Laffey vs. Chafee

[ScreamingEagle]

In Rhode Island a conservative Republican wants to run in the GOP primary next year against a sitting liberal Republican for the Senate seat. Guess who the GOP is supporting?

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 money to protect the incumbency of a GOP senator who has talked openly about quitting the party and who also refused to vote for President Bush last year in what he called a “symbolic protest.” In fact, it’s a virtual certainty that the NRSC is right now committing more of its resources to beating Laffey than it is to beating any single Democrat.

Laffey is the mayor of Cranston, a city of about 80,000. He was first elected in 2002, and then reelected last year, in this overwhelmingly Democratic municipality. He doesn’t call himself a conservative — “I’ll let others come up with the labels” — but consider: He’s pro-life, supports the Bush tax cuts and the war in Iraq, and says he would have voted to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement. “We need to simplify the tax code and get rid of corporate welfare,” he says. As a critic of Bush’s Social Security proposals, a foe of oil drilling in the Arctic, and an enthusiastic supporter of solar panels, Laffey wouldn’t be the most conservative member of the Senate. But it’s not as though Chafee, whose lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is a pathetic 41, is competing for that honor.
http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller200510180823.asp

 

[5stringJeff]

I'm not impressed with the party machine - in this case, the NRSC. Go Laffey!

 

[Annie]

In Rhode Island a conservative Republican wants to run in the GOP primary next year against a sitting liberal Republican for the Senate seat. Guess who the GOP is supporting?

If I lived there, I'd work my butt off for him!