Those who sipped cider and munched gingerbread cookies in the State House rotunda during Friday’s tree lighting ceremony Friday night probably didn’t know that the tree they applauded was not the original.

Political Scene has learned that for the second time in three years, state officials were forced to switch the state’s Christmas tree.

This year’s exchange was less dramatic than in 2005, when a flame retardant spray left the State House holiday symbol nearly needle-less. Political Scene grew suspicious last week after noticing that state employees appeared to be decorating the tree for a second time. The governor’s office later confirmed that problems were discovered with the original 17-foot Colorado blue spruce after the lights had been put on.

“As they were setting up the first tree, it was noticed that the tree had some damage to some of the branches. As a result of that damage, it appeared that some of the needles were drying out,” the governor’s spokesman, Jeff Neal, said.

State employees tried to save the tree. They bored holes into the trunk and tried to fit replacement branches into the damaged areas. It didn’t quite work.

“It appeared that the tree would probably be fine through December,” Neal said. “However, in an abundance of caution, and in memory of events in recent years, it was decided to reach out to the Leyden family and to seek a replacement tree.”

The state Department of Transportation shipped the old tree back to Leyden’s Tree Farm, in West Greenwich, and returned with the replacement tree that now stands in the rotunda. Members of the governor’s office of constituent affairs spent much of last week decorating for a second time.

Kass peddling pasta

Driving down Providence’s College Hill on a cold morning last week, Political Scene was somewhat startled to hear the once-familiar radio voice of Steve Kass hawking food from Federal Hill’s Venda Ravioli on the Don Imus show, which began airing recently on WSKO (790-AM).

Yes, it is the same Steve Kass who collects a $125,000 state salary as Governor Carcieri’s communications director. And no, Kass doesn’t have a second job doing commercial voice-overs, and the Republican Carcieri administration is not in the business of endorsing restaurants, especially one owned by the family of the Democrat who runs the House Finance Committee, Rep. Steven Costantino of Providence.

It turns out that Kass taped the Venda ad before he took the state job, during his days as a local radio talk show host, said Carcieri spokesman Neal. The ad, which urges Imus listeners to shop at Venda for halftime treats during the football season, is owned by Venda proprietors and the management is permitted to run it any time it wants, Neal said.

Kass does not receive any payments or residuals for his Venda voice-over, Neal said.

Kass, once the radio sidekick of former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., before Cianci’s “vacation” in federal prison at Fort Dix, does have one side job from his old career. He appears on a food show, Living the Good Life, which runs on WPRO (630-AM) on Saturday afternoons. Kass is paid for his work, but the show “has nothing to do with politics,” said Neal.

“We are all bipartisan when it comes to good food, especially good Italian food,” he said.

Judgeships no done deal

President Bush last week nominated two Rhode Islanders — William E. Smith and Lincoln D. Almond — to seats on the federal bench. But it probably wouldn’t be prudent for either Smith or Almond to get measured for black robes yet.

That is the word from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the committee that has jurisdiction over confirmation of federal jurists.

Leahy was in Rhode Island Friday to attend a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, at the East Greenwich home of Democratic activists Mark and Susan Weiner.

In an interview before the fundraiser, Leahy scored Mr. Bush for failing to consult with Rhode Island’s two U.S. senators — Democrats Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse — about the nominations.

“You wonder how serious they [the White House] are,” said Leahy. “Are they playing politics?”

Smith, of East Greenwich, who is currently a U.S. District Court judge, has been nominated by Mr. Bush for the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to succeed Judge Bruce M. Selya. Selya left full-time bench duty in December 2006, assuming senior status.

Almond, son of former Gov. Lincoln C. Almond, the former Republican governor, is currently a federal magistrate who, like Smith, once worked at the prestigious Providence law firm of Edwards & Angell. (Reed and Whitehouse also both worked at the firm.)

Leahy said neither nomination will move without the consent of both Whitehouse and Reed. The two have given the Almond and Smith nominations noncommittal responses.

One Republican both Reed and Whitehouse had agreed on for the circuit bench opening was Providence lawyer Robert Flanders, a former Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, who was recommended by former GOP Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee.

Langevin campaigning for Hillary Clinton

Rep. James R. Langevin has hit the campaign trial for presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Rhode Island Democrat was scheduled to make three appearances in New Hampshire yesterday for the New York senator. This coming weekend — House floor schedule permitting — he will be off to stump for Clinton in Iowa.

Langevin said last week that he leaves the selection of campaign events to the senator’s campaign staff, but he expressed the hope that he will get to meet with people who have disabilities as he travels to appearances on Clinton’s behalf. “There are 54 million Americans with some type of disability,” Langevin said. An interest group of that size “could be a major force in the election,” he said.

Primary candidates file

The good news is that it appears that Rhode Island will not be completely forgotten in the coming presidential primary season.

Representatives of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans candidates filed the necessary paperwork with the secretary of state’s office Friday afternoon to ensure they will have a spot on the Ocean State’s primary ballot on March 4. There were no surprises, as all the major candidates were represented.

The bad news, however, is that each party’s nomination is likely to be locked up by the time March comes around; 36 states will have held their primaries by the time Rhode Island voters head to the polls. A proposal that would have moved the state’s primary up to Feb. 5 (aka Super Tuesday) failed during the General Assembly’s fall special session.

Still, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis was encouraged that the candidates probably won’t skip Rhode Island altogether.

“This shows that presidential campaigns are not discounting Rhode Island. Apparently the candidates believe the nominations will still be in play. Rhode Island is important enough so they are not taking any chances,” Mollis said in a statement.

The Republicans candidates who submitted paperwork are (in alphabetical order): Hugh Cort, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson. The Democrats are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Ray Stebbins and Rosemary Turner.

While each campaign filed statements of intent Friday, that’s no guarantee they’ll be on Rhode Island’s ballot. Each must file nomination papers with the signatures of 1,000 eligible state voters by Dec. 26.

‘Sustainable energy’

Sen. Joe Lieberman was right on time last week when kicked off a Senate committee debate about global warming on the first day of Hanukkah. The eight-day celebration, he reminded his audience, dates to an ancient victory for Jewish freedom fighters and commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem.

The miracle of Hanukkah was that a single day’s supply of oil for the light in the temple continued to burn for eight days.

That, Lieberman told a hearing room packed with environmentally savvy followers of his global warming bill, “was a divinely inspired sustainable energy program.”

jmulligan@belo-dc.com