Projo Politics Blog

While their leaders have promised action on some very big issues this year, including a rewrite of the state’s prison sentencing laws, lawmakers’ attention so far has focused on many more parochial bills.

Take H5538.

The bill marks former Senate Majority Whip Anthony Marciano’s renewed attempt to win a special license plate.

The bill is not limited to Marciano, D-North Providence. Broadened since it was first introduced more than a decade ago, it now says: “The administrator of the division of motor vehicles is directed to make available to all former Senate majority whips … a special motor vehicle registration plate carrying as a courtesy the phrase ‘Senate Majority Whip Emeritus.’ ”

On the eve of a House committee hearing on the bill last week, Rep. Arthur Corvese, D-North Providence, acknowledged filing it at Marciano’s request. Aligned with former Senate Majority Leader John Bevilacqua, Marciano served from 1979 until 1994 when he opted out to make a failed run to replace political legend Salvatore Mancini as North Providence mayor. Discredited former Sen. John A. Celona took his place in the Senate.

The House Committee on Constituent Services opted to hold the bill for further study. And Marciano could not be reached for comment on his 12-year-long crusade for a special plate. But Political Scene first wrote about Marciano’s bid for the plate in February 1995 when it was introduced by another North Providence Democrat, Montalbano, the current Senate president. At the time, Montalbano said, he introduced the bill because Marciano desrved “recognition for his years of public service.”

---