Stormy Seas on All Sides
BRISTOL R.I.--When Sheldon Whitehouse, the leading Democratic candidate for the Senate here, spoke at a campaign barbecue last week, he often sounded like the incumbent, Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee.
Voters, munching on hamburgers on Bristol Beach along Narragansett Bay, learned that Whitehouse, like the moderate Chafee, opposed getting into the Iraq war, supports abortion rights, and opposes President Bush's tax cuts. "I think Senator Chafee is a wonderful guy," said Whitehouse, 50, a former attorney general. "The problem is we can't afford him anymore. We are a little state, but we can put the Senate back in Democratic hands."
Even though Chafee is so moderate that he has considered switching parties, the Democrats are targeting him in their quest to gain Senate seats--and for all the trouble he has caused them, the White House is supporting him. The race is wildly unpredictable; in the Ocean State, independents outnumber Democrats and Republicans combined. But Democrats are hoping that President Bush's low approval rating here--23 percent--will translate into votes against the status quo.
Chafee, 53, the son of the late Sen. John Chafee, says it's good for the state to have a Republican senator, and he holds a slight lead over Whitehouse in a recent poll. On a tour last week of a bridge construction project in Quonset Point, Chafee told U.S. News that being in the GOP enabled him to bring home more than $10 million for the project. "We never would have been able to secure this as a minority," he said.
Credentials. Conservatives in his state, however, say he's not Republican enough and instead support primary challenger Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston. Laffey's positions are closer to President Bush's, but national Republican leaders shun Laffey, 44, because they think Chafee has a better chance against Whitehouse.
The primary election in September is particularly uncertain because independents can vote for either side. "This is not your grandfather's Republican primary," says Jennifer Duffy, a Rhode Island native who tracks Senate races for the Cook Political Report. "The way Chafee will win is to get as many independent votes as possible."
The cost of the race seems certain to rise beyond the state's 2000 record of $6.5 million, according to the local press. So far, Whitehouse has raised the most at $2.7 million. Chafee has taken in $1.8 million, and Laffey has received $1.3 million. A lot of that cash is coming from out of state. In March, for example, filmmaker Martin Scorsese held a fundraiser for Whitehouse in Manhattan with Tom Daschle as the guest speaker. Laura Bush raised money for Chafee. Rhode Island may be a tiny state, but this year, it sure is getting a lot of attention.
This story appears in the June 19, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.