Tagged: Buddy Cianci

Being Providence mayor is a tough job, but it isn’t all about filling potholes and budget deficits and cajoling municipal union leaders. On Sunday, Mayor Angel Taveras showed up at Veterans Memorial Auditorium to greet jazz great Wynton Marsalis.

Before introducing Marsalis, Taveras told the packed house that being mayor ``comes with certain privileges.’’

That phrase drew a ripple of  knowing Rhode Islandesque laughter. Taveras quickly deadpanned, ``I’m not Buddy.’’

Could this really be happening or is it a trope straight out of the Groundhog Day movie? Talk that Vincent A. `Buddy’ Cianci may run again for mayor in  2014 is coursing through City Hall and sending shivers through some in Providence’s political hierarchy.

It would be preposterous to think that Cianci, convicted a decade ago of running the city as a criminal enterprise, could win a two-way race. And there is no way he could defeat Democratic Mayor Angel Taveras.