2008 Polls National Iowa New Hampshire General Election GOP | Dem GOP | Dem GOP | Dem Head-to-Head

---

October 24, 2006

Rhode Island Senate Race: Purely About Party

By Froma Harrop

Across America, Democratic candidates are accusing Republican incumbents of voting 90-something percent of the time with the unpopular President Bush. But you don't hear this line in the Rhode Island senatorial race. That's because the liberal Republican, Lincoln Chafee, didn't vote that often with Bush -- or even for him.

The president, however, has not been left out of the contest. As a television ad for Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse reminds the electorate, "Bush needs Chafee to keep Republican control of the Senate."

In no other race are the political stakes so nakedly stated. And one reason for that is the candidates' astounding similarity, party aside. Chafee and Whitehouse are, in the words of The Hotline's Chuck Todd, "the same guy."

If elected, Whitehouse would probably vote the same way Chafee would have voted. Both candidates are against deficits and the war in Iraq. Both are pro-choice and for gay-marriage.

Voters who want to compare the contenders' backgrounds can't, because they have the same background. Both come from rich old-line families. Their fathers -- the late Sen. John Chafee and late ambassador Charles Whitehouse -- actually roomed together at Yale. Their 13-year-olds attend the same private school. All this prompted Providence Journal political writer Scott MacKay to dub this race "the WASP preppy political Olympics."

You'd like to say that the differences are as minor as "I say potatoes and you say potatas," except that they pronounce things the same way.

Not that there are no differences. Whitehouse attended St. Paul's School, and Chafee went to Phillips Andover.

As state attorney general, Whitehouse was deemed a likely Democrat to challenge Chafee in 2000. But he didn't do it. Some have speculated that the families got together and decided not to run against each other. What could have changed minds in 2006 was the sense that Chafee is now vulnerable. The thinking may go that if someone is going to replace him, it might as well be "one of us." That might sound feudal, but that's Rhode Island.

The two have engaged in debate. Chafee hammered on Whitehouse's failure, as the state's top prosecutor, to investigate corruption at a Providence hospital. Whitehouse countered that Chafee ignored much wrongdoing in Washington. Despite the finger-pointing, the confrontation was "relatively tame," according to the Journal.

Whitehouse is slightly ahead in the polls -- mainly due to the growing belief in this liberal state that Chafee's loss is essential to the Democrats' taking the Senate majority. This is not unimportant. While Whitehouse and Chafee would probably vote the same way in the Senate, the things they get to vote on would be different if Democrats held the committee chairs.

For example, environmentalists consider Chafee a hero, but know that their cause would be much advanced if James (Global-Warming-Is-a-"Hoax") Inhofe of Oklahoma were no longer in charge of the Senate's environmental committee. If Democrats win the majority, that post would probably go to California's Barbara Boxer.

Many Democrats who have supported Chafee in the past are not sure that they want to wake up on Nov. 8 and learn that Inhofe is still making environmental policy because they helped re-elect their nice Republican. They've also become less forgiving of Chafee's refusal to leave the Republican Party and become a Democrat -- or even an independent, like Vermont's Jim Jeffords.

So in no other contest is the voters' decision so purely about party as this one. And all other things being equal, candidates this year are better off having a "D" after their names than an "R." In the Rhode Island senatorial race, all other things are pretty equal.

---

Sponsored Links

About Us | Contact | Advertise | Privacy Policy         © RealClearPolitics 2006