PROVIDENCE, R.I. Rep. Gregory Schadone, D-North Providence, has attacked his opponent in the race for House speaker -- frontrunner and Majority Leader Gordon Fox -- over Fox's tenure on the Providence Board of Licenses.

In a Sunday Providence Journal story about Fox's business dealings with controversial nightclub owner Alex Tomasso, Fox accused his foes in the speaker's race of waging a desperation "whisper'' campaign against him.

Fox was referring to questions about how he navigated potential conflict situations while serving on the Providence Board of Licenses, which regulates nightclubs, while having a business relationship with controversial nightclub owner Alex Tomasso.

Fox, who has also been Tomasso's lawyer, recused himself from board actions against Tomasso's Providence clubs in the two years they were partners in a Warwick bar, from 2006 to 2007, but did vote on matters affecting Tomasso afterward, which Fox said was legitimate under state ethics rules. Fox resigned from the board in December.

Fox said that he was unaware that Tomasso had pleaded no contest in 2000 to possession of cocaine and criminal solicitation, involving Ecstasy that the police said he took from drug dealer in exchange for free admission to one of his nightclubs.

Now, Fox's chief rival for speaker, Schadone, has issued a press release, saying that Fox's association with Tomasso, while acting as a nightclub regulator, "highlight questionable conduct and poor judgment which raises questions about Fox's ability to serve as Speaker of the House.''

"This is exactly the kind of conduct which has frustrated Rhode Islanders and led to a lack of trust in state government,'' said Schadone. "We cannot have leaders in the General Assembly who do not put the public interest first. Even when the Providence Journal confronted Majority Leader Fox about his relationship with Mr. Tomasso, he tried to turn himself into the victim of a whisper campaign by his opponents in the legislature.''

Incumbent Speaker William Murphy has kept the date of his departure as speaker close to the vest. Fox, who claims a commanding lead in votes to become the next speaker, chose not to respond to Schadone's attack.