PROVIDENCE — Guests at the Providence Newspaper Guild’s 35th annual Follies Friday got more celebrity star power than usual out of the night’s much-anticipated mystery guest.

Instead of the local political flavor-of-the-month that tends to grace the stage at the Venus De Milo, the audience got two big surprises.

First there was former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who worked the room during cocktail hour, greeting guests and posing for photos at the end of a day of campaigning for her mother, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Then when the lights dimmed and the show began, the crowd seemed even more surprised to see Sen. John Kerry and his trademark helmet of hair bound onto the stage.

The Massachusetts senator and presidential near-miss cracked wise about Rhode Island politics, Buddy Cianci’s ability “to cross state lines” again, and his own recent trip to Pakistan, noting that instead of being swift boated, politicians there get “swift goated.”

But his well-received shtick turned serious as the topic moved to tomorrow’s presidential primary, and Kerry trotted out what seemed like a stump speech for his preferred candidate, Barack Obama.

Within minutes, Hillary Clinton supporters in the crowd of 1,500 decided Kerry had gone on a little too long, and isolated boos and chants of “HILL-A-RY” started to well up around the room.

Their chorus soon grew loud enough to drown out Kerry and the senator wasted no time thanking the audience and ducking offstage.

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, and his brother, State Democratic Party Chairman William J. Lynch inspired far less controversy as the evening’s secondary mystery guests, despite a little brotherly banter about their own political differences. Patrick supports Obama, while Bill is a Clinton fan.

It should be noted, however, that the attorney general’s spandex Spider-Man costume gets Political Scene’s vote for the night’s best-dressed award.

Carcieri holds fundraiser

And back to the local political front…

Governor Carcieri’s political coffers got a much-needed boost Thursday night at a fundraiser at East Providence’s Metacomet Country Club.

The event drew about 50 people, and more importantly, about $50,000 in donations (though the Carcieri campaign says it hasn’t yet tabulated all the checks).

So what does a term-limited governor with two years left in office do with all those fundraising checks?

It seems he’ll be paying off at least one bill.

Making the point that he was off the state clock, Carcieri’s spokesman Jeff Neal said Friday night that the governor’s campaign has one remaining $5,900 bill outstanding from the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. “Obviously, the campaign will pay that,” Neal said.

What will Carcieri do with the rest of the cash he raised? “Governor Carcieri will use this money and will continue to raise money over the course of the year to get his message out,” Neal said.

According to state campaign finance reports, the governor finished the fourth quarter of 2007 with just $3,560.18 in his account.

Official severing ties

In hiring Republican John Robitaille to replace Steve Kass as his communications director, Governor Carcieri is bringing aboard the president of the Perspective Communications Group, a video-production and event management company that, according to its Web page, counts Textron, Hasbro, Johnson & Wales University, Lighthouse Computer Services, Stanley Bostitch and gambling giant GTECH — the systems operator of the Rhode Island Lottery — among its past or present clients.

The company Web page includes a letter of appreciation from a former director of event marketing at GTECH that says: “Perspective Communications has year after year helped us produce the best world leaders meetings we have ever had.”

But now comes the question for Robitaille: does he intend to sever financial ties with the company he started when he moves into an influential position within state government?

The answer: yes and no.

In a recent interview, Robitaille said he intended to resign, and was in the process of working out a succession plan. “I did make that commitment to the governor,” he said.But he said it was not as easy as he might have thought. “I’ve never divested myself from a business before,” said Robitaille, citing a lot “more intricacies in doing that than I had anticipated.… I just want to make sure it’s done right, it’s done cleanly so there’s no possibility of any conflicts of interests or perceptions of that.”

Later, clarifying his intentions, he said: “I don’t believe I ever used the term ‘divest.’ I will be resigning as president and CEO of Perspective Communications but I will still hold stock in the company. This will continue to be reported on my ethics report in April as it was reported in ’06 when I ran for the General Assembly.”

Needless to say, GTECH is a major player at the State House, especially at a time when lawmakers are considering any expansion of gambling — such as this year’s drive to allow round-the-clock gambling — that could affect the company’s bottom line.

In the year that ended on June 30, 2007, electronic gambling at Twin River and Newport Grand generated a total of $36.7 million for the Rhode Island-based GTECH, including $24.6 million on the video slots, another $12.1 million for running the online communications system

But GTECH spokesman Robert Vincent said his company has not used Robitaille’s services since 2005, and would shy away from doing so again after he joins Carcieri’s staff because internal guidelines do not allow “that kind of relationship” with a person in a government position.

“Under our guidelines that we have for hiring consultants we would not engage in that kind of relationship… [with] any kind of consultant that may have a government position that would be, in effect, our customer…. We don’t think that would be appropriate.”

But that would not necessarily rule the company out as a bidder for state work.

The Carcieri administration paid the Perspective Communications Group $20,902 in 2004-05 for a series of jobs, including the production of publicity materials for the governor’s “Fiscal Fitness” initiative. An online blurb for the company said it also provided “Governor Carcieri: Communication Strategy.”

Robitaille said his first foray into the state government arena arose from knowing Carcieri’s first director of communications, Laurie White, in her roles at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce both before and after she worked for Carcieri. He said she called him seeking help on “employee focus communications.” Through her, he said, he met Department of Administration Director Beverly Najarian, and ended up donating what he recalls as “160 hours of uncompensated time” over several months.

When the next call came, Robitaille said he offered to volunteer his time again but Najarian said, “it needs to be contractual.” On Jan. 1, 2004, both he and Najarian signed an engagement letter promising him $5,000 a month — up to a maximum of $20,000 — for “communications planning and strategy to facilitate the implementation of the various Fiscal Fitness state improvement ideas; consultation for and development of communications and correspondence to various audiences regarding Fiscal Fitness state government improvement ideas; production of various media such as posters, brochures, Powerpoint presentations, videotape … [as] required by the Fiscal Fitness Implementation Team.”

It could not be determined whether the contract went out to bid.

In an interview, Robitaille said: “All my friends think I am absolutely crazy for leaving what is a very good company but they know… I ran for the General Assembly and once the bug bites you, you want to do some things.”

After losing his bid to unseat incumbent Rep. Amy Rice, D-Portsmouth, by just nine votes in 2006, he said: “I’ve disappointed some of my supporters who honestly believe — and I’ve got to tell you — I believe if I were to run against Amy Rice again, I would prevail. So I had to make a decision: where can my skills and experience better serve, being a state representative or working with the governor during his last two-and-a-half to three years… I think I’m a better fit to be in the communication field, which is what I have been doing for the last 25 years of my life.”

Asked where Governor Carcieri stood on Robitaille’s decision to retain financial ties to his company, spokesman Jeff Neal said: “The governor does not believe there is any conflict of interest, either real or perceived, for a member of his staff to hold stock in a company that several years ago had a $20,000 contract with the state. We will continue to be aware of the situation to avoid any potential false perception in the future.”

No word, meanwhile, on the governor’s plans for his current $126,541 director of communications, Steve Kass.

No rules changes

The debate over proposed changes to the House rules was put to rest last week when Rules Committee Chairwoman Rep. Eileen S. Naughton, D-Warwick, announced that she would not hold hearings on any rule changes this session.

“After consultation with House Leadership and some members of the House Rules Committee, I have decided against holding a hearing this year on any possible rules changes,” Naughton said in a statement.

“Traditionally, we have amended the House rules every two years, and we see no pressing need to change the rules this session. We will review some of the suggestions that were incorporated into this year’s legislation after the session is completed and discuss them next year,” she said.

Several proposed rule changes introduced since January raised the ire of Republicans and talk-radio hosts, including one that could have limited some lawmakers’ ability to influence the state budget process by reducing the time that rank-and-file legislators can access the House version of the spending plan before voting on it.

House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox ultimately withdrew the proposal to reduce the time period to five from seven calendar days, but frustrations over proposed changes continued to flare.

House spokesman Larry Berman said Naughton’s subsequent resolve to not hold hearings was a leadership decision.

“The rules changes that were proposed did not rise to the level of having to change them immediately, Berman said. “The leadership felt like they weren’t so important that they had to change them now, in March, when we’re already a third of the way through the session.”

Berman emphasized that while some of the proposed changes were budget related, House Finance Chairman Steven M. Costantino was not involved in the recommendations.

Book signing by Chafee

Former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee will discuss and sign his new memoir at 7 p.m. on April 3 at the Warwick Barnes & Noble. The book is titled Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.

The title is fitting for Chafee, who spent much of his career swimming against his own party. He finally left the GOP last summer and joined the ranks of the unaffiliated. And should anyone doubt that he’s no longer a Republican, he publicly endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president last month, annoying many in the GOP because the endorsement came hours before a Warwick rally for John McCain.

The science of selling books begins with creating a buzz, and the news release announcing Chafee’s book-signing swings hard for it, highlighting his endorsement of Obama. “This is sure to only cause more furor around the man who left his party and vehemently spoke out against the backdoor politics and deals that led a nation to follow a President without all of the necessary proof before heading to war,” it reads.

Chafee wrote the book with former Journal reporter Tony DePaul, one of the more talented scribblers to pass through these halls.

marsenau@projo.com