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WPRO News and the Associated Press
Providence mayor candidate Jorge Elorza is blaming a former adviser for copying wording used by another politician and using it in a letter to city voters explaining Elorza’s shoplifting arrest when he was 18.
Elorza told WPRO News that that he felt the words were truthful, honest and genuine, and that had he did not know they were lifted from another letter.
“There is no way that I would have allowed that letter to go out had I known that the language was borrowed from another letter,” said Elorza.
Opponent Michael Solomon called the charge serious and said there is no room for plagiarism in the mayoral race.
In a statement from his campaign, Solomon called plagiarism a character issue and not equivalent to the ethics investigation into his own financial disclosure statements which he referred to as a “clerical error.”
Language in Elorza’s letter is nearly identical to wording in a letter by Central Falls Mayor James Diossa to constituents two years ago explaining his own shoplifting arrest as a teenager.
Elorza’s campaign said its former adviser also worked on Diossa’s letter. Elorza and Diossa said the stealing incidents were youthful mistakes and they took full responsibility.
