THE HILL
State by
state
RHODE
ISLAND
By Peter
Savodnik
The battle
between the
conservative,
pro-tax-cuts
Club for
Growth and
the centrist
Republican
Main Street
Partnership
erupted in
Rhode Island
yesterday
when the
Club
endorsed
Cranston,
R.I., Mayor
Stephen
Laffey, who
is
challenging
Sen. Lincoln
Chafee (R)
in a GOP
primary, and
Main Street
supported
Chafee.
The Club
also went
head to head
with Main
Street in
Pennsylvania
last year,
when
then-Rep.
Pat Toomey
(R)
challenged
Sen. Arlen
Specter (R)
from the
right.
Now Toomey
is the
Club's
president,
and Rhode
Island looks
to be the
Pennsylvania
of 2006.
The Club
endorsed
Laffey
yesterday.
In an op-ed
in The Wall
Street
Journal,
Toomey
called the
mayor a
Reagan
Republican
and said
Chafee
"epitomizes
the GOP's
waning
commitment
to
limited-government
economic
freedom."
Main
Street's
executive
director,
Sarah
Chamberlain
Resnick,
deplored the
divisiveness
of the
primary and
questioned
Laffey's
commitment
to tax cuts,
saying he
had backed a
13 percent
supplemental
property-tax
increase on
homeowners.
