By Nicole Duran and Mark
Preston,
Roll Call Staff
Now that Cranston, R.I.,
Mayor Stephen Laffey has chosen to buck his
party and challenge Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.)
in the GOP primary next year, Chafee's
colleagues are quickly rallying behind him.
While Chafee has not always
been a reliable vote for his leaders, the
Senate's two top Republicans reiterated
their support last week.
Senate Majority Whip Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.), who appeared in Rhode
Island on Chafee's behalf in February,
huddled with him on the Senate floor
Thursday night, shortly after Laffey
declared his candidacy.
"Not only am I, but our
entire [GOP] Conference is committed to
Linc's re-election," McConnell said in an
interview. "We are going to help him in
every way. We have a broad-based party and
we are proud of our Northeastern moderates.
He is an important part of our team."
Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) echoed McConnell's
pledge of loyalty.
"I have told Linc I will
be supporting him," Frist said in an
interview. "I haven't seen the primary
challenger to evaluate everything, but I
told Linc I would be happy to help him out
in any way I can."
Chafee said he was prepared
for Laffey long before Thursday's
announcement.
Unlike many Senators who move
their families to the Washington, D.C., area
after being elected, Chafee said his wife
and children recently moved back to Rhode
Island, and acknowledged that the campaign
was "a big factor" in that decision. When
Senate business does not obligate him to be
on Capitol Hill, Chafee is expected to be
spending his time crisscrossing the state to
meet with voters.
Noting that about only 10
percent of registered voters in the state
are Republicans, Chafee conceded that,
"Republican primaries are dangerous in Rhode
Island."
As one of the leading
centrist Republicans in the Senate, Chafee
said part of his strategy would be to try to
convince Democrats and politically
unaffiliated voters to vote for him in the
September GOP primary.
Rhode Island election law
allows unaffiliated voters to participate in
the primary - they simply must choose one
party's ballot or the other's. Affiliated
voters must either change their party
registration or declare themselves
independents by June if they wish to
participate in the other party's primary.
"The challenge is getting the
unaffiliated," Chafee said. "And if you have
supporters who are Democrats, make sure they
disaffiliate 60 days prior to the primary.
"That takes some planning. I
certainly will work at finding my supporters
in the unaffiliated ranks and making sure
they turn out" for the primary, Chafee said.
Sarah Chamberlain Resnick,
executive director of the Republican Main
Street Partnership, which supports moderate
Republicans, called on the Club for Growth,
which supports limited government and is
considering backing Laffey, to join the Main
Street group in supporting Chafee.
Noting that Cranston's
property tax rate has increased
significantly under Laffey - The Providence
Journal reported that Cranston has one of
the highest property tax rates in the state
- Resnick said the Club should have no
reason to back Laffey.
"The Club for Growth and
[President] Pat Toomey made 'tax hikes vs.
tax cuts' their litmus test for support of
any candidate nationwide," she said. "They
ought to stand by that creed."
Toomey did not respond to
Roll Call's messages by press time Friday.
Laffey was nonchalant about whether the Club
will back him.
"I have met with the Club
for Growth; I haven't talked to them in many
months," he said Friday. "I have my
philosophy. People who agree with my
philosophy are ready and welcome to join
me."
Laffey and the group have
at least one thing in common: consulting
firms. Red Sea in Washington, D.C., has
produced numerous ads for the Club for
Growth and Toomey in his unsuccessful effort
last year to unseat Sen. Arlen Specter in
Pennsylvania's Republican primary. Laffey's
mayoral campaign account paid out almost
$13,000 to Red Sea for "research and
consulting."
Laffey said the money was
paid from his mayoral account to explore
races for state government offices, which is
legal under campaign finance laws, not the
Senate race, which would not be.
Laffey said he is unconcerned
about the Republican Party apparatus being
behind Chafee and pledging not to help him
should he win the primary. But Laffey said
he never considered running as an
independent.
Laffey said he is running
because he is fed up with Washington's
"special interests" calling the shots, and
because he is a financial expert who can
straighten out the nation's budget deficit.
"I'm running for the United
States Senate because the smallest state in
the Union needs the strongest voice in the
Senate: to fight the big drug companies; to
fight the other special interests that have
corrupted our tax code and have hurt the
hardworking taxpayers of Rhode Island," he
said in his speech at the Cranston Knights
of Columbus on Thursday night.
But why knock off Chafee, who
is seen by national GOP leaders as the only
Republican who can hold the Senate seat in a
heavily Democratic state?
"Linc Chafee is a nice man, I
like him on a personal level," Laffey said.
"The problem is that Washington is now run
by the special interests ... and he's not
standing up for Rhode Island."
Laffey also disputed the
conventional wisdom that he will be buried
financially by the national GOP and Chafee's
personal wealth.
He noted that his background
as an investment banker shows he knows how
to raise capital, and said he can contribute
to his own campaign as well."I will put in
the amount of money and loan the amount of
money to my campaign that is appropriate,
that shows everybody that I got my skin in
the game."
