U.S. Chamber of Commerce
throws support to Chafee
The
U.S. senator earns the group's support by voting its position 82 percent of the time on key legislation in 2004.
Providence Journal Staff Writer
The
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing some 3 million businesses, formally endorsed Sen. Lincoln Chafee's reelection yesterday, with promises of money and "people on the ground" to help the incumbent Republican beat back well-financed primary and general election challengers.
The chamber looked past policy differences with Chafee on environmental, tax and labor issues, to back the senator over his primary opponent, Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey.
The endorsement comes one month after the conservative, anti-tax group Club for Growth announced it would support Laffey.
The Chamber of Commerce claims that it is the world's largest business federation. The chamber's political arm will become involved in about 10 U.S. Senate races and about 25 U.S. House races this year, said Bill Miller, chamber vice president and political director.
Chafee said the endorsement is important "to show that not only can I win the endorsement of the environmental groups, but also the business groups. There is no more powerful business group than the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce."
Endorsements from the chamber and from the Club for Growth provide "access to donors and national money," said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate campaign analyst with the Cook Political Report in
Washington. "The one difference is that the club doesn't have much of a membership that lives and votes in
Rhode Island -- the chamber does."
Still, the endorsements are "incremental steps in what is a long, long race," she said.
Laffey's campaign yesterday noted that the chamber acknowledged last November it would back Chafee, and accused the senator of "recycling" endorsements. "Senator Chafee has support from a great many special-interest groups in
Washington and this is just another," said Laffey spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik.
Miller said Chafee earned the endorsement by voting the chamber's position 82 percent of the time on key legislation in 2004.
"From class action [reform] to bankruptcy to medical malpractice, transportation, trade, the CAFTA bill that was hugely important to the business community -- the senator has been supportive on all of those," Miller said. "The bottom line is we have someone who is sympathetic to the business community, and more often than not votes with us."
But Chafee has opposed the chamber on a number of issues, such as the Endangered Species Act, which Chafee supports and which the chamber has criticized; a proposed federal minimum wage hike, which Chafee backs; oil drilling in the ANWAR, which he opposes; and others.
The chamber offers positions on so many issues, few politicians will match up perfectly, Duffy said. She said that Chafee may be the chamber's "most improved" senator; Chafee scored just 57 percent on the chamber's legislative priorities in 2003, most likely for opposing tax cuts, she said.
Brown University Prof. Darrell West, a political scientist, said the chamber endorsement "signifies support in the small-business community" for Chafee, "a strong argument in a Republican primary."
Overlooking differences with Chafee is simple political arithmetic, West said. The chamber would rather have a Republican they like 80 percent of the time than a Democrat who may oppose them more often, West said. "Chafee has a demonstrated record of electability" as a moderate Republican in a state dominated by Democrats.
Miller said he could not guess how much campaign money the chamber could steer toward Chafee. "I do know we carry with us a high level of credibility in elections when people are making determinations about where candidates stand on business issues," he said.
The chamber's political action committee has made a $1,000 donation to Chafee for the 2006 election cycle, according to the independent Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign watchdog group. The chamber PAC gives most of its money -- 76 percent so far this cycle -- to Republicans, but is donating to Democrats such as Sen. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut. The percentage of chamber PAC money going to Democrats has crept up since 1998, when Democrats received only 5 percent.
Chafee said he was not surprised to win the chamber's endorsement, because of his ability to work across the partisan divide. "The value that they appreciate is working from the middle on some of these contentious issues and trying to get good bipartisan support," he said.
