Congress Daily
By Mark Wegner
SENATE RACES
Club For Growth Endorses Laffey Challenge To Chafee
Club for Growth President Patrick Toomey announced today that his group's PAC will support Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey in his bid to deny Rhode Island's Republican nomination to Sen. Lincoln Chafee. Toomey said Laffey agrees with the Club's objective of limited government and lower taxes and said Laffey's rise from a child of working-class parents to successful investment banker and mayor would appeal to Rhode Island voters. "What we care about is how he stands on our issues, but a lot of people find [his background] appealing," Toomey said. In other races, the group's PAC endorsement has resulted in donations totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing to the endorsed candidate.
Moderate Republicans and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which support Chafee's re-election, responded to the Club endorsement by noting that Laffey raised taxes three times as mayor -- actions they said run counter to the Club's "pro-growth" agenda.
Republican Main Street Partnership Executive Director Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, whose group backs moderate Republicans, said her group views Chafee's re-election as a priority race and has budgeted as much as $1.2 million to defend him. "This time the Club for Growth is totally, totally off the reservation. He is not a tax-cutter. He is a tax-raiser," Resnick said of Laffey. An NRSC spokesman noted that it has already run two television ads in Rhode Island to try to influence early voter opinions of Laffey. "When you look at Mayor Laffey's record, it is not one you would describe as conservative. It is anything but," he said. Democrats have already marked Chafee's seat as a top target. Strategists in both parties have said they believe Democrats would have a better chance of winning the seat if Laffey, not the incumbent Chafee, is the GOP nominee. However, both parties face Sept. 12 primaries, which are late in the 2006 cycle and leave little time before the November elections. Democrats must decide between former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse and Rhode Island Secretary of State Matt Brown.
Toomey said Laffey inherited a city in poor fiscal condition and one with unfavorable labor contracts. "It's really hard to take that criticism seriously. He stepped into mayorship of a city that was within weeks of going into insolvency," Toomey countered. The Laffey endorsement is the PAC's second endorsement this year of a challenger to a GOP incumbent. The group endorsed former GOP state Rep. Tim Wahlberg, who is expected to challenge freshman Rep. Joe Schwarz, R-Mich. Toomey dismissed criticism that he was hurting the Republican Party in a critical race in a difficult political environment. "Our members care about politicians who are interested in promoting the pro-growth agenda and we don't really care about what establishment politicians think," Toomey said.
