Rhode Island Senate: Chafee (R) trails Whitehouse (D) by 5%

[skipos]

I hope that no progressive minded folks support Chafee in the RI Repub primary, as a Laffey (R) win would guarantee a Whitehouse (D) win in the general election. Regardless, Whitehouse may be able to beat Chafee too.

Sheldon Whitehouse (D) 46%
Lincoln Chafee (R) 41%

t doesn't look good for Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, whose support has gone from bad to worse in the latest Rasmussen Reports election poll of Rhode Island's U.S. Senate race.

Chafee now earns just 41% of the statewide vote and trails Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse by five percentage points. In June, with 44% support, Chafee was a bare two points ahead of Whitehouse; in April he had scraped a three-point advantage.

Chafee continues to be challenged for the Republican nomination by Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey as Republicans show their disaffection with the incumbent.

Now trailing Whitehouse 29% to 57%, Laffey would probably by crushed in a general election. Nevertheless, he secures higher support from fellow Republicans (61%) than Chafee does (52%).

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/July%202006/rhodeIslandSenate.htm

[RDANGELO]

1. Chafee should have switched parties, too late now. n/t

[w4rma]

11. No. He's a Repug and he is staying a Repug because that's the agenda

he supports. He supports Bush and he supports the Repug leadership and he is there for them when they need him and votes "moderate" when they don't.

[jimbot]

13. Agreed

The thing that many seem to forget is that a majority of the time, senators vote the party line.
If I look at the voteview ranking for the 109th senate (http://voteview.com/SEN109.HTM)
Chaffee is more conservative than every democratic senator except for Ben Nelson.
So it appears that a moderate conservative republican is nearly always more conservative than a conservative democrat.
Keep in mind that to many, single issues like Iraq may trump all other issues, but if you vote for a Republican senator, you are voting for the republican party.
Personally, I like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins from my state but I would NEVER EVER vote for them over a democrat...even over Lieberman :)

On edit:
And if you look at the 108th Senate (http://voteview.com/sen108.htm) he is only less conservative than Zell.

Peace,
--JT

[sallyseven]

2. Republicans in RI are stupid.

And I am happy for that.

[w4rma]

10. .

[RCinBrooklyn]

3. Chaffee's candidate ought to be pushed as hard as Ned Lamont in CT.

[SensibleAmerican]

8. But you see, Republicans aren't as stupid as we are

:eyes: Lamont is the perfect example of why we live under Republican government.

[DCCyclone]

12. No, Lieberman is an example of why we live under a Republican gov't......

I just don't get why some Dems fail to understand the opposition to Lieberman.

Joe has announced that if he loses the primary he will run as an independent instead of honoring Democratic voters' decision. That by itself establishes conclusively that Joe's posturing on integrity and principle is a fraud, since the only principled thing to do for a man who SAYS he's a Democrat is to support the Democratic nominee. This proves that Joe is all about Joe, that this is all about his own ego, his belief that he is ENTITLED to hold this office. He champions democracy in Iraq while condemning its exercise here. And you think CT Dems should stay loyal to Joe when Joe has ANNOUNCED he won't do the same? Get a clue!

Why don't you people get that???!!!

On top of this, Joe goes out of his way to parrot Bush's own talking points not only in supporting the Iraq war, but also in the delusion that it's going WELL, and worst of all in the attack on Dems for speaking out at all in opposition to Bush's Iraq policy--in other words, Joe not only disagrees with most Dems on the substance, but asserts that the mere fact of criticism is wrong. And he does all this while representing a dark blue state that is against the Iraq War and will not put a Republican into that Senate seat this fall.

And then you Lieberbush lovers just don't get that Lieberbush is on a completely different plane than other Dems who voted for the Iraq War. There are plenty of them out there, maybe some who still support the original fact of the war, but they're not supporting everything Dubya has done in Iraq, and they're not demanding that criticism of the war be silenced. And some of them are in red states, where we liberals understand they have to be given leeway to posture toward the middle to avoid pissing off their own constituents. Lieberbush is not part of any liberal "purge," or we'd be going after all those other Senators, too. Lieberbush is being singled out for a unique set of reasons that are perfectly valid.

So there is no "inquisition" here as David Brooks likes to put it, there is no "blogofascism" as some of you Lieberbush lovers like to put it. There is a sitting Senator who is out of touch with many in his own party and, as democracy requires, has to ASK for another 6-year term first from what he CLAIMS is his own party, then from all the voters of his state.

[madinmaryland]

4. Any indication in the polls about Carl Sheeler?

He seems to be getting ignored in this.

[Bukowski Fan]

14. Sheeler isn't polling

very well at all. He is not in contention.

As far as Chafee is concerned, he is most certainly a Republican. He supported virtually all Bush's judicial nominees. He supported cutting Social Security for middle class Americans and voted with the Republicans to keep the Medicare Part D plan. He's a Republican, and he will be defeated.

[Magrittes Pipe]

5. Chafee is to the left of many (if not most) Congressional Democrats.

It's his own damn fault, though, for not having switched parties. Yeah, his dad was a Republican (albeit, again, a moderate and often liberal one), but Linc is not his father.

Unfortunately, a vote for Lincoln Chafee is a vote for the Republican leadership of the Senate.

[BigDDem]

6. If he loses the primary

will he run on the Chafee Rhode Island ticket?

[skipos]

9. I don't believe we will be able to do that

I think the deadline has passed.

[omenapoint]

7. Chafee? A Re[iblican? hahahahaha

That guy is no Republican. He's stupid for not having switched a long time ago.