The tiny handful of Republicans who remain in the state Senate don’t appear to be getting along very well.

Sen. Leo Blais, of Coventry, is trying to unseat Westerly Sen. Dennis Algiere as minority leader.

There will be just four Republicans in the 38-seat Senate in January. Each man says he has two votes.

In Algiere’s corner is Sen. David Bates, of Barrington, while Blais says he had enlisted the support of Sen.-elect Francis T. Maher Jr., of Exeter.

What happens if there is a tie? “No one knows …” Algiere said. He can’t remember it ever happening before.

Algiere says his 11 years of experience as minority leader make him the right person for the post. Blais contends that he is “the better man for the job.”

He called Algiere a “good man,” but said the Republican caucus “needs to go in a new direction ... more conservative views are needed in this time of fiscal uncertainty …”

Stay tuned.

The six surviving House Republicans didn’t have the same problem.

Rep. Robert Watson, of East Greenwich, was reelected minority leader last week, while Rep. John Loughlin, of Tiverton, was elected minority whip to replace defeated Rep. Nicholas Gorham, of Coventry.

Asked why the Republicans did not announce their caucus, Loughin quipped: “We could have had the meeting in my Crown Victoria and everyone would have had seat belts and cup holders.”

Palin was reigning celeb at governors conference

While Republicans at the State House duked it out for leadership posts, Governor Carcieri last week escaped the Rhode Island chill, decamping to Florida.

Carcieri was in the Sunshine State for the Republican Governors Association’s annual conference, held at the Intercontinental resort in Miami.

This year’s conference got more than its usual level of attention thanks to a headline visit from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, fresh from her run for vice president. Palin spoke to her colleagues on Thursday, day two of the three-day conference, addressing the recent campaign and the future of the Republican Party.

Beyond the Palin remarks and the usual rundown of roundtable discussions, the annual meeting also featured an array of extracurricular events: an afternoon boat cruise, a golf outing, an arts district tour —- to include a stop-off at the late fashion designer Gianni Versace’s villa — and something called a “day of beauty,” described on the agenda as a chance for participants to partake in “pampering to include manicures, pedicures, neck and shoulder massages.”

But the governor wasn’t doing much pampering, apparently.

Carcieri spokesman Amy Kempe said Carcieri was so busy with conference meetings and discussions he could not even find time in his schedule to appear on several national television news programs.

With the governor expected to return to the State House today, Kempe said he plans to meet with legislative leaders this week to start crafting a plan to deal with the state’s $372-million deficit.

Sermons on Christmas

As the Christmas season fast approaches, Fred Sneesby, the governor’s senior communications and policy analyst, is offering up some reading material.

Sneesby, a former priest and onetime social services worker, has written a book, A Believer’s Christmas. Published this fall, the compact 75-page read is meant as a reminder that Christmas is about more than shopping for presents and decorating the house.

He said he got the idea for the book last Christmas when he looked around and realized just how far the holiday season had drifted from its purpose.

Described as “a gift-wrapped package of hope,” the book is a series of reflections — some former sermons from his days in the priesthood and some more recent essays.

Sneesby will do a book signing on Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. at the Borders bookstore in the Providence Place mall. Copies are available at Borders and Amazon.com or by visiting Sneesby’s Web site, www.fredsneesby.com

Straight-ticket voting still a winner in Ocean State

Rhode Island Republicans have long tried to block straight-ticket voting.

With good reason.

Democrats traditionally get a big boost from straight-ticket voters. And this year was no exception.

About 21 percent of voters used the straight-ticket option on Nov. 4: 79,269 voted Democratic and 23,933 voted Republican, according to the secretary of state’s office.

The numbers are similar to those in 2006, when a wave of anti-Republican sentiment swept the nation. That year, about 20 percent used the straight-ticket option — 61,357 voted Democratic and 18,424 voted Republican, according to the secretary of state’s spokesman, Chris Barnett.

While there is little doubt that the option benefited Democrats, it didn’t work out for all of them.

Before the election, Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano said he was confident he would win and cited straight-party voters as one of the reasons. He noted that his opponent, independent Edward O’Neill, wouldn’t receive any straight-ticket votes.

O’Neill beat Montalbano anyway.

Still, don’t expect the Democratic-dominated General Assembly to change the law anytime soon.

Barnett suggested that his boss, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, supports the current system:

“Given that one in five voters used the master lever, we know that a significant number of voters value the choice of voting straight party,” Barnett said. “People who take the time to vote know their own minds. Straight-ticket voting is an endorsement of a platform of policies specific to a particular party.”

Paiva Weed ensured big media turnout at caucus

The cameras were rolling last week as Senate Democrats, in their caucus, endorsed installing M. Teresa Paiva Weed as the first female Senate president in Rhode Island history.

The media contingent — including three television cameras and several newspaper reporters — had been encouraged to cover the event in a news release issued earlier in the week.

The release, and subsequent planning for the caucus, was handled by Paiva Weed’s campaign media consultant, Jennifer Bramley, rather than Senate spokesman Greg Pare.

“The senator really felt it was important to keep media relations out of the State House and not put the staff in a position to be choosing one senator over the other,” said Bramley, who is a partner at the communications firm Vision Strategies. “When there were other people in the mix for Senate president, she didn’t think it would be appropriate to be asking [Pare] which person he would be helping out.”

How much did Paiva Weed pay Bramley for her services?

Nothing yet.

Bramley told Political Scene she had yet to send out an invoice, but that she’s sure Paiva Weed’s campaign account would cover it. (The campaign had just $8,007.74 on hand in its most recent filing, a week before the election, according to the Board of Elections.)

It’s worth noting that Vision Strategies is a regular lobbying presence on Smith Hill.

While she said she doesn’t personally do any lobbying, Bramley’s current partner, William Fischer, was a registered lobbyist for Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. and Allco Renewable Energy Group Ltd. last session.

R.I.’s Donilon has big role on Obama transition team

Rhode Islander Tom Donilon is among the members of the Democratic government-in-waiting who are playing big roles in the transition to President-elect Barack Obama’s administration.

Donilon, who grew up in a politically active South Providence family, is one of two Clinton administration veterans who will lead the preparations for new management at the State Department. He has been in the business since his undergraduate days at Washington’s Catholic University, when he caught onas an intern in President Jimmy Carter’s White House.

Donilon also served for several years as a top officer at Fannie Mae, the troubled mortgage finance giant that the government took over this year.

He has long been involved in both the campaign and the policy arenas. He has worked in presidential election politics since Carter’s famous nomination battle against Ted Kennedy at the divided Democratic National Convention in 1980.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com