R.I. GOP leader calls for Democratic House Speaker Mattiello to step down

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Amid GOP calls for his resignation, Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello on Wednesday acknowledged, but also sought to downplay the severity of “the mistakes″ that led the state Board of Elections to order him to repay $72,067.80 in over-the-limit spending that a PAC he controls spent on his 2016 reelection campaign.

“It was a mistake,″ Mattiello told reporters gathered in his State House office Wednesday. “But there was nothing intentionally done wrong ... Some folks are trying to make it into something it’s not.”

“We used the wrong checking account. Everything else was 100 percent appropriate,″ he said. “You determine what the gravity of what the consequences should be.″

Mattiello also denied having any knowledge of the behind-the-scenes machinations of operatives Jeff Britt and Matthew Jerzyk regarding a late-campaign mailer. That mailer told voters in Mattiello’s Cranston House district that Shawna Lawton, the Republican who lost the September 2016 GOP primary, was endorsing him over his Republican opponent, Steven Frias.

Read more: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180425/ri-gop-leader-calls-for-democrat-mattiello-speaker-to-step-down