By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau

How do Rhode Island's top lawmakers spend the tens of thousands of campaign dollars they get from state workers, lobbyists and others during the legislative session?

Answer: Same as ever.

They eat; they drink; they buy tickets to colleagues' fundraisers, donate to pet causes and buy hundreds of dollars' worth of gifts at local shopping malls and liquor stores, as evidenced by their latest filings with the state Board of Elections.

House Speaker William J. Murphy had $108,310 left in his account, after raising $109,365 and spending $36,935 during the opening months of the 2009 legislative session.

His $1,000 contributors included Joseph Abbate, a legislative staff attorney seeking a judgeship; Marc Crisafulli, the former GTECH executive now lobbying for the financially struggling Twin River greyhound track and slot parlor; Newport Grand co-owner Arthur Silvester; and the NRA Political Victory Fund.

On the spending side, Murphy ran up thousands of dollars in largely unexplained credit-card charges, spending $3,761 in January alone.

But some expenses were itemized, including a $1,619 dinner at Capriccio restaurant; a $1,476 tab at the South Street Café; $500 in "gifts" at Warwick Mall; $314.97 in purchases at Barrington Liquors, in East Providence; and $1,184 at the Brookside package store in his hometown of West Warwick.

His report also reflects $991 in airfare, and a $254 hotel booking at a Charleston, S.C., hotel for a State Legislative Leaders Foundation event.

A lawyer, he bought $1,100 worth of tickets to a Rhode Island Trial Judges Association event.

He paid $3,230 out of his campaign account to Venda Ravioli -- the restaurant and catering company owned by House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino's family -- for the food provided at the House's annual St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's Day celebration. But the report did not reflect any payments to the Federal Reserve restaurant for the food it, too, provided both that day, and opening day, or for the five $450 tables he said he bought for friends and fellow legislators at a closed-to-the press St. Patrick's Day lunch at the same restaurant. Spokesman Larry Berman said the payments would be addressed in his next report.

Berman was unable to fill in other blanks, but state campaign finance director Richard Thornton said the Board of Elections would probably send Murphy a letter asking for the missing information, as it would for anyone with unexplained spending.

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed had $42,581 left after raising $67,332 and spending $29,896.

Her contributors list also reads like a Who's Who of the State House lobbying corps and includes $21,350 from the political arms of assorted industries, such as the Defense Counsel PAC, the Credit Union PAC of RI, and the Providence and Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce PACs. She also received donations from numerous public-employees unions, none more generous than the Rhode Island Laborers Political League's $1,000 contribution.

Her expenses included $853.92 in refreshments from Barrington Liquors, a $1,184 inauguration-eve dinner at Capriccio, a $2,603 "Senate dinner" at Costantino's Ristorante on Federal Hill, $2,588 paid to the Butcher Shop Café & Deli for "State of the State" and Black History Month receptions. She also bought $575 worth of "tickets for Senators" to a Rhode Island Trial Judges Association event, and paid $1,558 to a political consulting firm, Vision Strategies.

House Majority Leader Gordon Fox had $90,490 left in his campaign account, after raising $49,675 from every big name lobbyist at the State House, among others, and spending $18,337 during the quarter that ended on March 31. His expenses included $1,500 in gift certificates from the Garden City Shopping Center, another $247 in gifts from what he called "Barrington Liquors,'' and a $4,000 donation to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors had $23,956 left after raising $27,675, and spending $9,771, much of it on meals at his favorite eateries: Mediterraneo, Rick's Roadhouse, The Abbey, Trinity Brewhouse, Z Bar and Grill and El Rancho Grande in Providence.