And speaking of Rhode Island Republicans …

State GOP officials last week disclosed the results of two highly unscientific straw polls on the presidential race.

Rhode Island Republicans — at least those who attended recent fundraisers — seem to like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the White House.

Romney placed first at a May 17 fundraiser for the East Providence Republican City Committee, garnering 96 votes. A week later, at a fundraiser for the Narragansett and South Kingstown Republican Town Committees, Romney placed second, with 744 votes.

But the first-place candidate in that poll, Dr. Hugh Cort, actually attended the fundraiser and there were reports he stacked the ballot box for himself. That was easy to do, since the poll was for profit — attendees could buy votes for a dollar apiece. Cort won the poll with 1,522 votes.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani placed behind Romney in both polls, getting 30 votes in East Providence and 634 in Narragansett. U.S. Sen. John McCain was next, with 28 and 394 votes in the respective polls.

Providence Republican City Committee Chairman Dave Talan noted that a poll in Providence after a City Committee meeting last week had different results.

In that poll, Romney placed fourth, Giuliani fifth and McCain sixth. Cort got no votes, and the winner was actor and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, with 6 votes. The results were perhaps more objective because there was no paying for votes at this meeting, but they were undoubtedly skewed because of the small sample — only 20 votes were cast in all.

(The number of registered Republicans in Providence may be small, but it isn’t that small. The total number is around 6,000, Talan said.)