Chafee, L

targetted by CFG for waffling cf enforcer

father John gov sen good on climate

https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-might-actually-get-a-serious-challenger-from-the-right-wing/

weld chafee and sanford app trail

aug 2006

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Fresh off their first victory over a Republican incumbent,**GOP** conservatives seeking party purity on taxes and spending are focused on ousting moderate Republican Sen. **Lincoln Chafee** of Rhode Island.

The **Club for Growth** and its 36,000 members spent around $1 million to help challenger Tim Walberg unseat first-term Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan's Republican primary on Tuesday. The win came despite Schwarz's support from President Bush and the **National Rifle Association**.

Since its inception in 1999, the group has spent millions to help dozens of conservative Republicans win seats in Congress — often at the expense of more moderate party members. The Club's president, former Rep. **Pat Toomey**, nearly defeated Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004.

This year, the group's top priority is defeating Chafee, who angered many Republicans by voting against President Bush's tax cuts and then casting a write-in vote for the president's father in the last election. The Club has helped Cranston, R.I., Mayor Stephen Laffey raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat Chafee, and polls show the two Republicans running even a month before the Sept. 12 primary.

The prospect of a Laffey win worries national Republicans, who consider Chafee the party's best bet for holding the seat in a heavily Democratic state. Polls show Laffey trailing far behind the leading Democratic candidate, former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse.

The Club's Web site says that's fine: "It wouldn't be much of a loss if a new Democrat senator were elected, as he would vote much the same as Chafee does now."

Republicans who support the Club say its refusal to compromise its ideology gives it credibility.

"They're not about getting more Republicans elected, they're about getting real Republicans elected," said Jerry Stacy, spokesman for Sharron Angle, a Club-endorsed House candidate in Nevada.

But Chafee is a Republican who votes with his party most of the time. His father, the late John Chafee, is revered in Rhode Island as a World War II hero who served three terms as governor and more than 20 years in the Senate. Like his father, the younger Chafee is a fiscal conservative and environmentalist.

Moderate Republicans criticize the Club for targeting incumbents like Chafee instead of going after Democrats.

"I refer to the Club for Growth as the enemy within," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., whom the Club opposed in GOP primaries in 2002 and 2004.

Economic conservatives founded the Club to encourage the federal government to adopt "pro-growth economic policies." That includes making the Bush tax cuts permanent, repealing the estate tax, cutting government spending and expanding free trade.

One Club tactic is providing campaign cash to candidates who espouse a free market philosophy. It raised $22 million for issue advocacy, candidates and operations in the last election cycle.

This year, the club and its 36,000 members were responsible for $1.1 million of the estimated $3 million spent on Michigan's Republican primary. The group opposed Schwarz even though he — like Chafee — was endorsed by Bush. Also like Chafee, Schwarz has criticized the war in Iraq, supports abortion rights and favors stem-cell research.

Steve May, a former Arizona lawmaker who served briefly as a Club chapter president before being pushed out, said the organization throws conservative challengers up against moderate incumbents to scare them to the right.

"For the Club for Growth, it's all about the money, but you have to pass the social litmus test," May said.

May said he was ousted in 2003 because he was gay. Toomey said it was because May voted for a tax increase.

Toomey insisted the organization doesn't make choices based on party or positions on social issues. He noted that it endorsed its first Democrat this year — conservative Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.

Many Club members hope Laffey, the Club's candidate in Rhode Island, will give them another win. They have contributed more money to his campaign than any other this election, well over $600,000, Toomey said. At the same time, the Club's political action committee has spent almost a quarter of a million dollars on anti-Chafee ads.

"Helping Steve Laffey win this race is as high a priority as we have for this cycle," Toomey said.

Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the Main Street Republican Partnership, which is backing Chafee, said the Club's efforts will only help Democrats gain more seats in Congress.

"(House Minority Leader) **Nancy Pelosi** should make sure that Pat Toomey is on her Christmas card list," Resnick said after Schwarz's defeat.

wiki

Lincoln Davenport Chafee (/:{ˈ:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}::{tʃ:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}::{eɪ:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}::{f:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}::{iː:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}:/; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician who has been the 74th Governor of Rhode Island since January 2011. Prior to his election as governor, Chafee served in the United States Senate as a Republican from 1999 until 2007. That same year, he left the Republican Party and became an :{independent:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:.^[2] He is the firstindependentto serve as Governor of Rhode Island since John Collins, who served 1786–1790. On May 29, 2013, he announced he was switching his registration to the Democratic Party.^[3] On September 4, 2013, facing low approval ratings, Chafee announced that he would not seek re-election to a second term as Governor. ^[4]

A Rhode Island native educated at Phillips Academy and Brown University, Chafee worked as a professional farrier for seven years before entering state politics in 1985. He was a delegate to the Rhode Island State Constitutional Convention, a member of the Warwick, Rhode Island city council, and later the mayor of Warwick. Chafee was appointed to the United States Senate in 1999 upon the death of his father, Senator John Chafee, and was elected in the 2000 Senate election for a full six-year term.In 2006, he ran for re-election but lost to Democrat **Sheldon Whitehouse**.

Chafee was a supporter of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid and was a co-chair of Obama's re-election campaign. On January 4, 2010, Chafee declared his intent to run for Governor of Rhode Island.^[5] Prior to entering the gubernatorial race, he was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.

[hide]

- 3.2 Committee assignments
- 3.3 Elections

Early life, education, and racing career

Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Virginia (née Coates) and John Chafee.^[6] He attended public schools in Warwick, Rhode Island, Providence Country Day School, and Phillips Academy. At Brown University, Chafee captained the wrestling team, and in 1975 earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classics. He then attended the Montana State University horseshoeing school in Bozeman. For the next seven years, he worked as a farrier at harness racetracks in the United States and Canada. One of the horses he shod, Overburden, set the track record at Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta.

Local politics (1985–1999)

Chafee entered politics in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention. A year later, he was elected to the Warwick City Council, where he served until his election as Warwick's mayor in 1992, a post he held until his 1999 appointment to the U.S. Senate.

United States Senate (1999–2007)

Tenure

After his father announced he would not seek re-election in 2000, Lincoln Chafee announced he would run for the seat.^[7] When John Chafee died suddenly in October 1999, Governor Lincoln Almond appointed the younger Chafee to serve out the term.

Chafee's liberal stances as a Republican led to some conservatives to refer to him as a "Republican In Name Only", or RINO. Most notable among these was Human Events magazine, which named Chafee "the No. 1 RINO in the country."^[8] The National Journal has rated Chafee as The Least Conservative Republican in the Senate, and placed him to the left of two Democrats, Nebraska's Ben Nelson and Louisiana's Mary Landrieu (the only Republican ranked to the left of the latter senator).^[9]

Known for often disagreeing with the Republican Party leadership, Chafee says he did not cast his ballot for President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, instead choosing to write in former president George H. W. Bush as a nod to the Republican Party of his father.^[10] Chafee frequently criticized the younger Bush's record on the environment, and expressed concern about the 2004 Republican platform and overall philosophical direction of the party. He described the younger Bush's presidency as "an agenda of energizing the far-right-wing base, which is divisive."^[11] Soon thereafter, he rejected Democratic overtures to leave the Republican Party after appeals to him from other Republican **senators** to remain in their caucus.^[12] Chafee considered challenging George W. Bush for re-nominationin the New Hampshire primary in 2004 on an anti- (Iraq and Afghanistan) war platform. In his autobiography, Against the Tide (2007), he states that "In the fall of 2003, part of me thought it was cowardly to oppose the president on so many issues and then not oppose him head-on as he sought renomination." However, he decided not to run after the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003.^[13]

Fiscal policy

Chafee opposes eliminating the federal estate tax. Chafee also voted against both the 2001 and 2003 congressional budget bills that cut and/or rebated individuals' federal income taxes. He pointed out that tax cuts reduce revenue to the federal government, thereby worsening the federal budget deficit and increasing the amount of money it has to borrow in order to operate.

On November 17, 2005, he was the only Republican to vote in favor of reinstating the top federal income tax rate of 39.6% (which last existed under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s) on the highest-income taxpayers.

Chafee was one of the few Republicans to vote against allowing drilling in **Arctic National Wildlife Refuge**, and was a member of the **Republicans for Environmental Protection**. He has been endorsed throughout his career by the **Sierra Club** and the **League of Conservation Voters**.

Chafee favors increased federal funding for health care, and supports an increase in the federal minimum wage. In 2003, Chafee voted against the Medicare Part D prescription drug expansion. However, Chafee also cast a crucial procedural vote against a Democratic attempt to kill that bill, which failed by only two votes.^[14] Chafee also co-sponsored the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, which expanded federal jurisdiction over class-action lawsuits, and voted against a wholesale ban on gifts from employees of lobbying companies.^[15]

Some Chafee's positions considered to be within the mainstream of the current Republican Party include his support of free trade agreements (e.g., North American Free Trade Agreement and Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA);^[16] Bankruptcy Reform; the partial privatization of Social Security;^[17] and the USA Patriot Act.

Social policy

Chafee was a member of the Republican Majority for Choice and Republicans for Choice. Chafee was also a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership

Chafee is pro-choice.^[18] In 2003, Chafee was one of the three Republican Senators to oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. His 2005 senatorial re-election bid was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America. He also supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Chafee is a supporter and was one of three Republican senators to come out for same-sex marriage.

He supports affirmative action and gun control, and was one of only two Republicans to vote against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (which prevents firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products. On June 27, 2006, Chafee was one of only three Republicans to vote against the proposed Flag Desecration Amendment.

Chafee opposes the death penalty, and has consistently voted against limiting death penalty appeals in federal cases. He has also favored including racial statistics in death penalty appeals, and making DNA analysisa prerequisite for any federal-level, criminal executions.

On May 23, 2005, Chafee was one of 14 bipartisan senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, forestalling the Republican leadership's implementation of the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush II judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and three of the most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Chafee was the only Republican to oppose George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court. However, he voted to end debate on the nomination, helping to end any chance of a Democratic filibuster of it.^[19] Chafee did not announce his opposition to the nomination until a majority of Senators had already publicly said they would support Alito.^[20]

Foreign policy

Chafee was the only Republican in the Senate to have voted against authorization of the use of force in Iraq. On June 22, 2006, he was the only Republican to vote for the Levin amendment calling for a nonbinding timetable for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.^[21] Chafee voted against the Kerry-Feingold amendment calling for a binding timetable.

Chafee is now involved in the J Street project, a liberal Jewish group that calls for Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories and advocates for a "two state" solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict.

In November 2006, immediately following the midterm elections, Chafee joined key Democrats in opposing President Bush's renomination of John Bolton as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. On December 4, 2006, the White House announced that Bolton would no longer seek the appointment, and would resign within a matter of weeks.

Committee assignments

Elections

2000

Main article: United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2000

He was elected to a full six-year term in 2000, defeating Democratic candidate then-U.S. Representative Robert Weygand by a 57%–41% in the heavily Democratic state.

2006

Main article: United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2006

In September 2005, Steve Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, announced his intention to run against Chafee in the Republican primary election. Among other stances differing from those of Chafee, Mayor Laffey opposed abortion and stem cell research. Laffey was supported by notable conservative groups including the Club for Growth and several Ohio-based anti-abortion groups. Chafee went on to defeat Laffey in the primary on September 12 by a margin of 53%-47%, an unusually close margin for an incumbent Senator. The turnout for the Republican primary was the largest in Rhode Island history. In his victory speech, Chafee credited independent voters and disaffiliated Democrats for his victory.^[24]

Despite Chafee's high approval ratings statewide, the state had tended to lean heavily toward socially liberal or moderate candidates for many decades. As a result, Whitehouse succeeded by attacking the instances in which Chafee supported his party's conservative congressional leadership (whose personalities and policies were very unpopular, state-wide).

Chafee was defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the general election, 54%-46%. In response to a question at a news conference on November 9, 2006, Chafee stated he was unsure whether he would remain in the Republican Party after serving out the remainder of his term. According to Michelle R. Smith of the Associated Press, when asked whether he felt that his loss may have helped the country by switching control of power in Congress (toward liberal Democrats and away from conservative Republicans), he replied: "To be honest, yes."^[25]

Political hiatus (2007–2009)

In December 2006, Chafee announced he was accepting a fellowship to serve as a "distinguished visiting fellow" at Brown University's Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. The university had Chafee lead a student group studying U.S. foreign policy.^[26]

In the September 2007, Chafee officially left the Republican Party, changing his affiliation to Independent. He said that he did so because of the Republicans' increasing conservatism, and particularly cited their reductions in funding to programs assisting middle- and low-income citizens (e.g., Pell Grants and Head Start).^[27] In February 2008, he said he was considering voting for then-Senator Barack Obama in Rhode Island's Democratic presidential primary election.^[28] On February 14, with the Rhode Island Democratic primary approaching in three weeks, Chafee officially endorsed Obama.^[29] In 2012, he was one of 35 co-chairs selected to "act as key surrogates and ambassadors" for Obama's re-election campaign.^[30]

In 2008, Chafee joined the advisory board of J Street, a lobbying group that promotes diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors, and supports an independentPalestinian state.^[31]

In September 2008, Chafee received media attention for describing :{Sarah Palin:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, then-:{Governor of Alaska:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the :{2008 presidential election:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, as a "cocky wacko".^[32]

Rhode Island gubernatorial election 2010

Main article: Rhode Island gubernatorial election, 2010

On January 4, 2010 Chafee formally declared his intention to run for Governor of Rhode Island in 2010 as an independent, ^[33] as the incumbent Governor Donald Carcieri (a Republican re-elected the same day Chafee lost his Senate re-election bid) was term-limited at the time. On October 31, 2010, electoral analysis site FiveThirtyEight.com gave Chafee a 63.8% chance of victory, compared to Democratic opponent Frank Caprio's 26.2% and Republican opponent John Robitaille's 10.0%.^[34] Likewise, other sites, such as the Cook Political Report, classified the race as a "toss-up".^[35] Chafee's approval rating at the time of his 2006 defeat was between 51% and 63%.^[36][37]

On September 16, 2010, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who had also switched from Republican to Independent in recent years) traveled to Rhode Island. Bloomberg praised Chafee's "experience and integrity", saying that Chafee would put Rhode Islanders' interests "ahead of party interests", and that Chafee would "produce results -— because that's exactly what he did as a mayor and as senator."^[38]

It was reported that President Obama's lack of endorsement of any of the candidates indicated tacit support of Chafee over Democratic challenger Frank T. Caprio.^[39]

Chafee easily won the endorsements of all major public school teachers unions, including the Rhode Island affiliates of the National Education Association^[40] and American Federation of Teachers^[41] in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

On November 2, 2010, Chafee won the gubernatorial race, winning with a 36% plurality in the seven-candidate race.

Governor of Rhode Island (2011–present)

Activism

In November 2011, it was reported that Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, the Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, had asked Chafee to join the Democratic Party. When asked if he was considering it, Chafee responded, "I’m happy where I am for now."^[42]

In August 2012, he had announced plans to attend the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, to show support for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.^[43]

Fiscal issues

A 2012 Poll showed that some of Chafee's proposed tax increases, intended to move the state from budget deficit to surplus status, had received negative feedback from Rhode Island residents. The majority of constituents opposed Chafee's proposed increase in driver's license and registration fees (67.5 percent), restoring tolls on the Sakonnet River bridge (57 percent), and raising the restaurant meals-and-beverage tax by two cents (80.3 percent).^[44]

Social issues

On December 20, 2010, Chafee's spokesman Michael Trainor told Providence Journal that Chafee would skip Episcopalian services on January 4, 2011, to be at home with his family. Trainor elaborated, saying: "His point of view is that his Inauguration Day needs to respect the separation of church and state. Separation of church and state is an important constitutional principle."

In May 2012, Chafee resisted turning over a case to the U.S. Supreme Court due to his views on the death penalty. In regards to the case, which would likely result in a capital punishment ruling, Chafee said: "The State of Rhode Island must seek to protect both the strong states' rights issues at stake, and the legitimacy of its longstanding public policy against the death penalty."^[45]

On May 1, 2013, Chafee signed a bill that legalized same-sex marriage in Rhode Island.^[46]

Chafee has shown some willingness to deviate from strict "War on Drugs" policies, in favor of alternative approaches to America's drug-crime problem.^[47]

Education

On "education reform" in general, Chafee does not believe the politically and publicly popular presumption that America's schools are failing, saying:

This notion of all these failing schools, if this were true, how did America get to be at the status where we are in the world if it were that bad? So I don’t buy into the trashing of our public school system. Somehow Brown University, and University of Rhode Island and Bryant University, Providence College are full of public school students that are doing very, very well and leading America in many fields. Yes, there's room for improvement, I don't deny that and I want to be part of the improvement. But the notion that our public school systems are in disarray and failing, I don't buy that.^[48]

Chafee opposes charter schools, saying, "I am wary of charter schools undermining and cherry picking and skimming off the top of our public school system."^[48]

Chafee is "wary" of Race to the Top, "because Race to the Top includes money for charter schools".^[48] He says he would ask federal officials "what kind of flexibility we might have" to alter Race to the Top, were he elected Governor.^[49]

Christmas controversy

In 2012, for the second Christmas in a row, protestors stirred up controversy during the annual Christmas tree lighting at the Rhode Island Statehouse when Governor Chaffee called the towering fir, decorated with Christmas lights, tinsel and toys, a "holiday tree," insisting that "I’m representing all of Rhode Island, I have to be respectful of everyone.”^[50]

Personal life

Chafee and his wife, Stephanie D. Chafee, have three children: Louisa, Caleb and Thea.

Chafee's great-great-grandfather, Henry Lippitt, was Governor of Rhode Island. Among his great-great-uncles are Rhode Island Governor Charles Warren Lippitt and United States Senator Henry Frederick Lippitt. His great-uncle, Zechariah Chafee, was a Harvard law professor and a notable civil libertarian. The Chafee family was among the earliest settlers of Hingham, Massachusetts, before moving south to Rhode Island.^[51]