By Patrick Anderson Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — One of a half-dozen potential candidates for the General Assembly seat turned down by Bristol Democrat Laufton Ascencao sent a complaint to state elections officials Thursday against the progressive group Ascencao once worked for.
Libertarian William Hunt Jr., who Ascencao beat by 29 percentage points in the November election, told the state Board of Elections he had identified several thousand dollars in discrepancies between the campaign finance filings reported by the Rhode Island Working Families Party and seven Democratic candidates they endorsed.
The complaint listed more than two dozen contributions large and small — some in-kind help, some cash — to and from the Rhode Island Working Families or its political action committee that did not match what the candidates reported.
“The two sides of the ledger don’t match,” Hunt told the Journal.
Although he did not include it in his complaint, Hunt said he was also concerned about who was paying for offices in Providence and Warren that Ascencao shared with like-minded candidates and groups, including Working Families, Energize RI, the Young Democrats of Rhode Island and the Sierra Club.
Working Families state coordinator Georgia Hollister Isman Thursday acknowledged that there appeared to be some bookkeeping errors, but said they appeared small and fixable. She said most of the discrepancies appeared to be the result of different notions of what needed to be reported as a contribution or expenses being reported over different time periods.
Ascencao, 25, relented on Wednesday to a growing chorus calling for him not to be seated in the House in January after he was caught lying to local Town Council candidates about helping them and faking payment documents.
Ascencao’s excommunication from the House Reform Caucus opposed to Speaker Nicholas Mattielo was the final straw leading to his resignation and on Thursday the caucus shrank to 19 members, after Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell tweeted she was bowing out as a formal participant.
Asked why she was leaving the caucus, Ranglin-Vassell, whose 2016 campaign Ascencao managed, told the Journal in an email that the cumulative toll of Ascencao’s departure and a recent injury convinced her to take a step back from the battle over House rules changes, though she still supports them.
Rep. Moira Walsh, whose 2016 campaign Ascencao also managed, tweeted on Thursday that she is “sticking with the caucus, just wishing it hadn’t been implied that we ALL put out that statement” kicking him out.
State law calls for a special election within 90 days to fill seats turned down by an election winner, but on Thursday Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea was still waiting for Ascencao to submit a formal resignation letter before scheduling the vote, spokesman Joe Graziano said.
In addition to Hunt, the current list of candidates who have said they intend to run in District 68 Thursday includes Warren Town Council President Joseph DePasquale, an independent, and Bristol Town Council member Timothy Sweeney, a Democrat.
Bristol Town Council member Andrew Tyska, who lost to Ascencao in the Democratic primary, said Wednesday night he is interested in running again. Roger Williams University political science professor June Speakman, a Democrat and one of the Warren Town Council candidates Ascencao lied to, said she is “seriously considering it.”
And incumbent Rep. Ken Marshall, D-Bristol, who did not seek reelection, said Thursday he is also mulling jumping back in.