"It's time for a change," said Rep. Deborah Ruggiero, chairman of the House's small-business committee, in declaring Wednesday that she will not vote to reinstate Mattiello as speaker should he win his reelection bid.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The ground is shifting under House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello's feet.

On Wednesday, Rep. Deborah Ruggiero, who as the House's small-business committee chairwoman is a member of Mattiello's State House leadership team, declared publicly that she will not vote to reinstate him as speaker in January, should he win reelection in his home district in Cranston.

“It is time for a change," said Ruggiero, who represents Jamestown and parts of Middletown. "What we need is a leadership team in the House that is focused on issues, respects women and will bring bills to the floor in a timely matter."

Voicing her personal frustration at the lack of action on bottled-up bills on her own top-priority list, Ruggiero said: "Important bills need to be debated — gun safety in our schools, sexual harassment ... the statute of limitations on sexual-abuse cases, a woman’s right to make her own health-care and reproductive choices, and line-item veto.”

As unusual as Ruggiero's statement was for any Democrat in the 75-member, Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, it made her the fifth Democrat in recent days to renounce Mattiello's leadership style.

First came freshman Rep. Moira Walsh, the Providence progressive whom Mattiello tried — and failed — to take out by publicly supporting the ex-Republican Trump voter who challenged her in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary. Then came Representatives Mary Duffy Messier of Pawtucket, Jason Knight of Barrington and John Lombardi of Providence.

Having survived a primary challenge, Walsh is now running unopposed, as are Messier and Lombardi. Knight still faces a challenge from independent Daryl Gould. Ruggiero faces Republican Rebecca Schiff a second time, after beating her by 227 votes in 2016.

Ruggiero's comments about Mattiello drew this response from her Republican opponent in House District 74:

“I find it implausible that my 10-year incumbent opponent Deb Ruggiero is favoring change by opposing the leadership of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. ... She has voted 98 percent of the time with the same party leadership that she now denounces.

"Her lock-step votes with Mattiello and party leadership created the corruption, cronyism, and complacency that has disabled our state legislature...

She, not Mattiello, chairs the House Committee on Small Business at the State House. Ruggiero has done nothing to improve the conditions for small business owners in Rhode Island."

Mattiello campaign spokeswoman Patti Doyle had this response in an email: "It's unfortunate that Rep. [Ruggiero] is blatantly misrepresenting the Speaker's record of accomplishments for her own self interests and election preservation."

"As the Speaker noted two days ago, we expect a few more progressives to voice opposition to his Speakership primarily because they are not part of the core group of House members who promote jobs and the economy. Rep. [Ruggiero] is one such representative, so her opposition is not at all surprising. To suggest as she did, however, that this Speaker is not focused on women's issues is disingenuous at best, and politics at its worst," Doyle wrote.

"In this last session alone," Doyle wrote, "the Speaker fought for complete health insurance coverage for mastectomies.... He supported legislation to obtain one year of full birth control as opposed to going back every 30 days, and passed a version of pay equity legislation for women."

Only a handful of lawmakers responded to a Journal survey Wednesday about what they would do if the vote for speaker were held now. Rep. David Coughlin, of Pawtucket, who did not seek reelection, wrote: "I'd unequivocally and without a second thought vote to re-elect Nick Mattiello, House Speaker.

But a sixth lawmaker — running for reelection unopposed — came down on the other side.

"If the vote was held today or tomorrow I would Vote NO!! to reinstate Nicholas Mattiello. Its time to move the House of Representative in a new Direction. The people of this state put a lot of trust in us to do what's right," wrote Rep. Raymond Hull, D-Providence.

Rep. Stephen Casey, D-Woonsocket, hit "reply all" with an email urging his colleagues not to respond. His rationale: doing so might be construed as a "rolling quorum" that violates the state's open-meetings law. He later indicated to The Journal that he stands by Mattiello.

Mattiello won his last election as speaker on a 63-to-11 party-line vote, with every Democrat present on the first day of the 2017-18 session voting for him.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Mattiello's Republican challenger in Cranston's House District 15 questioned the "disconnect" between Mattiello's statements during a TV debate with him in 2016 and what has since come out about the role one of his key campaign aides, Jeff Britt, had in producing a mailer endorsing Mattiello.

On Tuesday, the state Board of Elections referred to the attorney general a possible violation by Britt of the state law against candidates coordinating with individuals and groups supposedly making totally "independent expenditures" on their behalf that exceed the $1,000 cap on individual contributions to a candidate.

"What did the Speaker know and when did he know it," said Frias in a news release that recalled what Mattiello said about the Shawna Lawton mailer-controversy when asked about it during the WPRI debate.

At that time, Mattiello said: "Nobody in my campaign has any knowledge of that issue."

Since then, Britt and former State House lawyer Matthew Jerzyk have supplied the Board of Elections with affidavits. As to how he got involved, and why he contacted Brad DuFault at Checkmate Consulting to handle the mailer, Jerzek wrote: “Jeff Britt said to me that Shawna Lawton was endorsing Nicholas Mattiello and wanted to do a mailer supporting [Mattiello]."

Doyle said: "Speaker Mattiello was exonerated by the Board of Elections in April because he had no knowledge of the mailer and had nothing to do with it."

— kgregg@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @kathyprojo