mitigate the impact of her endorsement.”
In a tweet last week, Lawton said her endorsement of Mattiello was based on her own research and consideration of how Frias compares to the speaker on vaccine-related issues.
In the Google chat, Lawton said in part, “[F]rias isn’t going to help us with our agenda and the new house speaker [if Mattiello is defeated] isn’t going to help us with our agenda so I’m taking the best option right now.”
In his own statement, Jeff Britt said, “As a longtime Republican strategist, I was thrilled when Shawna Lawton reached out to me and said that Steven Frias wasn’t fit to be state representative. We never talked about legislation or anything else that Brandon Bell is trying to contrive to save his candidate with. I did not ever speak to her about vaccine legislation. I wouldn’t know a vaccine issue if it bit me in the behind.”
