Buddy Cianci, twice a convict, wants to be Providence mayor again

Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., the former mayor of Providence, R.I. who left office in handcuffs in 2002 when he was convicted for racketeering conspiracy, wants his old office back.

Cianci said during his radio show Wednesday that with a sense of “humility, contrition, and confidence” he would be seeking a seventh term as mayor.

“I am mindful of the intense public and media scrutiny that will be placed upon my third administration. I welcome it,” he said. “I am mindful that people will expect more from me than from any other candidate for public office in Rhode Island. They will not be disappointed.”

Cianci was first elected mayor in 1974. A decade later, he left office after he was convicted of using a fireplace log and lit cigarette to attack a man he believed was having an affair with his estranged wife.

In 1990, he ran for mayor again and won. He served until 2002, when he was convicted as part of sprawling FBI investigation dubbed Operation Plunderdome into corruption at City Hall. He served 4 1/2 years in prison.

He was diagnosed in January with cancer and has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments, but says he is in good health now, the Associated Press reports.

Two years ago, director David O. Russell announced his involvement in a biopic of Cianci’s colorful life. The film, according to 2012 reports, will based on the former mayor’s 2011 memoir “Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Advised a President, Dined With Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community and Lived to Tell the Tale.”

The project is listed on IMDB as being “in development.”

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