CQ TODAY -
POLITICS &
ELECTIONS
Club for Growth
Targets Chafee
in Primary;
Some in GOP
Oppose
Infighting
By Gregory L.
Giroux, CQ Staff
The Club for
Growth, a
conservative
political
organization
that supports
cutting taxes
and spending,
announced Monday
that it was
backing a
primary
challenge to
Republican Sen.
Lincoln Chafee,
a leading GOP
moderate who
faces a vigorous
re-election
campaign in
Rhode Island.
The Club's
widely expected
decision to
endorse Stephen
Laffey, the
mayor of
Cranston, over
Chafee was
revealed in a
conference call
Monday by the
group's
president,
former Rep.
Patrick J.
Toomey, R-Pa.
(1999-2005).
Toomey praised
Laffey's record
as mayor and
attacked Chafee
for opposing
some tax cut
measures and a
system of
private accounts
under Social
Security, and
for supporting
an increase in
the minimum wage
and an overhaul
of campaign
finance laws.
Chafee last
month voted
against the
Senate's $60
billion tax
reconciliation
bill (S 2020).
"Lincoln Chafee
is a
big-government,
tax-and-spend
liberal,"
charged Toomey,
who narrowly
lost a Senate
race to
Republican
moderate Arlen
Specter in a
2004 primary.
The Club's
announcement
puts it at odds
with the White
House and the
National
Republican
Senatorial
Committee (NRSC),
which are
backing Chafee
as the only
Republican who
could win in
decidedly
Democratic Rhode
Island.
The NRSC has
aired television
advertisements
critical of
Laffey's record
as mayor. The
Republican Main
Street
Partnership (RMSP),
which backs
Chafee and other
centrist
Republicans,
called the
Club's decision
"a slap in the
face to the
Republican
Party" and
accused Laffey
of raising taxes
and spending as
mayor.
"The Club for
Growth is
totally, totally
off the
reservation,"
said RMSP
executive
director Sarah
Chamberlain
Resnick.
Toomey said that
the tax
increases Laffey
supported were
necessary to
avert city
bankruptcy.
Chamberlain
Resnick
condemned the
Club for Growth
for exacerbating
an intraparty
squabble that
will not be
resolved until
the primary
Sept. 12, just
eight weeks
before the
November
election. Rhode
Island Secretary
of State Matt
Brown, former
state Attorney
General Sheldon
Whitehouse and
businessman Carl
Sheeler are
competing for
the Democratic
nomination.
"It's going
to be bloody,
unfortunately,
between the two
Republicans,"
Chamberlain
Resnick said.
"The Democrats
will be able to
use the
ammunition, and
I find it very
concerning for [Chafee]
for the November
general."
But Toomey
argued that
Laffey could
prevail in a
general election
in Rhode Island.
He pointed to
Laffey's
political
successes in
Cranston, where
he was
re-elected mayor
last year by a
2-1 ratio even
as Democratic
presidential
nominee John
Kerry of
Massachusetts
was taking 58
percent of the
city's vote, as
evidence of "the
appeal he can
have to
Democrats and
independents."
Targeting
Incumbents
Chafee is the
second GOP
incumbent the
Club for Growth
is targeting in
a primary
election. Last
month it
announced it
would oppose
freshman Rep.
Joe Schwarz, R-Mich.,
in favor of
conservative
primary
challenger Tim
Walberg, a
former state
House member who
lost a crowded
2004 primary to
Schwartz in the
state's 7th
District. In
that contest,
Schwarz, the
lone moderate in
the field,
outran five
conservatives.
Walberg placed
third in the
balloting.
Toomey said the
Republicans need
to be held
accountable for
drifting from
fiscally
conservative
precepts,
pointing to the
highway bill (PL
109-59) and the
2003
prescription
drug law (PL
108-173) as
particularly
egregious
examples of GOP
leaders favoring
bigger
government.
"We've been very
disturbed by the
trend to expand
government,"
Toomey said.
But Chamberlain
Resnick said
that Republicans
would be better
served hoarding
their resources
to oppose
Democrats.
"It's just not
helpful to have
infighting,"
Chamberlain
Resnick said.
"Again, let's
fight the
Democrats, let's
not fight each
other."
