Now that Salvatore DiMasi has been indicted on federal charges, local lawmakers who voted to re-elect him speaker of the Massachusetts House in January say hindsight is 20/20.

"There was absolutely no substantiation of anything (in January), and so I have to act with the facts that are presented before me," said State Rep. Barbara L'Italien, D-Andover, "and there were no facts, so I did cast my vote for Sal DiMasi."

The only local representative to vote against DiMasi's re-election was David Torrisi, D-North Andover.

DiMasi overwhelmingly won re-election to the top spot in the House of Representatives, despite a cloud of controversy. DiMasi later resigned, and now this week, a federal grand jury indicted him on eight charges.

"I think that hindsight is always 20/20," L'Italien said.

DiMasi and three associates were indicted Tuesday on charges they conspired to help a software company win $20 million in state contracts and to conceal money they received from the company. A 33-page indictment accuses him of conspiracy to defraud the federal government, mail fraud and wire fraud.

DiMasi has proclaimed his innocence.

Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury, said the media, not prosecutors, were leveling the allegations against DiMasi at the time of the vote to make him speaker for a third term.

"You only can go on the information that you have at the time. It was a really tough vote," she said.

"If what happened yesterday came out three months ago, my vote would have been different," said Rep. Barry Finegold, D-Andover.

"I'm constantly, as an elected official, confronted by innuendo upon which I do not base any of my votes," said Rep. Linda Dean Campbell, D-Methuen.

Campbell said DiMasi "emphatically denied" the allegations prior to the vote to re-elect him.

Torrisi said yesterday that he didn't know back in January that DiMasi would end up being indicted, but media reports had "painted a very troubling picture." He said lawmakers are now "saddened and disappointed" by the indictments.

"It's a brazen abuse of power, if these allegations are true," he said. "Seems like it was an extensive operation, to say the least."

The situation doesn't help politicians' images.

"I think the public is cynical to start with," Torrisi said. "With some other politicians in this state and other states, other public and appointed officials being convicted of wrongdoing, it just creates an atmosphere of distrust. It's such a small minority of elected officials, but we're all painted with the same broad brush. It's unfortunate and I think it's sad."

The House and Senate are working on ethics reform bills, but the reality is, "If someone is as brazen as these allegations show," Torrisi said, "the toughest ethics bill in the world is not going to do a lick of good."

"It's the person themselves, it's not the laws," he said.

Torrisi said the mood wasn't good at the State House yesterday.

"It's not a good day to be an elected official," he said. "Everyone around the building is holding their heads a little bit lower today."

The Massachusetts Republican Party seized the opportunity to issue a press release titled "House Democrats Accountable for Corruption."

They said 32 Democrats "hit the trifecta" by voting for three speakers right before each speaker was indicted. They included a score card showing that of the 135 Democrats who voted to re-elect DiMasi, 32 had also supported the re-elections of Tom Finneran and Charlie Flaherty as speakers prior to their respective federal indictments.

Locally, Stanley and Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Haverhill, voted for all three, and William Lantigua, D-Lawrence, voted for Finneran and DiMasi.

"House Democrats have a pattern of extremely poor judgment when choosing leaders, and it has hurt the people of Massachusetts who are saddled with higher taxes to pay for corrupt government," Massachusetts GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Nassour said in the press release. "Every one of the 135 House Democrats knew of the multiple federal and state investigations into Speaker DiMasi, and yet they voted to re-elect him as speaker."

"I didn't know anything factual except what I read in a few newspaper articles," said Dempsey. "I'm deeply disturbed and troubled by the allegations that are in the indictment. But the information was not available when we voted for DiMasi. If I had known about the charges then, I wouldn't have voted for him. But that wasn't the case."

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