Posted on 03/23/2006 8:48:23 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
Republican Senate candidate Stephen Laffey once told a newspaper columnist that God wanted him to run for mayor of Cranston.
He spent $2,000 to soundproof his mayoral office because of fears people were eavesdropping.
And when journalists noticed he had digitally erased a former friend from photographs on his campaign Web site, he suggested aliens were to blame.
Jokes and funny stories about Laffey abound among Rhode Island's political insiders. But now he is mounting what could be a serious primary challenge to Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee.
Many Republican leaders, trying to protect their five-seat majority in the Senate, are supporting the politically moderate Chafee. They worry that the more conservative Laffey could win the primary, only to lose the general election in this heavily Democratic state. But other Republicans are angry with Chafee for refusing to back President Bush on the war in Iraq, tax cuts and the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. And they have begun lining up behind Laffey.
The pro-business Club for Growth endorsed the former investment banker and has spent tens of thousands of dollars in recent months on TV ads supporting him. The National Review Online, a conservative publication, recently endorsed Laffey, saying he is a palatable alternative to Chafee, who is serving his first full term.
Local Republican groups dissatisfied with Chafee are starting to back Laffey.
The Republican Town Committee in Exeter, Chafee's hometown, endorsed Laffey last month. Then-chairman William Devanney said he was impressed by what he called Laffey's conservative Republican approach.
Chafee "hasn't been a real voice for the Republican party," Devanney said. "I think he's taken the Democratic view more often."
Laffey, 44, has criticized Chafee's pork-barrel spending and has been highly supportive of the military and the war in Iraq.
Chafee, 52, was the only Republican to vote in 2002 against the resolution authorizing the president to use force against Iraq. Chafee also said earlier this month that he would not rule out a vote censuring Bush for his warrantless wiretapping. (Chafee did not even vote for Bush in 2004, instead writing in his father, George H.W. Bush.)
No independent polls have been released recently on a Laffey-Chafee matchup, and the GOP primary is a long way off, on Sept. 12.
Nationwide, a few senators face primary challenges, but Laffey seems to present the greatest threat of an upset, said Dan Ronayne, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Republican candidates in Rhode Island must walk a fine line. The state has more than three times as many registered Democrats as Republicans.
The winner of the GOP primary will face either Secretary of State Matt Brown or former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse in November, and several statewide polls predict either Democrat would defeat Laffey.
That adds up to a tough choice for Republican voters.
"Do you go with your heart, and your heart might be with Steve Laffey, or do you go with your intellect, your mind and say, 'We need at all costs to hold on to our majority in the Senate and Lincoln Chafee can do that?"' said Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.
Beam me up Scotty...
At the age of 18 (42 years ago) I left and have been happy since.
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