Hot off the presses, with thanks to Tipster Mom, who watches the 11 o’clock news like whoa: PVD mayor David Cicilline has been asked not to attend HRC’s weekend event here, after firefighters threatened to picket the event over the long running contract dispute with the city.

As you may recall, dear reader, this isn’t the first time the issue has come up: last year, Cicilline stepped down as Clinton’s State Co-Chair after the firefighters threatened to raise hell. At the time, the mayor also said he wouldn’t attend a fundraiser in the Ocean State, also to avoid a picket. Seems like the issue has now come to a head, as Dan Barbarisi reports:

Hillary Clinton has told Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, her former state campaign chair, that he is barred from attending her Rhode Island appearance Sunday afternoon, for fear that his presence would cause disruptive protests by the Providence firefighters union.

Cicilline said he will stay away on Sunday, but this may cause him to question his support for the New York senator, who he has stumped for locally and in New Hampshire during that state’s primary.

“It’s obviously something for me to think about very carefully, because I am very disappointed in the decision of the Clinton campaign. I’m not prepared to say more than that today. I obviously have tremendous respect for Senator Clinton, but I’m very disappointed in the decision of her campaign today,” Cicilline said.

The behind-the-scenes kerfuffle:

The rumbling on this appearance began last week, as local Clinton backers with ties to Cicilline began lobbying the Providence mayor not to attend the event. He said the Clinton campaign also urged him to simply settle with the firefighters so that the issue would not continue to plague her local appearances.

“I was contacted by people from the national campaign and people locally to attempt to get me to cave in to the demands of the firefighters, which I refused to do,” Cicilline said.

When Cicilline said he would do neither, he got a call yesterday from the political director of Clinton’s national campaign, Guy Cecil, who told him not to come.

Cicilline said there was no workable solution here that would allow him to attend.

“There’s no way to make this work that wouldn’t involve caving to the demands of this union,” he said.

Huge implications here, given Mayor Cicilline’s super-D status, and the fact that he has been such a prominent backer. Any chance he’ll flip?

In other news, the “Providence Democratic City Committee Executive Committee” endorses Clinton. While an endorsement by the party old-guard isn’t surprising, there is this tidbit from the HRC press release, also out on Thursday:

The meeting was held this evening at the St. Bart’s Club in the Silver Lake section of Providence. Mayor David Cicilline, a Clinton supporter and superdelegate was on hand to address the council.

Presumably, the final snub happened after the mayor was talking up Hillary’s health care plan at St. Bart’s Club…

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