In a General Assembly not exactly known for moral rectitude: an outbreak of ethics. Majority Leader Gordon Fox, who has a large ethics fine in his past, is proposing a constitutional amendment - to be approved by voters - that would restore Ethics Commission oversight of legislators after a controversial state Supreme Court ruling last summer stripped much of it away.

The Rhode Island Republican Party's scuffle over a platform that would embrace candidates with moderate positions on social issues like abortion is, perhaps, the worst signal the state GOP could send at this moment.

Anti-incumbent feeling is brewing nationwide as the economy continues to struggle and health care reform tumbles in the polls.

The Rhode Island Tea Party, seeking to move from protest movement to political force, has posted its plan of action after an organizational meeting that drew 180 people, according to the organization.

The conservative group is envisioning a decentralized movement, with a focus on largely autonomous town branches that will conduct citizen audits of municipal finances and "issue committees" that will study education, labor, and other topics of interest.

ProJo reporter Randall Edgar, who has been covering Cranston of late, will take Cynthia Needham's spot in the State House bureau, columnist Bob Kerr tells us.

Needham left the post in recent weeks to become the paper's chief economics reporter, leaving a hole in the three-person bureau.

The ProJo has maintained its three-member State House bureau amid heavy cuts elsewhere, maintaining a workmanlike focus on parliamentary goings-on.

The Rhode Island Tea Party, attempting to move from protest vehicle to political force, has scheduled an open meeting November 24 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Warwick Public Library.

As I wrote in a cover story in the Phoenix a few weeks back, part of the challenge for the movement will be organizing a group of anti-establishment types.

Maine voters overturned same-sex marriage legislation yesterday in what is, undoubtedly, a blow to the national movement for gay nuptials. And the vote could have some impact in Rhode Island which, until yesterday, was the only New England state that failed to recognize same-sex marriage.

Momentum matters in politics, after all.

This just in from the Secretary of State's office on the race to succeed State Representative Elizabeth Dennigan, who has stepped down to challenge Congressman Jim Langevin:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis announced today that just three of the four candidates who filed to run for Elizabeth Dennigan’s former House seat have officially qualified to appear on the Dec.

The ProJo has an item in its political scene column today about Senator Frank Ciccone reviving his push to turn the part-time General Assembly into a full-time legislature - of smaller size and larger pay.

There are two reasons the push is likely to fail: a lot of politicians would lose their jobs in a shrinking legislature and in a cash-strapped state, the public probably has little appetite for growing the pay of the pols who helped get lil Rhody in its big mess.

Sources say State Representative Peter Kilmartin, Democrat of Pawtucket, is set to run for Attorney General next year. N4N first reported Kilmartin's interest in the post in June.

Kilmartin, a former police officer-turned-lawyer who did not return calls for comment, will be able to draw on his professional background and long service as a legislator in making a case for the job.

It's official. The field of candidates to replace State Representative Elizabeth Dennigan, who is challenging Congressman Jim Langevin, is set. This just in from the Secretary of State's office:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis announced today that four candidates have officially filed to run for Elizabeth Dennigan’s former House seat.

Most on Smith Hill believe that Majority Leader Gordon Fox will be the next Speaker of the House. But there is quite a bit of jockeying to replace Fox as the number two in the chamber.

The latest intelligence from Smith Hill: Deputy Majority Leader J. Patrick O'Neill, a Pawtucket Democrat, could be in line to be the next majority leader.

Scott A. Slater's landslide victory yesterday in the Democratic primary for his late father's seat in the state's House of Representatives points to the enduring power of name recognition.

Even with a higher-than-expected turnout, which might bode well for challengers, Slater racked up nearly 50 percent of the vote.

Perpetually at odds with the Democratic legislature and pushing further and further into his lame-duck period, Governor Carcieri rarely has an opportunity to claim a high-profile victory. But he gets that opportunity today, with members of a key state workers' union signing off on a cost-cutting deal that will impose a temporary pay cut in a bid to cover a portion of the state's budget shortfall.

State Representative Elizabeth Dennigan's announcement, last night, that she is resigning her seat to focus on her primary challenge to Congressman Jim Langevin came with an interesting bit of icing - an endorsement from Gordon Fox, majority leader in the state's House of Representatives.

The endorsement is not terribly surprising.

There, at the end of the Projo's piece on House Speaker William J. Murphy's decision to step down from his post after 2010 and endorse Majority leader Gordon Fox as his successor, is this note:

Murphy commented after a report about his Capriccio dinner announcement surfaced on the RIFuture.org blog.

It was a small acknowledgment of a new reality.