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Gerard Catala, new NAACP president, charged with campaign violations in city council run
The newly elected President of the NAACP-Providence Chapter, Gerard Catala, was charged with violating state campaign finance laws in his run for Providence City Council, by the RI Attorney General, and was arraigned yesterday.
Catala was elected president of the local NAACP organization in a controversial election managed by the national NAACP office in Washington, DC, resulting in the ouster of longtime president Jim Vincent, by 14 votes.
Vincent, reached last night said, “I am very concerned that the campaign finance criminal charges regarding President Catala will greatly harm the reputation and effectiveness of the NAACP Providence Branch.”
From the office of RI Attorney General Peter F. Neronha:
“Former city council candidate Gerard Catala charged with violating state campaign finance law
An indictment, information, or complaint is merely an allegation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and Colonel Darnell S. Weaver announced today former Providence city council candidate Gerard Catala has been charged with violating state campaign finance laws.
On January 26, 2023, Gerard Catala (age 44) was arraigned by a Justice of the Peace at the Rhode Island State Police barracks on two charges of failing to file campaign finance reports as required by state law. Mr. Catala will be re-arraigned in Sixth Division District Court on Tuesday, January 31.
As alleged in the charging documents, the defendant was charged with knowingly and willfully failing to file two required finance reports, stemming from his candidacy for the Ward 9 city council seat in the 2022 election.
“As I have stated previously, this Office is committed to stepping in at the request of the Board of Elections when candidates for public office blithely and repeatedly ignore the Rhode Island’s campaign finance laws,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha. “Those laws exist for many reasons, among them to provide transparency into how candidates are financing their campaigns and whether they are doing so legally. Failure to file such reports, after repeated directives from the Board of Elections to file them, can lead only to one place: criminal prosecution. I am grateful to the Board of Elections for their strong partnership with this Office, and to the State Police for their usual excellent investigative work in this case.”
In 2022, the Board of Elections referred this matter to the Office of the Attorney General and the Rhode Island State Police for investigation. As alleged in court documents filed today, the referral from the Board of Election followed repeated failures by Mr. Catala to timely file required campaign finance reports, despite having received numerous communications from the Board of Elections regarding filing requirements.
As alleged in court documents, the defendant failed to file a required campaign finance report for candidates due 28 days before the primary (August 16, 2022) and a second required campaign finance report due seven days before the primary (September 6, 2022). It is alleged that despite numerous communications from the Board of Elections, the defendant failed to file either required report. Prosecution of earlier alleged failures to file required reports are barred by the applicable statute of limitations.
As of today, as alleged in court documents, the defendant has yet to file either of the required reports.”
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NAACP Providence Branch election issue
The news that Vincent lost an online election held by the national office stunned many leaders in the Rhode Island community. Vincent had served for over a dozen years with 6 terms of office. The community was silent in response for some time, which included Vincent. People used the words “apparent”, “unofficial”, “strange”, “inexplicable” and “awkward voting rules” with “lots of unanswered questions” to describe the vote process – and the outcome.
About 5 minutes before the vote was to start, Gerard Catala sent and email out to what appeared to be a members’ list (received by the publisher of RINewsToday, who is a member and has never heard or received an email before by Catala). It was titled, “Please vote Gerard Catala for NAACP President. I humbly ask for your vote”, introducing himself and including photos of his family/children. Sources tell RINewsToday that the member list must have been shared with Catala prior to the election.
A week or so later an analysis was sent out by the voting company to those who voted.
Vincent said about the election, “I am disappointed that after 12 years of hard, dedicated work, the Branch membership, inexplicably, decided to go in a different direction. I’m not going anywhere! I will continue to serve my community.”
Many requests were made to the NAACP office locally, nationally, and to Mr. Catala since the vote – up until last week and none were responded to except for a notification of an NAACP meeting held earlier this month.
The request to review potential campaign finance law violations was made to the Attorney General by the RI Board of Elections and the allegations against Catala were public at the time of the NAACP election.
Catala, and the NAACP have not responded to our request for comment.
This is a developing story.
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