PROVIDENCE � Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon D. Fox, enveloped by an apparent criminal investigation, announced Saturday that he has resigned his leadership post.

He fell in a lightning-quick series of events that began Friday with investigators, armed with search warrants in a probe of an undisclosed matter, taking boxes of evidence from his State House office and his East Side home.

�The Rhode Island House of Representatives is an institution that I deeply respect and serving my constituents has been a major part of my life for the past 22 years,� Fox said in a statement. �I will not let yesterday�s events distract my colleagues from addressing the challenges facing Rhode Island.

�Because of the respect I have for all members of the House of Representatives, I am resigning as Speaker. The process of governing must continue and the transition of leadership must be conducted in an orderly manner.

"... That said, I do not intend to seek another term in the House."

Fox spokesman Bill Fischer said the resignation, for all intents and purposes, takes effect immediately.

As the resignation sent shock waves through the political world, Nicholas A. Mattiello, leader of the Democratic House majority, said there will be an election for a new speaker on Tuesday and that he has the votes to win.

Mattiello said he has already asked Rep. John DeSimone, D-Providence, who in the past had his own ambition to become speaker, to be majority leader in his place should he win the top spot.

�It�s a sad day for Rhode Island,� said Mattiello, a 50-year-old Cranston resident and lawyer who does mostly personal injury and Family Court work. But he said Fox did the right thing � �absolutely� � by quitting because the raid by federal and state law enforcement officials and a vacuum of information had cast �a cloud� over the House.

Col. Steven G. O�Donnell, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, said the raids and the preceding investigations were joint operations by the state police and federal law enforcement agencies.

Members of the state police and federal agents executed the search warrants at Fox�s home and office, O�Donnell said Saturday, clearing up some confusion about which agencies were involved in which raids.

O�Donnell said state police investigations often result in joint operations and federal charges, especially �if it�s any type of corruption case or political person.� In such cases, he said federal prosecution is often preferable because �the guidelines are better for the punishment.�

He declined to disclose why the authorities are investigating Fox, and whether Fox is the target of the investigation or merely someone with evidence of crimes committed by others. But he said the former speaker is not in the dark.

�Fox knows what�s going on,� O�Donnell said. �He�s certainly aware of what happened� Friday and why it happened.

O�Donnell explained the timing of the raid, including the search of Fox�s State House office during business hours during the legislative session. He said investigators searched as soon as they had established enough probable cause to obtain a warrant. Delaying would not be wise, he said. �If we didn�t go in, we might lose it.�

The search of the speaker�s office may be unprecedented, according to the colonel.

�I don�t remember ever seeing the state police execute a search warrant� there, he said.

O�Donnell would not specify what investigators were looking for or what they found.

Fox, a lawyer and former member of the Providence Board of Licenses, who has recently represented clients in licensing cases and worked on loans related to a city agency called the Providence Economic Development Partnership, would not address the probe.

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There was a momentary public sighting of Fox Saturday, only the second since the storm broke Friday afternoon. After having been hunkered down for about 22 hours in his house on Gorton Street, a white-painted brick colonial with an Asian garden in front near Blackstone Boulevard, he emerged just before noon.

He spoke briefly with reporters, who had staked out his house. Fox apologized for effectively forcing them to lie in wait outside his house, but said he could not discuss anything to do with the raids.

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�I�ll talk to all of you when it�s appropriate,� he said, adding that that would not be on Saturday.

In the statement, emailed by Fischer to the news media at 5:15 p.m., Fox said, �I want to thank my colleagues and loyal staff for all that we were able to accomplish together. I will continue to serve out the remainder of my term and represent my neighbors and constituents in District 4. That said, I do not intend to seek another term in the House.

�My personal focus going forward will be on my family and dealing with the investigation. Because of the nature of this matter, I will not be commenting further.�

Asked about Fox�s state of mind and emotions, Fischer would say only, �The speaker certainly has had a number of calls today from friends and supporters.� Fischer is a longtime Democratic Party aide and a crisis-management specialist who Fox called for help in drafting his statement.

A formal step remains, Fischer acknowledged: Fox needs to submit a letter of resignation to the secretary of state.

The resignation does not automatically elevate Mattiello. According to House rules, from the moment Fox�s resignation is official until the election of a new speaker, Rep. Elaine A. Coderre, speaker pro tempore, would preside. The Pawtucket Democrat, first elected in 1984, is the longest serving member of the House.

Mattiello said Saturday night, �The only way you can have a new speaker is through an election by the members of the House� when the House reconvenes, as it is scheduled to do Tuesday.

�I respect and wish Gordon Fox well in all of his future endeavors. I respect the fact that he put the state of Rhode Island and the House of Representatives at the�forefront of his consideration��

Mattiello contended that he has more than the 38 votes necessary to become the next speaker of the 75-member chamber.

While Mattiello was presiding over a �Democratic caucus�� at the Marriott on Friday night � to which some high-profile Democrats said they were never invited � another group of Democrats gathered at Costantino�s Ristorante on Federal Hill.

Some of the people there when The Providence Journal arrived were: Representatives J. Patrick O�Neill, a former House Majority Whip who publicly broke ranks with Fox several years ago, Jan Malik, Michael Marcello, Karen MacBeth, James McLaughlin, Gregory Costantino, Stephen Casey, and Anastasia Williams.

Asked if he would like to be the next speaker if Fox is forced to resign by the events that led state and federal investigators to execute a search warrant at his home and State House office on Friday, O�Neill said: �Yes.��

But he acknowledged others at the table also hoped to move up the leadership ranks.

Others envision a leadership team topped by Representatives Blazejewski, Ucci, Helio Melo and Arthur Corvese that spans the liberal-to-conservative divide. Melo is the current House Finance chairman.

Marcello � who chairs the House Oversight Committee � said earlier in the day Friday that if events lead to new leadership in the House, he too wanted to be a part of it.

Marcello said he sees a need for �dramatic change� in how the House �is staffed and run,�� more professional staff to help with research and ideas and a reinvigorated committee process with more up or down votes on bills.

WPRI reported Saturday that Marcello believes he has enough votes to be speaker.

The scramble for power among Democrats leaves the tiny House Republican caucus � just six members � wondering if they will be in a position of influence.

They spent the afternoon with representatives of three Democratic factions, all of whom are vying for GOP support for their candidate.

Sitting around a large table in the basement office of Rep. Joseph Trillo of Warwick � and sometimes fortified by pepperoni and cheese pizza � the factions were asked by Minority Leader Brian Newberry and other Republicans if they would be willing to change the way the state does business.

Trillo said they got varying degrees of agreement from the three groups, which he identified as the Mattiello group, the Blazejewski-Ucci group (referring to Rep. Christopher R. Blazejewski, of Providence, currently deputy majority whip, and Majority Whip Rep. Stephen R. Ucci, of Johnston, and a group of independent uncommitted Democrats.

�Everyone says they�re close� to having the necessary votes, Trillo said. �It�s how to count.�

�From the Republican standpoint, we wanted to see which candidate would best support the Republican ideals to help small businesses and create jobs� and reduce the influence of labor unions, Trillo said. �We want to see a reset at the State House.�

He said one faction seemed receptive to those ideas, the others less so.

But, he cautioned, �these are politicians B.S.-ing politicians.�

At that point in the day, Fox had not yet resigned. But Trillo said there was no debate that Fox�s tenure was effectively over. Of the 45 to 50 House members he has spoken with since�Friday, he said, every one has said Fox must go.

�No one has said he can survive this. He no longer has the support of anybody I�ve talked to,� said Trillo. �Fox is as dead as dead can be. Stick a fork in him.�

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With reports from Journal writers C. Eugene Emery Jr., Randal Edgar and Paul Edward Parker