Projo Politics Blog

Speaking of Steve Laffey: he really is back on the political circuit.

He was billed as the “special guest” at the joint fundraiser the Narragansett and South Kingstown Republican town committees held at the Canochet Beach Club last Thursday — and ended up pinch-hitting for Giuliani’s Rhode Island finance chairman Malcolm McGuire during the part of the evening reserved for pep talks by spokesmen for any Republican presidential candidate who sent a representative.

When asked about his future political plans, Laffey — again — said “it’s really too early to even talk about stuff like that.”

But he would not rule out a return to public life to solve “another crisis,” he said.

“We’ll see when that happen or if that happens. But, the state of Rhode Island is going to look like the city of Cranston did before I was mayor the way it is going right now.”

Narragansett GOP committee member Vin Indeglia said the beach club event raised about $9,000 for the two town commitees and also produced an amusing — albeit highly unscientific — straw poll.

The rules: Every $1 ticket buys a chance to vote; buy as many as you want. The initial “winner” was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 952 votes to 750 for Giuliani, 408 for U.S. Sen. John McCain and a smattering of votes from the 125 or so people present for other, lesser-known candidates — with one exception.

At 8:30 p.m., Dr. Hugh Cort — the only presidential wannabe who put in a personal appearance — had 100 votes. Moments before the final 9 p.m. count, Indeglia said, Cort opened up his checkbook “and suddenly there were 1,000 tickets in Dr. Cort’s box.”

According to the Cort for President Web page, he lives in Mountain Brook, Ala. , and practices psychiatric medicine, “but the things that really define him are his family and his Christian faith.” He is a self-described “Christian conservative who believes in traditional values…strongly supports a pro-life amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning abortion and a pro-marriage amendment stating that marriage is between a man and a woman only."

Republican stalwart John Harpootian pitched Romney; House Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich, was among those who talked up McCain.

“He is against raising taxes and for reducing government spending. He is pro-business and is in favor of tort reform to reduce frivolous lawsuits.” And he was here.

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