Projo Politics Blog

Lombardi's 1025 Club in Johnston has a storied past as a community banquet hall and gathering place for Rhode Island politicos.

A frequent attendee at those events is Journal political columnist M. Charles Bakst. Projo.com asked him today to write about some of his "times" at the club, whose owner says they plan to sell after finding another location in Rhode Island. Here's Bakst's report:

You'd be amazed how often a political journalist finds himself at the 1025, and not always for the most obvious occasions.

Last April I was working on a column about Frank Ferri, a leader in the fight for marriage equality legislation at the State House. He also happens to operate Town Hall Lanes in Johnston. I went to the bowling emporium to interview him and absorb the atmosphere, then continued the conversation as he zipped over to the 1025 for the awards banquet of a youth league that used his alleys. It was wonderful event.

Certainly, the pasta was every bit as delicious as you'd get at a political fundraiser, and the little kids were adorable.

My most recent trip to the club was last October, when the 2006 Senate race between Republican Lincoln Chafee and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse was nearing its end, and Sen. Hillary Clinton came to tout Whitehouse at something approaching an old-time rally.

Of course, now the former first lady is running for president, but even then it was safe to assume she'd be making a White House bid, and the place was packed. The crowd loved her and her railing against the Republicans, and she urged Whitehouse's supporters not to take the election for granted.

"You know that the other side will do whatever it can to maintain power,'' she said, preparing the folks for an onslught of negative ads. (Of course, the Democratic campaign to unseat Chafee was filled with negative ads.)

The New Yorker also slashed away at President Bush:

"He is impervious to reason and argument and evidence. He prides himself on not changing his mind.''

My saddest visit to the 1025? That's easy. It was March 2006, and Donald Trump's people rented the place so they could pitch Johnstonites on hosting a casino. What a downer this was, even if you could get by the idea of who needs a casino anyway?

The crowd was sparse and the fancy schmancy promoters from Trump Entertainment Resorts didn't spring for pasta or the 1025's excellent chicken or anything else you could sink your teeth into. The fare was coffee or water.

As I wrote at the time, "An event at the 1025 without food is like a great racing machine without an engine.''

There's still no better way to put it.

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