In an exchange of e-mails with Political Scene, the organization’s president, William Felkner, said the group is sometimes at odds with the governor, “but no, we did not run it by her and I can’t even say for sure if she is aware of it. We do not vet papers through the board and Mrs. Carcieri has never given input on any of our papers — nor has the gov’s office.”

Felkner said the group has, from time to time, opposed the governor as it did when he attempted to give his department directors, in one fell swoop, the same across-the-board pay raises other state workers got over the last four years, and “will become very vocal if he proceeds with a state-owned energy entity, just as we would oppose any government intervention that impedes free enterprise.”

Felkner moved to Rhode Island after what he describes as a 15-year foray in the pet industry, “starting as a temp employee at a pet store and finishing with a marketing and manufacturing company with a failed product on the shelves of Wal-Mart. After some soul-searching in the desolation of South Dakota, I moved to Rhode Island, got married, and went to college [as a 35-year-old freshman].”

He was featured in a 2004 Providence Journal story — headlined “Professor, is there room on the right?” — in which he voiced his concerns about “biased education” at Rhode Island College.

“I was amazed at the political indoctrination and tax-funded lobbying that took place. Later, I decided to become an opposing voice to those who challenge what I consider a traditional American culture. I finished my degree in psychology at RIC summa cum laude and then was almost thrown out of the Master’s of Social Work program for the crime of being politically conservative,” he said in an e-mail last week.

As to where the Ocean State Research Policy Institute draws it money, its filings as a registered nonprofit organization are not yet public. But Neal said the state does not contribute, and he does not believe the governor or Mrs. Carcieri have either.

Neal offered this perspective: “The Ocean State Policy Research Institute is an independent organization that is not affiliated with the state. If left-leaning advocacy groups like the Poverty Institute can be hosted by Rhode Island College, a taxpayer funded, state-owned institution of higher education, and can lobby in the State House despite their nonprofit tax status, Ocean State Policy is certainly free to conduct research and express its positions.”