In his final months as Rhode Island Senate president, the late Dominick Ruggerio continued to rake in campaign donations, according to the first-quarter report filed with the Rhode Island Board of Elections Wednesday.
Ruggerio died on April 21. But his campaign finance account, and its $148,000 balance, lives on, with state law laying out a host of options for how the remains of his war chest can be spent. The balance — aside from any loans or debt that needs to be repaid — can be used to support other candidates, political parties and political action committees, donated to charity, or the money can be returned to the donor.
There’s no deadline by which a deceased officeholder or candidate’s campaign account must be closed, as long as there’s still a treasurer willing to administer the funds and file quarterly reports with the state elections board.
Jim Aceto, Ruggerio’s brother-in-law, who was named as his campaign finance treasurer in 2008, said the family had not decided what to do with Ruggerio’s campaign funds.
“We’re not even thinking about that,” Aceto said in an interview Thursday.
Only one other campaign finance account remains open and active for a deceased officeholder or candidate, said Ric Thornton, the state elections board campaign finance director.
Former Warwick Mayor Joe Solomon died in May 2021, but his son, Rep. Joe Solomon Jr., has maintained the account as its designated treasurer since his dad’s death. The older Solomon has over $67,000 cash on hand in his account, though no new donations have been made since his death. The campaign has spent money one time since May 2021, making a $500 donation in September 2024 to St. George Maronite Catholic Church in Cranston for a memorial, according to the report filed with the state elections board.
Solomon Jr., a Warwick Democrat first elected in 2014, did not return multiple calls for comment.
A third account for a deceased officeholder, former Cranston City Council President John E. Lanni Jr., remains open but inactive. After deducting bank fees, the remaining $1,200 balance was transferred to the state’s unclaimed property account, overseen by the Office of the General Treasurer, following Lanni’s death in 2020, Thornton said. Lois Lanni, John Lanni’s wife and the treasurer for his campaign account, died in 2019.
Prior to his death, Ruggerio missed most of the 2025 legislative session due to illness, including two stays at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in his North Providence district. But the 76-year-old Democrat, reelected to the Senate for the 40th time in November, nonetheless received a strong show of financial support from fellow officeholders, labor and business leaders.
Ruggerio reported nearly $93,000 in donations in the first three months of 2025, including $64,000 from individual donors and nearly $29,000 from political action committees. His financial supporters included local auto body shop owners, Bally’s Corp. lobbyists, and two of his predecessors: former Senate Presidents Billy Irons and Teresa Paiva-Weed, who donated $300 and $250, respectively. Gov. Dan McKee gave $1,000 to Ruggerio, while McKee’s 2022 Republican rival, Ashley Kalus, donated $150.
Ruggerio spent more than $65,400 from his campaign account in the first three months of the year, including more than $31,000 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick on Feb. 5 for a political fundraiser.
Ruggerio also contributed to many fellow lawmakers. He gave $1,000 to Sen. Val Lawson, the East Providence Democrat who was his majority leader, and elected Tuesday to succeed Ruggerio as president. Ruggerio also gave $500 to Sen. Frank Ciccone, a Providence Democrat tapped as the new majority leader. Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican who voted for herself in the leadership election among state senators Tuesday, received a $100 donation from Ruggerio’s campaign.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
