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Lincoln Chafee, the man who less than a year ago served as the Republican Senator from Rhode Island, is apparently no longer a Republican today. That’s right, he recently dropped his affiliation with the party to become an independent. “It’s not my party anymore,” he says. “Anymore?” When exactly was it ever your party? It is extremely tempting to point at Chafee’s official change of affiliation and remind President Bush, Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican establishment just how wrong they were. You see, although they all knew how liberal Chafee was, they poured money, effort and endorsements...

Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) beat back a strong primary challenge from Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey (R) tonight, a victory for which national Republicans deserve considerable credit. The Republican National Committee, White House and National Republican Senatorial Committee coordinated on a vast voter identification effort on Chafee's behalf that, combined with sophisticated microtargeting and a big get-out-the-vote operation, won the day for the senator....

Moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, his political career at risk from a more conservative challenger, led in early returns Tuesday in a contest that could be crucial in the larger fight for control of Congress. With 3 percent of precincts reporting, Chafee had 2,735 votes, or 55 percent, to Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey's 2,241 votes, or 45 percent. The last big day of primaries before the November elections also brought intriguing Democratic contests for Senate in Maryland and a House seat in Minnesota. In all, nine states and the District of Columbia voted, with the other states...

by Mark Finkelstein September 12, 2006 - 20:16 What would you call someone who within the last six years has received a 100% rating from NARAL and Planned Parenthood and a 0% from the National Right-to-Life Committee? A 100% rating from the ACLU. A 0% rating from Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. A 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters and a 0% rating from the conservative Family Research Council? Oh, and someone who voted against George W. Bush for president in 2004, against the confirmation of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court, and who demands the withdrawal of US...

Rhode Island's independent-minded Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) confronted stiff opposition Tuesday in his bid for a second term, the latest race with a moderate targeted by his own party's hard-line critics. Nine states and Washington, D.C., were holding primary elections Tuesday, but Chafee's race has drawn the most attention as another test of the depth of anti-incumbent sentiment and the erosion of the political middle ground. Chafee has a remarkable amount of support from national Republicans, especially for a senator who has often been at odds with the party, bucking the administration on tax cuts, civil...

On Tuesday, the GOP primary in Rhode Island pits Sen. Lincoln Chafee against Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey. Whatever else may be said about Chafee, he has been a very reliable vote against obstructionist filibusters of judicial nominees. He's voted for cloture all 25 times (see details below the fold). According to Rasmussen, Chafee has pulled to within two points of Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in his bid for re-election (i.e. 44% for Whitehouse and 42% for Chafee). Whitehouse previously had a six point lead. But Chafee must first face off against Laffey, on Tuesday. Rasmussen has Whitehouse leading Laffey 58%...

With a barrage of television advertisements and the mobilization of its get-out-the-vote machine, the national Republican Party has lined up in Rhode Island to beat back a conservative primary challenge to the most liberal Republican in the Senate, Lincoln Chafee. The outcome on Tuesday could help determine whether Democrats have a shot at taking back the Senate. In an extraordinary pre-emptive announcement, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has said it will concede Rhode Island to the Democrats should Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, defeat Mr. Chafee in the primary.

Few incumbents have been as besieged in this year’s campaign season as moderate Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record), who faces a threatening challenge from conservative Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey in the Sept. 12 primary. And the final days of that contest have been as rough on Chafee as what came before: He has found himself obliged to disavow some of his own side’s hard-hitting negative ads aimed at Laffey, and facing criticism from Laffey and allied conservatives concerning his indecision over whether to support Senate confirmation of John R. Bolton, President Bush’s confrontational appointee as...

September 3, 2006 Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee (R ) has pulled to within two points of challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in his bid for re-election. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll in Rhode Island shows Whitehouse earning support from 44% of voters while Chafee attracts 42% (see crosstabs). Whitehouse had a six point lead last month. Based upon this poll we are shifting the Rhode Island Senate race from “Leans Democrat” to “Toss-Up” in our Senate Balance of Power ratings. Rhode Island is the fifth race in the Toss-Up category. Though he has his sights set on Whitehouse,...

The Talk Shows Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and his Democratic challenger, state treasurer Robert Casey. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and his primary challenger, Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey; actress and animal rights activist Bo Derek. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Rep. Christopher Shays,...

Preview and Analysis of the Weekend Talk Shows for 9/2 and 9/3/06It's Labor Day weekend!  The press can now concentrate (without feeling silly) on the Fall elections.  Who cares if there's actual news that might affect the future of human existence, let alone the fortunes of the United States and all Americans?  They get to report on the horse race!Meet The Press starts off the Sunday shows in my area, so I'll talk about them first.  Lil' Timmah is back and he's got a signature MTP event - live debates.  He'll get to sit upright to ask questions of Casey...

U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee may lose his seat to challenger Steve Laffey, according to a new statewide Republican primary voter poll released today by the Bureau of Government Research and Services at Rhode Island College. The survey was conducted August 28-30, 2006, at Rhode Island College by Victor L. Profughi, director of the Bureau of Government Research and Services. It is based on a statewide random sample of 363 likely Republican primary voters in Rhode Island. The sample was proportioned among the state’s geographic regions to reflect the likely voter contribution from each portion of the state. Overall, the poll...

COVENTRY, R.I. -- It was getting dark, but Stephen Laffey removed his cap, wiped his sweaty brow and sprinted across the lawn to greet one more voter. Glenn Myers, stocky and middle-aged, opened the screen door to shake hands with the 44-year-old Cranston mayor. "I believe in you," he told Laffey, who was barnstorming the neighborhood with his wife and five kids and various high school friends. "And I hope you beat the pants off of Lincoln Chafee." The Laffey-Chafee Republican showdown Sept. 12 is the next chapter in the turbulent 2006 election saga. A spate of primary upsets --...

Sen. Lincoln Chafee and Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey sparred over how to handle the war in Iraq, the benefits of embryonic stem cell research and the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice in their first televised debate Wednesday night. Supporters gave both candidates a standing ovation and chanted their names as they emerged from their dressing rooms before the debate. Polls have shown them running neck-and-neck in a Senate race that has gained national attention, and both are looking for an edge as the Sept. 12 primary approaches. The candidates and their parties are putting millions of dollars into the...

WARWICK, R.I. Senator Lincoln Chafee and Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey will meet tonight in their first televised debate. The two Republicans have sparred over taxes, immigration, national security and personal character during radio debates held during the past two weeks. They are scheduled to appear tonight before a live audience at Toll Gate High School in Warwick, where Chafee once served as mayor. The candidates face each other in the September 12th Republican primary. The race has gained national attention as Republican leaders consider Chafee's seat crucial in keeping their slim majority in the Senate. The winner of the Republican...

Is there room left in the Senate for a courageous moderate Republican? Not if Steve Laffey, who wants to oust Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island, has anything to say about it "I just saw you on television," the elderly woman is saying from behind her screen door. "Were they attacking me, or was I talking?" Steve Laffey, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island, asks. It was an ad, the woman says. About your parents. Alzheimer's, she says. Laffey's father has Alzheimer's. The ad is about the working-class modesty of the Laffey family. The candidate is going...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Fresh off their first victory over a Republican incumbent, GOP conservatives seeking party purity on taxes and spending are focused on ousting moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) of Rhode Island. The Club for Growth and its 36,000 members spent around $1 million to help challenger Tim Walberg unseat first-term Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan's Republican primary on Tuesday. The win came despite Schwarz's support from President Bush and the National Rifle Association. Since its inception in 1999, the group has spent millions to help dozens of conservative Republicans win seats in Congress —...

It is hard to imagine two politicians less similar than Steve Laffey and the man whose job he’s trying to take, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. Laffey and Chafee both carry the Republican label. The similarity ends there. Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, R.I., and the challenger in the Sept. 12 Republican primary, is a hyperkinetic, fast-talking son of the working class. “My father was a tool maker, he never went to college. I’m the only Laffey in the history of Laffeys who ever went to college,” he said. He graduated from Bowdoin College and Harvard Business School, before...

U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee is locked in a close race with Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse in the Senate general election, according to a new statewide survey conducted by researchers at Brown University. The survey was conducted June 24-26, 2006, at Brown University by Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and the John Hazen White Sr. Public Opinion Laboratory. It is based on a statewide random sample of 719 registered voters in Rhode Island. Overall, the poll had a margin of error of about plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. If the general election is held today,...

A poll out today shows that Senator Lincoln Chafee has lost ground among Republicans and faces a very serious challenge from Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey in his battle for re-election. The poll by Rhode Island College shows that if the Republican primary were held today and only registered Republicans voted, Laffey would defeat Chafee, 45 to 28 percent. Chafee would do better if the primary drew a large number of unaffiliated voters, but the race would still be too close to call. If three-fourths of the votes cast in the primary came from unaffiliated voters, the poll predicts Chafee would...

The conservative Club for Growth has released highlights of a poll that shows Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in a statistical dead heat with his Republican primary challenger, Stephen P. Laffey. The Washington-based group, which has endorsed Laffey, said its survey of 300 very likely Republican primary voters showed that Chafee would get 45.7 of the vote if the election ``were held today'' and Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, would get 44.3 percent

Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee (R) continues to have a very tough row to hoe in his reelection battle, and fails to reach 50% support against his likely Democratic opponent. He also faces a stiff challenge for the Republican nomination from Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey. When voters are asked about prospective match-ups, Chafee narrowly leads the likely Democratic candidate, former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse, by 44% to 41%, a tossup (see crosstabs). Another Democrat, Secretary of State Matt Brown, dropped out of the race in late April. Rhode Island is one of the more critical states in the electoral competition...

In Rhode Island, Chafee Leads by Double Digits A new Rhode Island College poll shows Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) with a double-digit lead over Sheldon Whitehouse (D), 51% to 32%. When Steve Laffey (R) is the GOP nominee, Whitehouse wins, 50% to 27%. However, in the GOP primary Chafee is ahead of Laffey by a wide margin, 56% to 28%. In Pennsylvania, Santorum Continues to Trail The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) trailing rival Bob Casey (D) by 13 percentage points, 51% to 38%. "Santorum is struggling with his base, consistently earning less than 70% of...

Election 2006 Rhode Island Senate Lincoln Chafee (R) 47% Matt Brown (D) 40% RasmussenReports.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Election 2006 Rhode Island Senate Lincoln Chafee (R) 50% Sheldon Whitehouse (D) 38% RasmussenReports.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Election 2006 Rhode Island Senate Steve Laffey (R) 30% Matt Brown (D) 54% RasmussenReports.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Election 2006 Rhode Island Senate Steve Laffey (R) 30% Sheldon Whitehouse (D) 55% RasmussenReports.com

"I want to support President Bush's choice to the Supreme Court," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island on January 30. "The president did win the election." It was a bizarre statement because Chafee not only refused to support Bush's most recent choice for the Supreme Court — he was the single Republican to oppose the confirmation of Samuel Alito — but also refused to support Bush's reelection in 2004. On Election Day, he wrote in the name of Bush's father, in "symbolic protest" of the current president's positions on abortion, gay marriage, oil drilling, tax cuts, and Iraq. One...

I rarely concern myself with Congressional races outside of Idaho, but I'm making an exception in wading into the Rhode Island Senate Race. For more than 30 years, the Republican Party has put up with the liberal shenanigans of the Chaffee family, more in tune with the Democratic Party than the Republican. However, in recent years, Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) has taken this disloyalty too far. In the year 2004, Chafee failed to support the re-election of George W. Bush as President of the United States, instead opting to write-in the President's father. Chafee has joined the Michael Moore wing...

LET'S GO RINO HUNTING! (January 31, 2006) - Judge Sam Alito was confirmed today. He now becomes JUSTICE Sam Alito and soon will bring some additional constitutional sanity to the Supreme Court. The vote was, I believe, 58-42. But there was one vote in there that conservatives should REALLY be outraged over. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island Republican, voted...NO. This is simply an unforgivable vote by a Republican senator. Sam Alito clearly had superior credentials for a seat on the Supreme Court. There is no acceptable reason whatsoever for Chafee to vote against Alito's nomination. None whatsoever. Chafee is running...

I have seen a number of posts asking about who is challenging RINO in Chief Senator Chaffe in the Republican Primary. This is the Website I was directed to. Suggest anyone as angry as I, about Chaffe's utterly disgraceful comments in rationalizing his betryal of the party to side with the Democrats on Alito help spread the word. Chaffe's seat is NOT safe and after today's fiasco he should be out of the party,

Mayor Laffey lamented Senator Chafee’s announcement this morning that he will vote to oppose Judge Alito’s nomination in the Senate and cited the Senator’s announcement as further proof of Senator Chafee’s extremist positions. It has been almost a week since the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Judge Alito’s nomination to the full Senate. Almost all Republican Senators have announced their positions, and numerous moderate Democrats have come out in favor of the nomination. Senator Chafee’s indecision and now, his opposition, leaves one to wonder what his true intentions are. “It’s disappointing, but not at all surprising,” Mayor Laffey said....

A Republican primary challenge to Senator Chafee of Rhode Island is attracting backing from national groups that favor tax cuts and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. The mayor of Cranston, R.I., Stephen Laffey, 43, is hoping to unseat Lincoln Chafee, a Republican who was appointed to the Senate in 1999 after the unexpected death of his father, John Chafee, and who won election to his father's former seat the following year.

CRANSTON -- The School Department is not happy that some middle school students were asked to write their views on same-sex marriage and that their work was published in a local newspaper as letters to the editor. M. Richard Scherza, assistant superintendent of schools, said yesterday that the topic -- on which Park View Middle School eighth graders expressed their views in this week's edition of the Cranston Herald -- was not appropriate for that age group and he will take up the matter with administrators and teachers. "I don't know exactly how this came about, but it is a...

Laffey – A Conservative Alternative?? “I don’t have a plan, no one has a plan that actually lowers taxes.”–Mayor Steven Laffey, 1/29/2003 Today, Club for Growth, a self-described conservative 527 organization, endorsed Steven Laffey for Rhode Island’s U.S. Senate seat. In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Club for Growth Chairman, Pat Toomey, implies that Mr. Laffey will carry the Ronald Reagan torch for limited government and tax reductions. In fact, Club for Growth portrays Mr. Laffey's record as Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island as one that highlighted hard-nosed spending cuts to correct Cranston’s troubled budget woes. That is plainly and...

Describing his 1976 challenge to incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan wrote, "It was time to scale back the size of the federal government, reduce taxes and government intrusion in our lives, balance the budget, and return to the people the freedoms usurped from them by the bureaucrats." Reagan helped define the mission of the Republican Party. By re-establishing limited government as the central principle of the GOP, he laid the groundwork for the political revolution that bears his name. Almost 30 years later, the Republican Party is at a similar defining moment. Once again, challengers to certain Republican...

But with the Republican Party's hold on the Senate looking tenuous, the party of Wall Street and the religious right is suddenly chummy with its most prominent environmentalist. With a tough race looming, and a solid conservative challenging Chafee in the primary, Republican elites are sending checks to Rhode Island -- to help Chafee.

You want to know why Republicans in Congress, particularly in the Senate, seem so weak, disorganized, and inept? It's because of the same sort of mentality that led them to do this: "The National Republican Senatorial Committee is up with its second ad this month attacking Cranston (R.I.) Mayor Steve Laffey, who is challenging Sen. Lincoln Chafee in next year's GOP primary. The new ad, which takes the form of a cartoon, paints Laffey as a comic-book character starring in "Laffeyland Tales." The narrator says Laffey used taxpayer dollars to soundproof his mayoral office and spent "thousands on spy cameras...

Warwick, R.I. -- Liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee refused to support President Bush in the last election, opposed the GOP tax cuts and was the only Republican to vote against the use of military force in Iraq, a war he has likened to Vietnam. So why, a year before the election, is the GOP embracing Chafee and spending close to $200,000 on television ads aimed at undercutting his conservative rival in the Republican primary, Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey? Like him or not, Republicans consider Chafee their best chance to win in heavily Democratic Rhode Island.

"Folks, I stand here today outraged by Senator Chafee’s vote to continue wasteful pork spending in Washington. Last week, in the Providence Journal, Senator Chafee’s spokesperson said that the Senator has, “been a leader in the fight to curb wasteful federal spending.” Well, yesterday’s vote on the “Bridge to Nowhere” clearly disproves that statement. In Six years in the US Senate and as Mayor of Warwick, Linc. Chafee has not taken on the special interests. He hasn’t, he didn’t yesterday, and he won’t take on the special interests…. Senator Coburn introduced an amendment to the Transportation Appropriations bill to stop...

National Republicans have spent at least $147,200 so far on an ad campaign aimed at sucking the air out of Cranston Republican Mayor Stephen P. Laffey's U.S. Senate bid. Paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the ads describe Laffey as everything from goofy and eccentric, to "slick" and hypocritical. And this is just the beginning, with political analysts from here to Washington to the University of Virginia debating whether these early-and-often TV attack ads will backfire on the Republican incumbent the national committee is trying to help: Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee. The risks are many. Voters could hold...

Steve Laffey wants to become the Pat Toomey of 2006, with one important difference. Whereas former congressman Toomey failed in his bid to unseat liberal Republican senator Arlen Specter in last year’s Pennsylvania GOP primary, Laffey hopes to upset liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee in next September’s Rhode Island GOP primary. “Our nation is not in good financial shape,” says Laffey. “I want to give the smallest state the strongest voice in the Senate.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee is so concerned about Laffey that it’s already running a negative-ad campaign against him on television — and spending scads of...

Rhode Island's Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who opposes much of President Bush's agenda, including the tax cuts that pulled the U.S. economy out of a slump, is the Senate's most vulnerable Republican. With good reason, just the mention of Mr. Chafee's name in the West Wing triggers scowls. To say this renegade liberal, who admits he didn't vote for Mr. Bush, is not a team player is putting it mildly. But in the battle to keep the Democrats from making gains in the Senate next year, Mr. Bush's election strategist Karl Rove and Senate Republican campaign chief Elizabeth Dole are clearly...

I have answered your call! I have heard you; you urged me to run and now I am. On Thursday September 8, 2005 I declared my candidacy for the United States Senate. The Washington insiders and party bosses don’t want me to run. They want to keep Senator Lincoln Chafee in Washington. But I have a secret weapon that the political insiders and party bosses don’t have, I have YOU! With your help I can win a seat in the United States Senate. You have already helped me take the first step by urging me to run; now you can...

So now we know. Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey will indeed challenge incumbent Linc Chafee in a 2006 Republican Senate primary. But, at his Thursday night announcement speech, it remained hazy how Laffey intends to wage that race -- or why voters would want to dump Chafee for him. Laffey's kick-off in Cranston's Knights of Columbus Hall certainly did not fit the script you might have imagined: That he would focus, at least initially, on GOP conservatives the liberal Chafee has alienated by his refusal to vote in 2004 for George Bush (instead writing in the name of the president's father)...

CRANSTON -- Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey announced today he will run for U.S. Senate in 2006 against incumbent and fellow Republican Lincoln D. Chafee, in what is expected to be an expensive and closely-watched campaign. Laffey, 43, becomes the only other member of Chafee's party to enter the race. Two Democrats, Secretary of State Matt Brown and former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse, are also running. Laffey, the outspoken mayor of Rhode Island's second-largest city, said today that he wants to give the smallest state in the union "the strongest voice in Washington." He said he would fight big drug...

Cranston Republican Mayor Steve Laffey says he's taking the summer to decide if he will make a bid for the Senate seat now held by incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee. "If I conclude that the best way for me (to serve) is to run for the United States Senate, then I will do that," Laffey said in a statement.

A group of Republicans statewide has organized a committee to encourage Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey to challenge Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in 2006. There are 85 names on a letter given to Laffey yesterday, including 2000 gubernatorial candidate James Bennett, Cranston state Representatives Carol Mumford and James F. Davey, East Providence Mayor Joseph Larisa and members of city and town councils, party members and business people. Former Cranston Republican City Committee Chairman Gary Vierra said that he and others -- mostly members of the Cranston GOP -- were behind the effort, which was launched two weeks ago. Vierra said...

GOP superstar, and VERY, VERY likely candidate for US Senate vs. Linc Chafee, Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey has his 1st ammedment rights stripped by the union thug controled RI Board of Elections. It seems that the union thugs who control RI are fully backing the re-election of RINO Senator Linc Chafee. They have created an all out war with the Mayor and they have now manuevered to get his weekely radio program pulled from the air by the RI Board of Elections. These union thugs are the same guys who all disaffiliated and regested Republican in the 2004 Mayoral primaries...

Mayor Stephen P. Laffey will have carte blanche to decorate the City Hall lawn to his heart’s content; the City Council last week decided not to vote on a measure than would put the City Hall grounds under direct council control and restrict holiday decorations to strings of clear lights. The measure, sponsored by Councilor Paula B. McFarland, was introduced for discussion at last Thursday’s council ordinance committee meeting. McFarland did not attend the meeting because of scheduling conflicts, but she had previously said the mayor had no business covering the City Hall lawn with religious displays. Although she did...

Chafee's critics Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who declared he was not voting for George W. Bush's re-election and considered leaving the Republican Party, may face trouble in Rhode Island's 2006 GOP primary. Chafee's conduct upset Rhode Island Republicans, who may support Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey in a possible Senate bid. Laffey, who describes himself as a populist and is more conservative than Chafee, won re-election by a landslide in heavily Democratic Cranston after cleaning up its finances. Independent voters, comprising about half of Rhode Island's electorate, can vote in the Republican primary to save Chafee. But many will be attracted to...

RINO Chafee to face primary challenge in 2006? Chafee's critics by Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who declared he was not voting for George W. Bush's re-election and considered leaving the Republican Party, may face trouble in Rhode Island's 2006 GOP primary. Chafee's conduct upset Rhode Island Republicans, who may support Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey in a possible Senate bid. Laffey, who describes himself as a populist and is more conservative than Chafee, won re-election by a landslide in heavily Democratic Cranston after cleaning up its finances. Independent voters, comprising about half of Rhode Island's electorate,...