It's not just the primary polls in Rhode Island that seesaw.

It's Round 2 in the Rhode Island senatorial slugfest.

In his victory over conservative challenger Steve Laffey in the Republican primary in Rhode Island, moderate Sen. Lincoln Chafee got a little help from some not so obvious friends: the Bush White House and the national Republican Party.

In Ocean State politics, it's officially too difficult to tell which way the political tides are turning.

Stephen Laffey, the Republican primary challenger to incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, has been campaigning as a fiscally responsible alternative who will put an end to wasteful Washington spending. Laffey's taking aim at earmarks, the federally funded projects known as "pork" that he calls unnecessary.