Most businesses hoping to come to Rhode Island don’t get to make their pitch from the speaker’s rostrum.

But most businesses aren’t Narragansett Beer.

Representatives of the Rhode Island brew with the famous name hit the State House on Thursday to tout their plan to build a brewery in the Ocean State. Gansett hasn’t been made here since the company closed its Cranston brewery in 1979.

As staffers passed out shot glasses filled with the frothy libation, company owner Mark Hellendrung stood beside House Speaker William J. Murphy, urging lawmakers to “drink their part.” To raise the money needed to build a successful brewery, the company needs to sell 7.5 million cases a year.

“We have the chance to rewrite history together and rebuild the Narragansett brewery,” Hellendrung told the legislators.

Lawmakers, nearly giddy with excitement (or perhaps with Narragansett) offered a standing ovation and Hellendrung invited them to join him next Thursday for a rally at the Providence Biltmore hotel, complete with “ ’Gansett girls,” and a trip to a local bar afterward.

House members regaled the executive with their own Narragansett stories — tales of bygone bars and good times that stretched back decades. Warren Rep. Jan Malik even invited the executives to bring the ’Gansett girls to his liquor store.

“Next time you come in, make sure you call. I’ll make sure my wife’s not there and bring the girls in, please,” he said.

And so it goes on the House floor.

Watson parts company with governor over bill

The chasm between Governor Carcieri and House Minority Leader Robert Watson was again in evidence last week when Watson voted against an insurance bill, carrying his name, that he had introduced for the Republican administration.

Asked later what that was all about, Watson, R-East Greenwich, said he introduced the bill, drafted by the Department of Business Regulation, on behalf of the governor because that is “the process by which the administration gets bills introduced” but voted against it because “I am not a fan of hyper-regulation.”

Watson has been publicly at odds with Carcieri since the governor pushed a $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike earlier this session, over House GOP objections. In a wide-ranging interview, Watson also renewed his concerns about Carcieri’s current chief of staff, Brian Stern, seeking a judgeship in light of the state’s revolving-door law.

The law is aimed at preventing lawmakers and other top-tier state officials from using their inside influence to land judgeships, but it also contains an exemption for people with at least five years of “uninterrupted state service.”

Stern sought and won an advisory opinion from the state Ethics Commission that he qualifies based on the eight-plus years he worked elsewhere in state government prior to his March 2007 appointment as chief of staff.

Stern has made the list of finalists, Carcieri is weighing for two openings: chief judge of the District Court and the Superior Court seat from which Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer has retired.

Despite what the Ethics Commission said, Watson contends that the elevation of a “sitting governor’s chief of staff from that position right to the bench … is a violation of the spirit of the revolving-door legislation.”

“The governor is free to choose who he likes,” said Watson. But “you know, the public doesn’t elect Republicans to raise taxes or score jobs for their friends.”

In response, Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said that Watson “and all our elected officials are free to have their opinions and vote in the best interest of their constituents.”

Chief justice nominee Suttell, Paiva-Weed meet

And speaking of the governor, Carcieri’s selection to lead the state Supreme Court, Paul A. Suttell, met Wednesday afternoon behind closed doors with Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed.

He arrived alone at Paiva-Weed’s third-floor State House office just before 2:30 p.m.

We didn’t get a chance to speak to him, but Senate spokesman Greg Pare tells us that it’s the first official meeting between Senate leadership figures and the nominee for chief justice.

“Normally it’s the first stop in the advise-and-consent process,” Pare said of the legislature’s role in approving the governor’s pick.

Both the House and Senate must approve the nomination for Suttell to become the state’s most powerful jurist, leading a state judiciary that disposes of more than 200,000 cases per year.

Suttell, once a Republican member of the House of Representatives, would succeed Frank J. Williams, who stepped down as chief last December, eight years after his appointment by Gov. Lincoln C. Almond.

Legislators’ kin are Sox, Yankees draft picks

The rivalry will not die.

Lawmakers are already debating dueling plans to create official Red Sox and Yankees license plates. Now, we learn that two lawmakers’ relatives may be dueling each other on the diamond.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino announced on the House floor Thursday that a cousin’s son had been drafted by the Red Sox. Hendicken High star pitcher Chris Costantino was taken by Boston as the 1,488th pick in the last round of this week’s draft.

But barely before the applause had died down, freshman Rep. Scott J. Guthrie, D-Coventry, had an announcement of his own.

His nephew, Kevin Mahoney, had been drafted in the 23rd round, 705th overall, by the Yankees. That’s right, the Canisius College senior, a third baseman, will be joining the Evil Empire.

It’s worth noting that there are now more Red Sox than Yankees relatives in the House.

Woonsocket Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt is an aunt of Boston outfielder Rocco Baldelli.

Actor Dreyfuss to address R.I. bar’s annual meeting

Prepare to be starstruck. Sort of.

Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss will champion his civics education cause when he addresses the Rhode Island Bar Association’s 2009 annual meeting Friday at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

The event is not open to the public.

Following his address, Dreyfuss will participate in a civics education forum featuring Rhode Island’s new commissioner of education, Deborah Gist; Providence Schools Supt. Tom Brady; Robert G. Flanders Jr., chairman of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education Board, and several other educators and lawyers.

tpina@projo.com