Republican Congressional candidate Brendan Doherty's decision, last month, to hire former Rhode Island GOP Chairman Giovanni Cicione as his campaign manager and spokesman has created an interesting subplot in his simmering primary battle with former state Representative John J. Loughlin II.

Cicione, after all, is something of a controversial figure in Republican circles.

With election season just around the corner, the focus has been on Congressman David Cicilline and his opponents - Republican and, possibly, Democratic.

But it appears that Congressman James Langevin may have at least one Republican opponent. Michael Riley, who ran unsuccessfully for Narragansett Town Council in 2008 and lost a GOP primary for the state Senate seat held by Democrat James Sheehan last year, has been telling Republican activists that he is planning a Congressional run.

Occupy Providence is getting the ink, but the Rhode Island Tea Party keeps plugging along. The latest: the group is sponsoring a boot camp for potential candidates next month that will bring in trainers from the non-profit American Majority.

The group, based in Purcellville, Virginia, is the brainchild of twin brothers Ned and Drew Ryun, sons of former Congressman Jim Ryun, a Kansas Republican.

Former Rhode Island GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione is among the consultants retired police Col. Brendan Doherty has named to his campaign team for the Republican primary in the First Congressional District.

Cicione has been talking up Doherty's candidacy for some time now and critiquing former state Representative John J.

Word on Smith Hill is that Representative Daniel Gordon, despite his extensive legal problems, is unlikely to be booted from the General Assembly.

Minority Leader Brian Newberry and Minority Whip Joseph Trillo have suggested the legislature turn its rarely invoked power to expel against Gordon, a fellow Republican.

Republican Senate candidate Barry Hinckley has struggled to get his name in the news to date. Today, a little help: Representative Daniel Gordon, hauled into court on charges of fleeing justice in Massachusetts, had a single word emblazoned on his t-shirt: Hinckley.

It's been a tough few months for the freshman legislator.

Republican John J. Loughlin II's Congressional campaign formally trotted out the endorsement of House Minority Leader Brian Newberry today. No great surprise. Newberry has been on record supporting Loughlin, a former colleague in the General Assembly, for some time now.

But the statement Newberry offered up was telling.

New York Times columnist David Brooks has an interesting piece today on why we need to take Texas Governor Rick Perry's presidential ambitions seriously. Among the prime considerations - and this could have implications in the looming GOP primary in Rhode Island's First Congressional District between former State Representative John J.

I've been blogging a bit, of late, about the GOP push to unseat Congressman David Cicilline next year. One of the perpetual challenges for Rhode Island Republicans is attracting national money - and getting it early enough to make a difference. GOP activists say the party will have to fare better this time than it did in 2010 if the Republican nominee - be it former state Representative John J.

Republican Congressional candidate John J. Loughlin II, who is serving overseas in Iraq, has fallen behind GOP rival Brendan Doherty on the fundraising front. Doherty, the former state police superintendent, raised an impressive $250,000 in the last quarter.

But Loughlin's supporters are holding a fundraiser for him in September.

In a move that could have implications for the looming Republican Congressional primary between Brendan Doherty and John J. Loughlin II, the Rhode Island Republican State Central Committee is set to vote, in October, on a controversial proposal to close GOP primaries to all but registered Republican voters.

At present, the state's Democratic and Republican parties both allow independents to vote in their primaries.

Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, was among a handful of governors nationwide who backed off their states' medical marijuana programs for a time in the face of tough-on-pot rhetoric out of the Obama Administration this spring. But today, he announced that he will get to work on implementing the program right away.

As Washington lurches inexorably toward a lesser budget deal, Congressman David Cicilline must be thanking his lucky stars.

The broader deal that President Obama and Speaker of the House Boehner were discussing not long ago called for substantial cuts, including some in entitlement programs like Medicare, in exchange for a significant but far smaller growth in tax revenues.

A few weeks back, I wrote a cover story on Rhode Island Republican Party Chairman Ken McKay, who managed Governor Carcieri's two campaigns, served as Carcieri's chief of staff for a time, and served as right hand to former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

A lot of good stuff landed in my notebook that didn't make it into the story.