"I guess you have to be on the good list to get even a desk and a chair,'' says state Rep. Kathleen Fogarty, the deposed chairwoman of the House Committee on Municipal Government.

PROVIDENCE — Whether it was "retribution" — as some dissident Democrats in the House allege — or simply a lack of available office space, there is now an army of "homeless'' lawmakers roaming the halls of the State House.

"I guess you have to be on the good list to get even a desk and a chair,'' said state Rep. Kathleen Fogarty of South Kingstown, the deposed chairwoman of the House Committee on Municipal Government.

"I never had an office. I've always been in a timeout corner,'' said Rep. Moira Walsh, a second-term Providence Democrat.

Asked last week if any of the dissidents who abstained from the Jan. 1 vote to reelect conservative Cranston Democrat Nicholas Mattiello as speaker had been given an office, House spokesman Larry Berman told Political Scene:

"Every House member has an administrative assistant who answers phone calls, emails and mail. They do not have office space, which is extremely limited and is assigned by the level of responsibility on the leadership team."

Mattiello elaborated in an interview after Thursday's House session: "This is a beautiful building, and it serves our state extraordinarily well, and I am in awe every time I walk into it, but it's not designed to be an office building. We have very limited office space. So, the offices were given out per responsibility on the leadership team and folks that I need to count on to get the state's agenda moving forward. ... We didn't even have enough offices to address everybody on the leadership team. There's a limited supply."

So it's not retribution?

"You know, some folks want to be martyrs,'' he said. But, no, "I have said there is no retribution."

"It's not like I have 19 offices empty ... that are just shuttered up."

Those with a desk, a chair and a phone in an assigned office include the nine Republicans, who all share space in the House Minority Office; and Democratic Reps. Marvin Abney, Mia Ackerman, Karen Alzate, Gregg Amore, Sam Azzinaro, Jean Philippe Barros, David Bennett, Christopher Blazejewski, Dennis Canario, Stephen Casey, Julie Casimiro, Gregory Costantino, Robert Craven, Grace Diaz, John "Jay" Edwards, Deborah Fellela, Bernard Hawkins, James Jackson, Robert Jacquard, Raymond Johnston, Brian Kennedy, Charlene Lima, Shelby Maldonado, Alex Marszalkowski, Mattiello, Carol Hagan McEntee, Daniel McKiernan, James McLaughlin, Joseph McNamara, Mario Mendez, Christopher Millea, Michael Morin, Thomas Noret, William O'Brien, Robert Phillips, Jose Serodio, Patricia Serpa, Evan Shanley, Joseph Shekarchi, Scott Slater, Joseph Solomon, Carlos Tobon, Camille Vella-Wilkinson, Stephen Ucci and Anastasia Williams.

The count: 54 of the 75 House members have office space, including the seven freshmen — Alzate, Hawkins, Jackson, Millea, Mendez, Nardone and Noret — who voted for Mattiello on opening day.

The 21 who do not have offices include the 19 dissidents and Rep. Kenneth Marshall, who did not run for reelection but jumped back into the fray as a candidate when the Democrat elected to succeed him resigned amid controversy. The only other Democrat who did not get an office is House Rules Committee Chairman Arthur Corvese, D-North Providence, who told leadership he did not need one.

There has been periodic talk of buying, or building, a standalone office building for the part-time lawmakers who meet, on average, three nights a week, six months a year.

In 2005, the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly secretly put in a bid to buy a vacant downtown office building that was on the hook to the state pension fund and the state economic development agency for $21.5 million in defaulted loans.

Then-House Speaker William J. Murphy and then-Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano made the $20.9-million bid on the General Assembly's behalf to buy the former American Express building next to the train station. They made their unsuccessful play for the building in an auction being conducted by the Rhode Island Public Employees Retirement System, under the supervision of a U.S. bankruptcy court judge.

Former Gov. Bruce Sundlun, a Democrat, led an earlier effort to line up a site and financing for a legislative office building either across the street from the State House on vacant land co-owned by former Senate Majority Leader and state lottery chief Jack Hawkins, or in the former motor-vehicle registry across Smith Street, which houses DOT employees.

It never happened. And the legislature no longer carries a line item in its budget for a "legislative office building."

Donovan: Women

muted, underutilized

Rep. Susan Donovan is one of the dissidents without a desk, phone or chair, aside from her seat on the House floor. The Bristol Democrat was the lead sponsor of a pay-equity bill that, in her view, was so compromised by the time it reached the House floor she still feels betrayed.

Some of her thoughts last week on "the present situation,'' including committee assignments:

"This year a record number of women have been elected to the R.I. House of Representatives raising the number to 26 out of 75 — or 35 percent. With this information in mind, one would think that more women's voices would be represented this term. You would be wrong,'' she said.

"Fourteen of the 26 women of the House have aligned themselves with the Reform Caucus, the group striving for a more democratic, efficient and effective legislative process in the House of Representatives. In retribution for their dissent, the men and women of the Reform Caucus have been sidelined by the House Leadership."

"While the remaining members of the House serve on three to five committees,'' she noted, "the Reform Caucus members now serve only one — their voices muted, and their talents underutilized. Important questions often asked in hearings may go unasked and answers may go unheard."

Her concern: "Rhode Island faces complex challenges in need of solutions; solutions that should come from a diversity of perspectives. This term, 14 elected women's voices will be absent from important conversations about our future."

Lincoln Chafee out

of politics for good?

On the day after The Journal disclosed his family's move to the state of Wyoming, WPRO radio talk show host Tara Granahan asked former Rhode Island Gov. and onetime U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee if he was "out of politics once and for all."

A Republican-turned-Democrat now living in a red state, Chafee answered: "We'll see."

"Certainly I am grateful to the people of Rhode Island that voted for me, I think 10 different times ... for councilman, mayor, senator, governor ... Now this is a new adventure."

"So, Wyoming politics for Lincoln Chafee?"

"We'll see,'' he replied. "I want to get involved in the community here. ... I'm brand new ... so, we'll just see what happens."

Chafee confirmed in an interview with The Journal last week that he and his wife were putting down roots in Teton Village in the state of Wyoming, not far from Jackson Hole, and that his wife had already declared residency in Wyoming and voted there, and he was thinking of doing the same.

"We still have the farm in Exeter and our house in Warwick, and still pay Rhode Island taxes there,'' Chafee said.

Schiff touts herself

for R.I. GOP chairman

Rebecca Schiff, an unsuccessful two-time candidate for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, has stepped up her campaign to become the next chair of the state Republican Party.

Last week, she sent out a "Dear Friends" email to talk about contacts she made on a recent trip to the national GOP winter meeting in New Mexico.

"Along with my 20 years of professional and volunteer fundraising experience, solid national relationships would offer our state party the resources and gravitas we need to fulfill our GOP mission and create a more balanced legislature,'' she wrote.

"I [also] met with the [Republican National Committee] finance director to talk about my possible major donor contribution to the national party, and to better understand the party's fundraising mechanism."

Asked by Political Scene to elaborate, she emailed: "I have been approached by the national party to make a major contribution. I have not made one in the past and I am presently still pondering it.''

Schiff is competing to become the next state party leader after current GOP Chairman Brandon Bell's term ends in March. Asked in an earlier email if she would be as responsive to the media as the affable Bell has usually been, Schiff responded:

"While I admire and respect him, I am not Brandon Bell."

Schiff has not returned phone calls. But when asked about her background, she emailed: "I am a self-employed real estate investor in Rhode Island. RLS Properties, LLC ... I was an Adjunct Professor at the U.S. Naval War College for approximately the last 8 years. I taught civil-military relations and U.S. foreign policy."

"Some of my fundraising experiences include: Harvard University for almost 10 years, as a Director of Alumni Giving; Associate Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations; and a Director of Development, Principal & Major Gifts (I left Harvard in 2016); and a volunteer fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign."

Two other potential candidates have signaled their own interest in the top party post: former state Rep. Robert Lancia and GOP House candidate Michael Veri.