How do Rhode Island’s top lawmakers spend the tens of thousands of campaign dollars they get from state workers, lobbyists and others during the legislative session?

Answer: Same as ever.

They eat; they drink; they buy tickets to colleagues’ fundraisers, donate to pet causes and buy hundreds of dollars’ worth of gifts at local shopping malls and liquor stores, as evidenced by their latest filings with the state Board of Elections.

House Speaker William J. Murphy had $108,310 left in his account, after raising $109,365 and spending $36,935 during the opening months of the 2009 legislative session,

His $1,000 contributors included Joseph Abbate, a legislative staff attorney seeking a judgeship; Marc Crisafulli, the former GTECH executive now lobbying for the financially struggling Twin River greyhound track and slot parlor; Newport Grand co-owner Arthur Silvester; and the NRA Political Victory Fund.

On the spending side, Murphy ran up thousands of dollars in largely unexplained credit-card charges, spending $3,761 in January alone.

But some expenses were itemized, including a $1,619 dinner at Capriccio restaurant; a $1,476 tab at the South Street Café; $500 in “gifts” at Warwick Mall; $314.97 in purchases at Barrington Liquors, in East Providence; and $1,184 at the Brookside package store in his hometown of West Warwick.

His report also reflects $991 in airfare, and a $254 hotel booking at a Charleston, S.C., hotel for a State Legislative Leaders Foundation event.

A lawyer, he bought $1,100 worth of tickets to a Rhode Island Trial Judges Association event.

He paid $3,230 out of his campaign account to Venda Ravioli –– the restaurant and catering company owned by House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino’s family — for the food provided at the House’s annual St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph’s Day celebration. But the report did not reflect any payments to the Federal Reserve restaurant for the food it, too, provided both that day, and opening day, or for the five $450 tables he said he bought for friends and fellow legislators at a closed-to-the press St. Patrick’s Day lunch at the same restaurant. Spokesman Larry Berman said the payments would be addressed in his next report.

Berman was unable to fill in other blanks, but state campaign finance director Richard Thornton said the Board of Elections would probably send Murphy a letter asking for the missing information, as it would for anyone with unexplained spending.

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed had $42,581 left after raising $67,332 and spending $29,896.

Her contributors list also reads like a Who’s Who of the State House lobbying corps and includes $21,350 from the political arms of assorted industries, such as the Defense Counsel PAC, the Credit Union PAC of RI, and the Providence and Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce PACs. She also received donations from numerous public-employees unions, none more generous than the Rhode Island Laborers Political League’s $1,000 contribution.

Her expenses included $853.92 in refreshments from Barrington Liquors, a $1,184 inauguration-eve dinner at Capriccio, a $2,603 “Senate dinner” at Costantino’s Ristorante on Federal Hill, $2,588 paid to the Butcher Shop Café & Deli for “State of the State” and Black History Month receptions. She also bought $575 worth of “tickets for Senators” to a Rhode Island Trial Judges Association event, and paid $1,558 to a political consulting firm, Vision Strategies.

Pacheco may run for lieutenant governor

State Rep. Edwin Pacheco, D-Burrillville, has gone public with his interest in running for lieutenant governor in 2010, if the Democratic incumbent, Elizabeth H. Roberts, runs for governor.

In a brief interview at the State House on Thursday, Pacheco, 27, the executive director of Education in Action, said he has hired fundraiser Amy Gabarra to help him assess whether he can raise “the resources to campaign on a statewide level.”

Gabarra is currently working with state Treasurer Frank Caprio, who is mulling his own run for governor. At last report this winter, Pacheco had $14,850 in his campaign account.

Pacheco joins Rep. Elizabeth Dennigan, D-East Providence, and Sen. John J. Tassoni Jr., D-Smithfield, State House colleagues who have both signaled an interest in running for the number-two job if Roberts takes a shot at the top spot.

Chafee sets 1st fundraiser

Anyone wondering who might support the gubernatorial candidacy of Republican-turned-independent Lincoln D. Chafee can now take a gander at the hosts for his first fundraiser.

The list includes Republican Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian; former Republican Secretary of State Susan L. Farmer and her husband, former Republican Providence Councilman Malcolm Farmer; former Senate Minority Leader Lila M. Sapinsley; Clay Rockefeller, a cofounder of the Steel Yard arts collaborative; Anne Nolan, president of Crossroads Rhode Island, the homeless shelter; freshman Democratic Rep. Chris Fierro, of Woonsocket; 1994 Democratic candidate for governor Louise Durfee, and Johnnie Chace, who cochaired the Finance Committee for Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, who knocked Chafee out of the U.S. Senate.

Chafee has booked his first fundraising event for 6 to 8 p.m. May 27 at the Roger Williams Park Casino, with tickets going for $250 to $1,000, depending on whether the donor wishes to be a mere “friend” or a sponsor.

Though Chafee has made clear his intention to run, the event is being booked as “a reception for his exploratory campaign for governor of Rhode Island.”

Democrat Fierro’s appearance on the host list drew a sharp rebuke from the state Democratic Party’s executive director, Tim Grilo. “I wasn’t surprised to see that Representative Fierro was sitting alone when he announced his decision to support former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee,” he said. “I would have advised Representative Fierro to have considered Senator Chafee’s record before so hastily and haphazardly announcing support for a candidate, who for so long embraced the ideals of the Republican Party, but who has suddenly labeled himself an ‘independent’ because he finds it politically expedient.

“If Chris had a little more gravitas and experience, I believe he would have ultimately made a better and more well-informed decision,” Grilo said.

R.I. losing luster as movie venue

A year after lawmakers voted to cap the controversial movie and TV tax-credit program, Rhode Island Film & Television Office Director Steven Feinberg acknowledges it has been “a challenge” to continue to attract movies and other productions to the state.

Forget the historic charm and seaside vistas: without the tax breaks, Rhode Island loses a little of its luster.

The controversial new law caps the available credits at $15 million per year, to be doled out on a first-come basis to production companies that spend money making movies in the Ocean State.

“It makes it more challenging because our neighbors don’t have caps. Massachusetts doesn’t have a cap, Connecticut doesn’t have a cap ...,” Feinberg told Political Scene.

So far in 2009, Feinberg said, about $12 million of the $15 million in Rhode Island credits has been issued, including those granted two ABC pilots. Still no word on whether the Showtime hit Brotherhood will return for another season, but Feinberg said other productions that had expressed interest filming here have thought twice, given the limited number of credits.

Last summer, a study questioned the value of the Rhode Island program, concluding that it probably cost taxpayers more than it brought in. In recent months, other states have conducted studies into the viability of their film-credit programs.

cneedham@projo.com