With Election Day 2009 in the record books, we're fast approaching a more active phase of Rhode Island's 2010 campaign season. Here are two recent items of interest on the gubernatorial fight.

-- Yesterday, during a broadcast of WLNE-TV's ABC6 On the Record, state GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione gave voice to what many observers see as General Treasurer Frank Caprio's biggest gubernatorial liability: he faces a challenge in winning a Democratic primary against Attorney General Patrick Lynch, since Lynch is more liberal and may have greater appeal to primary voters. Cicione speaks with candor:  

He'd be better on our side than the side he's running on. I think he's too conservative for the Democratic primary.

-- Kathy Gregg updates the status of Lincoln Chafee's campaign:

To help quell rumors he is not long for the race, Chafee went so far as to make public the results of a telephone survey of 403 likely voters conducted for his campaign by Alpha Research Associates. The poll showed where he would place in a three-way race with newly emerged Republican candidate Rory Smith and either one of the leading Democratic contenders, "if the election were held today.''

Among the findings of the Oct. 26-29 poll:

* In a general election race between Chafee, Smith and Gen. Treasurer Frank Caprio, Chafee would draw 36 percent, Caprio 34 percent and Smith 8 percent, with a majority of those who chose no side saying they did not yet know.

* In a race between Chafee, Smith and Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch, Chafee led the attorney general 37 percent to 24 percent, with Smith drawing 15 percent, and the balance undecided.