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.

Matt Jerzyk, over ar RI Future, reports that Speaker Murphy - as expected - is stepping down from his post and endorsing Gordon Fox to replace him:

At a meeting last week of committee chairs, House Speaker Bill Murphy announced that he would not be seeking a fifth term as Speaker. At the same time, he endorsed House Majority Leader Gordon Fox as the next Speaker of the House.

With Speaker William J. Murphy widely expected to step down in a year, the jockeying for position is well under way. Murphy's right hand, Majority Leader Gordon Fox of Providence, is the heir apparent. But Representative Gregory Schadone is waging an increasingly public campaign for the top spot. And Representative Stephen Ucci is in the mix, too.

Reporting for my recent story on crisis pregnancy centers, a sort of pro-life answer to Planned Parenthood, I came across a grand bargain in the General Assembly: a tacit understanding, in place for years, occassionally alluded to in the press, but not as fully aired as it should be.

I had come across it before. Indeed, advocates and legislators on both sides of prickly social issues know it well.

As the race to succeed the late Thomas C. Slater for a seat in the Rhode Island House took shape in recent weeks, observers said backing from the Progressive Leadership Fund - a political action committee representing progressives from the environmental, labor and women's rights communities - could play a decisive role in determining the winner of the Democratic primary.

Paul Doughty, president of the Providence firefighters union, is not running for the Rhode Island House of Representatives seat vacated by the late Thomas Slater. Doughty told N4N minutes ago that he spoke with several people, including some of the other candidates for the seat, over the weekend and decided that he shared views with several of the candidates and did not want to pull votes away from those with similar values.