Projo Politics Blog

News flash: Steve Laffey and Patricia Morgan are on the same team.

Literally.

The former Cranston mayor and the former state GOP chairwoman who backed incumbent Lincoln D. Chafee over Laffey in last fall’s heated Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate have both landed on presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s Rhode Island steering-committee.

Along with Laffey and Morgan, the other state co-chairs announced by “Team Rudy” include: Senate Minority Leader and Washington Trust Company vice president Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian and Republican National Committeeman Robert Manning.

Morgan is a financial adviser at Smith Barney. Manning is president of Gray’s Point Investments LLC, a private equity and real-estate investment firm; he was previously with Citibank/Citigroup for 26 years, retiring in 2001 as managing director and head of corporate finance Finance for Citigroup Japan.

Asked if the announcement that went out last week from the JoinRudy2008.com this week signaled a thawing of tensions with the back-in-the-mix Laffey, Morgan said: “I guess that’s what it means. We put the past behind us.” However they may have differed in the past, the two wax eloquent — in almost the same words — about Giuliani with both calling him “a man who gets things done.”

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