Chafee Challenger Lands Club For Growth Endorsement

The conservative Club For Growth has announced its official support for Cranston (RI) Mayor Stephen Laffey in his quest to unseat Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). This is big news for Laffey, but as a resident of Rhode Island I find it funny that he's getting praised as being a tax cutting Republican - all he's done while Mayor of Cranston is tax and spend. He has gone after unions, which is obviously a popular thing to do in conservative circles. His main line of attack against Chafee has to do with spending, particularly pork barrel spending. As a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Chafee has certainly supported quite a bit of pork barrel spending. However, this is a double edge sword for his primary challenger, Laffey: on the one hand Laffey hopes to tap into the national disgust with some of the more frivolous spending authorized by Congress (and there certainly is enough to complain about); however, Chafee has "brought home the bacon", as it were. Here's some of what he has secured for FY 2006: $350,000 for a library; $200,000 for a new school for disabled children; $200,000 for a Sexual Assault and Trauma Resource Center. Even Republicans have to recognize that if there's going to be pork in Congress, we might as well get a piece of it.

Laffey is certainly an odd duck. His biggest selling point in early advertisements is that he is a graduate of the Harvard Business School. I understand that the early portion of any campaign involves introducing the public to the candidate, biographically. But frankly, who cares where you went to school Mr. Mayor? You should probably drop that angle. In addition, Laffey is unquestionably unorthodox in his tactics and style. As a buddy of a local talk show host, Laffey secured his own radio show while serving as Mayor. One of his biggest accomplishments (one that he is not shy to point out, mind you) has been dismantling the benefit package that local crossing guards received. Ooooooo. Ahhhhhhh.

Bottom line: Laffey is an amateur and should stand no chance against the institutional support (i.e. National Republican Senatorial Committee) that Chafee has secured. That being said, Republicans are few and far between in Rhode Island; the number of Republicans that actually show up to vote in Republican primaries is even smaller and is made up of a very volatile group of people. With the money that the Club For Growth endorsement brings, Laffey has more than a reasonable shot of winning the primary (and getting clobbered by any of the Dems in the general election).

At the end of the day, however, I still give Chafee the edge. With the national party behind him, Chafee has the structure and $$$$$$ needed to win this primary and advance to the general election as an incumbent. The national party has already began to attack Laffey. In an early advertisement, they are defining him as "Tax and Spend Steve Laffey" (referring to his aforementioned raising of taxes while Mayor); in a more damning ad, they outline how Laffey has profited from selling oil industry stock on Wall Street and proclaim, "Steve Laffey: Laughing All The Way To The Bank." Here's some of a press release from the NRSC, responding to CFG's endorsement of Laffey:

In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Club for Growth Chairman, Pat Toomey, implies that Mr. Laffey will carry the Ronald Reagan torch for limited government and tax reductions. In fact, Club for Growth portrays Mr. Laffey's record as Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island as one that highlighted hard-nosed spending cuts to correct Cranston's troubled budget woes.

That is plainly and categorically untrue.

Mr. Laffey never cut overall spending - he has increased municipal spending. As Mayor, Mr. Laffey balanced the budget by increasing taxes. In fact, under Laffey's leadership, Cranston now has the highest residential property taxes in Rhode Island...

Mayor Laffey may have balanced the city budget, but he did it by increasing taxes, not through spending reductions. The last time I looked, increasing taxes wasn't the cornerstone of the Reagan legacy. To portray Mayor Steven Laffey as a fiscal conservative has no basis in fact. To portray Mr. Laffey in the Reagan mold is laughable. (Note: Emphasis NOT mine)

Ouch. The NRSC is all over this campaign. They are not going to risk losing this seat by letting amateuruer get the Republican nod. Reports show that high level RNC officials and White House officials have personally urged Laffey to withdraw from the race (by urge, of course I mean threaten to ruin his political career). This is going to be perhaps the ugliest primary in the country. I can't wait.

One further note: I'd like to say that Pat Toomey is a has been, but unfortunately he's better described as a never-was. He served 3 terms in the House before embarrassinging himself by challenging Sen. Arlen Specter - the primary was indeed close, but he tried to take down one of the most respected members of the Senate. And now? He's going after more fellow Republicans. Here's idea Pat. Rather than dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into an effort that, if successful, will only result in a Democratic gain in the Senate, why not find a vulnerable Democrat and try to take him down. 2006 is going to be a bad year for Republican candidates, and people like Toomey are only going to make it worse.

Here's Toomey's endorsement from the Wall Street Journal: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007668

Here's one of the NRSC's anti-Laffey ads (its actually pretty funny and worth watching):
http://www.gopsenators.com/newsdesk/audiovideo/laffey.aspx