Pro-Growth Fight Vs. Sen. Chafee A Choice Between Purity, Power

BY JED GRAHAM
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 9/11/2006

In some ways, today's Rhode Island primary looks like a GOP version of the Connecticut Democratic primary that sent Sen. Joe Lieberman to defeat.

Moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee faces the battle of his political life in Rhode Island from conservative Steve Laffey, the mayor of Cranston.

Laffey is the darling of the Club for Growth, an anti-tax political group. Through ads and member donations, the Club for Growth has funneled more than $1 million to Laffey, former president of Memphis, Tenn.-based investment firm Morgan Keegan & Co.

Similarly, left-wing Web sites MoveOn.org and DailyKos.com helped propel Ned Lamont — Lieberman's anti-war challenger — to a primary victory last month.

The left's purge of Lieberman for his support of the Iraq War and the right's challenge against Chafee for his liberal economic positions represent "a triumph of the true believers," said Brown University political science professor Darrell West. "They go for ideological purity" even at the expense of victory.

Still, there are important differences between the Connecticut and Rhode Island primary fights. At least with regard to the battle to control the Senate, the right's challenge against Chafee is clearly more consequential.

Since Connecticut has no credible GOP candidate, Democrats will have de facto control of the state's Senate seat whether or not Lamont wins in November. Lieberman, who is now running as an independent, has said he will caucus with the Democrats if elected.

If Laffey ousts Chafee in the Rhode Island primary, he would be a huge underdog in the general election. Early polls have Laffey running about 30% behind Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, the former state attorney general, while Chafee and Whitehouse are running neck and neck.

Democrats need to pick up six seats to gain control of the Senate. A Chafee loss could give them an inside track at winning one of those seats, and there are enough tight races to give Democrats a legitimate shot at winning five more.

Republicans in Washington are worried enough that they've been coming to Chafee's aid in a big way. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads and mailers in support of Chafee and has said it won't give any support to Laffey if he wins the primary.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina called Laffey "bombastic" and said Chafee "is the only one who can win in Rhode Island."

High Risk, Reward
So why is the Club for Growth trying to defeat the GOP's best hope for victory in a blue state where President Bush got only 39% of the vote in 2004?

David Keating, the Club for Growth's executive director, said the outfit wouldn't have gotten involved in the race if it didn't think Laffey had a decent chance to win.

"It's a high risk, but high reward," Keating said. "The payoff is somebody who's absolutely fabulous."
Keating dismisses the notion that a Laffey primary win would be the deciding factor in whether the GOP holds the Senate.

"There's been a strong likelihood from the beginning that a Democrat would be elected (in Rhode Island)," he said.

Brown University's West agrees that Chafee would be in trouble if a strong tide hands the Democrats five other Senate seats in states like Missouri, Montana and Tennessee.

If Chafee does win, he'll enter the general election with depleted funds against a Democratic challenger with a healthy war chest.

No matter the outcome in November, Keating sees a side benefit to defeating Chafee in the primary: Other Republicans in Congress may think twice before voting against low taxes and small government.

Chafee Rubs Republicans Raw
"Lincoln Chafee does not understand the basic pillars of economic policy that lead to economic growth," Keating said. "In his whole term, there isn't anything in his record that he's ever voted for pro-growth tax policies."

Chafee opposed the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, as well as recent efforts to extend dividend and capital gains taxes and make estate tax relief permanent.

He also voted against the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and against authorizing force in Iraq, though those aren't big issues in the campaign. Chafee said he didn't even vote for President Bush, instead writing in the name of his father, George H.W. Bush.

The only issue in which Chafee has been aligned with the growth wing of the Republican Party was his vote against the Medicare drug benefit. Chafee has consistently voted against legislation that he believed would lead to higher deficits.

While left-wing Democrats took the risk that defeating Lieberman would paint the party as staunchly anti-war, Keating doesn't see any such risk in targeting Chafee.

"The Republican Party tent gets really big when it appeals to voters to do things like cut their taxes and cut Washington waste," he said. "Their tent shrivels up and blows away when they don't do those things."