01:00 AM EDT on Friday, October 21, 2005

PROVIDENCE -- A Rhode Island Republican Party fundraiser scheduled for tonight featuring Andrew H. Card, White House chief of staff, has been canceled because Card is spending the weekend with President Bush at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Patricia Morgan, Republican state chairwoman, said yesterday.

Morgan said the state GOP will reschedule the party fundraiser but that it probably will not take place until 2006. The event was to have been held at the Sheraton Providence Airport Hotel on Post Road in Warwick.

"All we know is that the White House called and said he had to be with the president," Morgan said. "He needs to be at Camp David this weekend."

Morgan said she was given assurances that Card, a Massachusetts native and former Massachusetts state representative, would come to Rhode Island to help the GOP here at a future date.