By KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- One-time Republican Secretary of State Susan Farmer is headed for a seat on the Rhode Island Board of Elections.

Governor Chafee's nomination of Farmer to the board -- to the seat currently held by state elections-board chairman John Daluz -- has been moving through the Senate in what is expected to be the final days of the 2011 legislative session, along with a slew of other unannounced appointments. The nomination cleared a Senate committee on Tuesday night.

Farmer and her husband, former Providence City Councilman Malcolm Farmer, were among Chafee's earliest supporters when he started raising money for his campaign for governor in May 2009.

In recent days, Chafee also nominated James DeRentis to the board of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, and Maureen Moakley, the University of Rhode Island political science professor who is a regular on the Rhode Island television network's "Lively Experiment,'' to the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.

A James DeRentis was Chafee's campaign coordinator when he first launched his campaign for governor. There was no immediate response from the governor's press office to a question about whether this was the same one.