01:00 AM EDT on Monday, October 27, 2008

By Katie Mulvaney

Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — Acting Town Council President James M. Mageau despises political correctness.

“It’s phony,” he says, leaning, arms folded, back in his chair at a local diner. “It’s a phony way of living.”

He’s quick to brand fellow town leaders and community members as mean-spirited, even evil. Politics, he says, is adversarial business.

“Ever since I’ve been old enough to fight, I’ve been fighting,” Mageau adds with a grin, peering through wire-rimmed glasses. Now 69, he puts that fighting age at 11.

During his two years on the Town Council, Mageau has earned a reputation as a firebrand politician, ready to lash out at friends as well as enemies. The term, his first, has been marked by shouting matches, personal attacks, and political gridlock. And just weeks after being convicted of assaulting a resident by pushing the man’s video camera — Mageau is appealing the conviction — he is the lone council member asking voters to return him to office.

“It will send a very loud message that we don’t have to be subject to intimidation,” says Mageau, whose campaign motto is, “He fights for you.”

Mageau, a retired manufacturer’s representative, has proven a polarizing figure in this otherwise sleepy coastal community that blends the working class with wealthy second-home owners and retirees.

Within six months of being elected, Mageau so galvanized his detractors they formed a group intent on recalling him from office and restoring what they termed “good government” to the town. The Charlestown Citizens Alliance, as the group is called, relented days before taking the issue to the state’s high court, but only after town officials suggested a commission would explore adding a recall provision to the Town Charter. His opponents called it the Mageau Clause.

“Jim Mageau has a long history in Charlestown, and none of it has been good,” says Ruth Platner, Planning Commission chairwoman, who sits on the alliance’s steering committee.

THE SECOND-YOUNGEST of 10 children, Mageau (pronounced “May-joe”) was raised on Town Dock Road, at the edge of Ninigret Pond. He returned to his hometown in 1973, after stints in the military and working in Chicago.

“I’ve forgotten more about Charlestown than most of these people know,” Mageau says of the alliance, which bills itself as 400 members strong and is backing a slate of five opposing candidates next month.

Mageau began his council term allied with Councilmen John O. Craig and Bruce W. Picard, with votes often split 3 to 2. Residents packed council chambers jeering at the three as a split council dismantled the town attorney structure and appointed Robert E. Craven town solicitor in what was described as a cost-savings move. They mocked Mageau for not paying property taxes. He rents a house across from Town Hall.

“The notion that you have to be a taxpayer to defend taxpayers’ rights … is part of a pseudo-elitist attitude,” Mageau says. Critics cast Picard as “Mrs. Mageau” and “Mageau’s shadow” — to Mageau’s disgust.

Tensions mounted as Mageau regularly slung darts with council members Harriet Allen and Katharine H. Waterman.

At the same time, he and alliance members traded insults as well as allegations. Mageau filed a suit, later dismissed, accusing 17 residents of launching a campaign of threats, harassment and defamation against him. Five Open Meetings Law complaints were lodged against the council. The attorney general’s office found violations in four — all filed by the alliance involving actions by Mageau, Craig and Picard.

THE POWER BLOC began unraveling in June with Craig’s resignation, though Mageau inherited the leadership chair. An agreement couldn’t be reached on Craig’s replacement, often spelling political deadlock for the four remaining members.

And Picard, too, began occasionally breaking away. Most recently he voted in opposition to Mageau to put a $5.5-million land purchase before voters this fall.

“I don’t require him to vote with me on every issue,” Mageau says, adding that he and Picard still agree on “a number of issues.”

Mageau’s opposition to that land deal raises the alliance’s ire. While Mageau says the economic downturn and reluctance to take the property off the tax rolls drove his vote, some alliance members argue his stance is evidence of a pro-development and pro-casino bent. They fear the land could become home to a Narragansett Indian casino, if the state loses a pending U.S. Supreme Court appeal.

“Fear of a casino is absurd,” says Mageau. “They are so narrow-minded … We should recognize the Narragansett Indian tribe as an asset to the community.” He insists federal Indian gaming law prevents the site from becoming home to a casino.

Indeed, Mageau’s memory runs deep. He easily recites case law and says he was involved in helping reach the land claims settlement that gave the Narragansett Indians their 1,800 acres in Charlestown three decades ago. He was once named an honorary tribal member, he says.

He views himself as a champion of taxpayers, saying he represents the little guy. To the alliance, his actions place him at odds with the town.

“Even if Mr. Mageau’s behavior had been normal, his interests are not the town’s interests,” says Platner, who is running again for the Planning Commission.

MAGEAU RUNS as a Democrat — his opponents mostly style themselves as independents — and alliance members blame residents voting the straight Democratic ticket for his win two years ago, so much so they are trying to eliminate the single-party vote option statewide.

“There’s a lot at stake in this election,” says Daniel Slattery, alliance president. “People do not want to see a predetermined voting bloc.”

But Mageau has even been on the rocks with his own party. After leading the Democratic Town Committee for 14 years, he split with that group in 2002 amid personal conflicts. He did not seek the committee’s endorsement in this year’s race.

“He said he didn’t want anything to do with us,” said Henry Walsh, the committee’s current chair.

Mageau, however, is poised to take the committee reins again in January after being one of only two Democrats to file nomination papers.

It’s hard to gauge whether the town’s almost 6,000 voters will return Mageau to the council on Nov. 4, when even his own party seems reluctant to align itself with him after a tumultuous two years.

“I don’t want to be politically associated with him,” says Walsh, who is running for town moderator, and whose wife, Donna, is seeking reelection as a Democratic state representative. “He gets behind the council table and, holy cow, he sure does know how to irritate people.”

Mageau says that, in the end, he will benefit from all the news coverage those years yielded.

“The name of this game is name recognition. I’m almost as good as Barack Obama,” he says, adding quickly, “I’m joking.”

Even so, voters next week will also consider a change to the Town Charter that would allow elected officials to be recalled.

CHARLESTOWN COUNCIL CANDIDATES

Democrats: James M. Mageau, Ralph C. Conti and Raymond Stanley Dreczko Jr.**

Republicans: Charlene W. Dunn* ** and Forrester C. Safford* **

Independents: Gregory J. Avedisian*, Frank L. Bradbury, Marjorie F. Frank* and Richard H. Hosp*

* endorsed by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance

** endorsed by the party

kmulvane@projo.com