Replacing the Weakest Linc

Every cycle has one election that defines a Party, perhaps even a movement. It is not always the election in the biggest state or the one with the best known candidates. Instead, the race stands out because of what is at stake. In this cycle, that race is in Rhode Island.

Today, the man who saved Cranston announced that he will challenge Sen. Lincoln Chafee in the Republican Primary. In 2000, Steve Laffey returned to the city where he grew up and found more problems than most thought could be fixed. The city was broken. Unions had taken over the city government and ensured that city employees were paid far more than the city could hope to afford. Bloated retirement programs and pay for hours not worked were just two of the many crippling financial problems that plagued the city.

Seeing this, Laffey decided to take action. He ran for Mayor as a reformer in a solidly Democrat city and won. When he became Mayor, Laffey started taking on one union after another. He went to bat for the taxpayers, fighting every union from the firefighters to crossing guards to reform bloated retirement programs and pay for hours that were not actually worked. With one success after another, Laffey restored the city to sound financial health, including making those same retirement plans solvent.

Now, Laffey wants to bring his brand of fiscal discipline to Washington. First among his plans, he wants to join Senator Tom Coburn and Rep. Ron Paul in eliminating the very pork barrel spending that Republicans said they would eliminate in 1994. He also wants to end corporate welfare and reform the tax code. Unlike many Republicans, one of his primary goals is to simplify the tax code, which in and of itself would help fuel the economy by reducing the outrageous money and time that goes into compliance thereto every year.

His opponent, on the other hand, has been nothing but a bane to Republicans, especially conservatives, since his election in 2000. Chafee was elected for one reason and one reason only in 2000: his name. The Chafees are one of the blue blooded five families that have dominated Rhode Island politics seemingly forever. Since joining the Senate, Chafee has frustrated conservatives at every opportunity. Last year, he often not to vote for the President, instead casting a protest vote for 41. He also managed to tie Sen. Voinovich with the worst voting record of any Republican according to Americans for Tax Reform. Most recently, Chafee betrayed the Party on judicial nominations, being the first Republican to say that he would not support a fair, up-or-down vote for every nominee, brokering an unacceptable deal with the other six dwarves, and finally applying the Boxer test on the nomination of Judge Owen. Near the end of last year, Chafee even flirted with the idea of changing parties. The defeat of Lincoln Chafee at the hands of Steve Laffey would send a clear message to Republicans throughout both the House and the Senate that it is not safe to stray from the Party's core principles.

Since nobody really likes Lincoln Chafee - nicknamed "the missing Linc" for his reputation as one of the Senate's dimmest bulbs - so many Republicans will make the case for Chafee by claiming that the Cranston Mayor is unelectable. Make no mistake that a Republican Majority of 51 seats including Lincoln Chafee is no Majority. One could make the argument that if Chafee were going to leave, he'd have done with with Sen. Jim Jeffords. This argument fails on two fronts. First, the Democrats did not need Lincoln Chafee. They gained the majority by luring Jeffords over with goodies for the change. Once in the Majority, they had no need to sacrifice leadership and pork for someone whose seat made little difference. Second, it was simple political calculus to see which party was on the rise for the long-term. As a Republican, Chafee is now able to fund pork barrel projects in Rhode Island. If being a Democrat would make that easier, Chafee would do it in a heartbeat.

More importantly, though, the argument that Laffey is not electable simply does not hold water. He was elected Mayor in a heavily Democrat city and remains popular. Since his election, Republican registration statewide has dropped, but the number of pachyderms in Cranston grew significantly. He has reached out to Democrats who are sick of business as usual, both in Rhode Island and in Washington, and can strike a cord with the significant population of pro-life Democrats who have long been ignored by both parties. Finally, Laffey will be able to make the case that Rhode Island needs a faithful member of the majority if it is to have any influence in Washington. With 55 Senate seats, Republicans could afford to ignore and lose a nominal member from Rhode Island, but Rhode Island could not. Though Laffey wants to cut waste from government, necessary government contracts go somewhere. If Rhode Island's congressional delegation consists of Patrick Kennedy, James Langevin, Jack Reed, and Sheldon Whitehouse, the state will have exactly zero influence in the appropriations process. Such an argument will go over well with an electorate that enjoys little to no influence as it is.

Rhode Island needs Steve Laffey in the United States Senate. The rest of America would be better off with him there too. If you give to only one campaign this cycle, make it Steve Laffey's.