When House Democrats weren’t dining at the West Valley Inn, you might have found them at the Capital Grille, Capriccio, Mill’s Tavern or Citron.

Those are the venues where House Speaker William J. Murphy held meetings or dinners, paid for out of his campaign account, in December.

Favored locations for Senate dinners, paid for with campaign funds from Montalbano, included McCormick & Schmick’s, Pinelli’s North End Café and Twin Oaks.

Other tidbits from the campaign finance reports just filed:

•Governor Carcieri repaid himself $78,500 from his campaign fund during December, leaving the fund with a cash balance of just $441.52. The amount he repaid still pales in comparison with the outstanding loan --$1.4 million-- which represents personal funds Carcieri deposited into the account to pay campaign expenses.

Carcieri held another fundraiser Jan. 31 at the Crowne Plaza to replenish the account. Does the future hold more loan repayments for the governor? “There is no specific plan to do so,” spokesman Neal said. “If money accumulates, we’ll have to see at that time how it will be spent.”

• Carcieri’s campaign finance report was 69 pages. The report from former Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Carcieri, for the same 27-day time period: 7 pages.

•Carcieri’s highest-profile donor for the month: Ann Romney, wife of the former governor of Massachusetts and Republican presidential contender, gave $1,000, the legal maximum for a calendar year. (Mitt Romney gave Carcieri $1,000 in July.)

•Secretary of State Mollis donated a pair of Patriots tickets valued at $178 to his parish, the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in North Providence. Mollis, who was still mayor of North Providence in December -- he assumed his new office last month -- said he has donated to the raffle “for years now” and will be “more than happy to continue doing it as secretary of state.”

Mollis said the one-month report doesn’t represent the full range of charitable organizations to which he gives through his campaign fund. Such donations are “part of the responsibility that comes with the office,” Mollis said. “I think it’s something that all elected officials should do.”

Mollis allowed that if he plans to receive public matching funds for his next race, as he did last time, he’ll need to be “more frugal” because spending during his entire four-year term of office will count toward the limit of how much he can spend on the campaign.

•Speaking of spending limits, Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts’ campaign account returned nearly $10,000 in donations during December. The reason: The state Board of Elections ruled she had raised too much money during her campaign.

Because Roberts used public matching funds, state law limited how much she could raise and spend, and Roberts’ campaign was keeping track. However, Roberts started the campaign season with money already in the bank, left over from her time as a state senator. The Board of Elections said the Roberts campaign should have included that money in her fundraising total. (Roberts’ campaign said she did not come close to surpassing the spending limit because the law allows candidates to exclude certain spending that’s directly related to fundraising.)

Paul Tencher, Roberts’ campaign manager and now her chief of staff, said the campaign did not agree with the decision but chose to refund the money rather than fight it. In all, the campaign refunded $14,089 in donations, and accordingly, canceled $15,878 in services for which it had paid but not yet received.

•Drinks for the Senate holiday party came from Malik’s Liquors, the Warren liquor store owned by state Rep. Jan Malik. The beverage bill: $622.28.

egudrais@projo.com