Laffey for Senate

9-12-05 | Steve Laffey

[mosquitobite]

I have answered your call!

I have heard you; you urged me to run and now I am.

On Thursday September 8, 2005 I declared my candidacy for the United States Senate. The Washington insiders and party bosses don’t want me to run. They want to keep Senator Lincoln Chafee in Washington.

But I have a secret weapon that the political insiders and party bosses don’t have, I have YOU!

With your help I can win a seat in the United States Senate. You have already helped me take the first step by urging me to run; now you can help me take the next step by making a generous contribution to my campaign.

Please go to my website, www.electlaffey.com and contribute what you can. According to the National Journal, this Senate race will be one of the 2 most watched in 2006! So please contribute what you can by going to my website www.electlaffey.com.

Thank you for your generous support!!
Steve

[mosquitobite]

If conservatives want to force Republicans back to their limited government roots, they need to back primary challenges to liberal Republicans. - Chuck Muth, citizenoutreach.com

[youthgonewild]

Handing the seat to Sheldon Whitehouse this is. I wonder if Laffey is on the DNC payroll.

[THE MODERATE]

I have a strong suspicion that if Chafee is still in the Senate ten years from now, he will have already bolted the party and be a Jeffords like independent or an outright Democrat.

[youthgonewild]

If the Dems get it to 50/50 we all know who will defect...

[PhilCollins]

We don't need to worry about Democrats having 50 U.S. senators. I think that Republicans will gain seats in FL, MN, and NE and that the Democrats will gain a seat in PA. In VT, an independent, Sanders, will replace an independent, Jeffords. Therefore, in 2007, the Senate will have 57 Republicans, 42 Democrats, and an independent.

[youthgonewild]

Maybe you feel 2006 Republican Senate gains in the air tonight, but after Hurricane Katrina, we have a land of confusion and an environment in which the Democrats smell blood and the Bush six year itch will kick in. The Democrats could turn it on again and get to 50 if the tide sweeps with them. Putting up Stephen Laffey and Katherine Harris is throwing it all away, but the Republicans are in too deep running conservatives in races that call for a RINO. Election Day 2006 won't be one more night of Republican election gains and it would be against all odds for the Republicans to make gains the 6th yr into Bush's presidency.

[PhilCollins]

Those are great references to Phil Collins songs. I encourage jokes about my name.
You must think that Sen. Bill Nelson will be reelected and that Sen. Lincoln Chaffee will lose. If that happens, the Democrats will have 45 U.S. senators. What are the other five states where you think Democrats might gain seats?

[Clintonfatigued]

If Stephen Laffety were to become Senator, he would dramatically improve the quality of the New England delegation.

There is only one way Laffey can win the primary, however: he has to make the case that he can win the general election. Concerns over his electability are the only thing keeping Chafee the front-runner.

[ken5050]

It would be fun for Freepers in the northeast to spend a weekend or two in RI..helping in the grassroots efforts..

[AuH2ORepublican]

Phil, don't pay any attention to youthgonewild, he is clearly living in a land of counfusion.

[NeoCaveman]

And if the Senate were near 50/50 that would defidently be a concern, since it's not go Lafffey.

[mosquitobite]

What good are gains of (R) in the Senate without Republican like qualities? The Dems are not going to take the Senate back in 2006.

If we don't back strong fiscal conservatives instead of RINOs the Republicans will never take us seriously now they have power. They've become exactly like the Dems, buying votes.

[MassachusettsGOP]

Cranston is not exactly a Conservative City, he's Maverick Feel appeals to many people in RI, and right you are that people are still worried about his electability. If there is a Chafee vs. Laffey debate, expect things to change.

[Clintonfatigued]

There is nothing wrong with being concerned about a bad political climate. And things are not particularly good right now. I'm confident that it will improve, as it did in 2002 and 2004, but we should never be overconfident. Bad things happen to good people all the time.

And, while I admire Laffey as an excellent Mayor, it's legitimate to be concerned about his electability. He has the potential to exceed expectations, but whether he'll do that remains to be seen.

[zbigreddogz]

Under almost every other circumstance, I would agree with you.

I (reluctantly) supported Specter in 2004.

I don't have a problem with Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe

I flat out like McCain and Graham (although I don't want either as President)

But with Chafee, you get NOTHING. He isn't right on even one substantive issue. Not on Iraq/WOT. Not on Taxes. He didn't even vote for Bush!

The only arguement is that he does vote for cloture. But given as how 60 seats aren't coming anytime soon, but neither are 49, it isn't important. He won't vote for the nuke option anyway.

The only thing he is good for, is for the media to drag out a so called 'moderate' (not a real moderate like Collins or Breaux (who had a more conservative voting record then Chafee by a considerable margin before he retired) when they want to beat on R's.

If you can give me one substantive issue he's right on, I'd support him. I realize he's from RI, which is super liberal, but given his voting record and mannor, at this time I see no reason to support him.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"There is nothing wrong with being concerned about a bad political climate."

---

There's a huge difference between being concerned about a "bad political climate" and predicting that the Democrats will pick up 5 net Senate seats in 2006 (which is what I referred to as "living in a land of confusion").

As for Laffey's electability in a statewide race, you're right, it's not altogether certain right now. But he has been able to run and win in a city that is as heavily Democrat as the rest of the state (Cranston was 1% less for Bush in 2000 and 2% more for Bush in 2004 than the state as a whole). Besides, his positions are really quite moderate; while he is a "conservative" by RI standards, he's probably not as conservative as Governor Carcieri, who was able to win statewide with 55% in 2002 and will be on the ballot (perhaps providing coattails) in 2006.

But the main reason why I'm not all that worried about whether Laffey is "electable" is that I don't think we lose *anything* if a Democrat replaces Chafee in the Senate (in fact, we gain 2 net Republicans on the committees on which Chafee sits). As I've said before, Chafee is only useful to the GOP in case we only have 50 or 51 Senators, which is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future, and in the odd chance that Chafee was the 50th or 51st Republican he would likely make it official and jump to the Democrats. So I'll take my chances with Laffey.

[lbjgal]

Well....I beleive your candiate should run ...only if Sen. Chaffee plans to switch political parties then I am with you...if not then let Sen. Chaffee be. The GOP needs to look at seats held by the Dems. and take those instead having Reps. take out Reps. congressional seats.

*Please excuse any spelling errors

lbjgal (Look passed the name...i'm in hiding)

[California Patriot]

We have 55 seats. 2006 is definitely the right year to slay a RINO, and Chafee is the worst of them. Not the most dangerous, but the worst.


A message must be sent to the other pansies in the Senate.

[ishabibble]

I'd like to comment on your last statement. It should be noted that Linc Chaffee was also a Mayor, City of Warwick.
Before that, he was a blacksmith. If his father hadn't died, Linc would still be a Mayor. RI politics in a nutshell.

One of the first things Laffey did was take on the unions, and in a truly priceless "Only in RI" moment, hired a private investigator to videotape Cranston DPW crooks stealing their paychecks. My absolute favourite was the moron who drove the street sweeper in circles on Reservoir Ave. to run up the mileage, rather than actually do his job!
Second, Laffey actually tried to fire the Cranston fireman who was smoking dope in the bathroom of a SCHOOL on ELECTION DAY. The union still has this case tied up.

RI is a totally corrupt place that has practically no redeeming value. Don Cacieri is a Republican Governor and he gets massacred daily by the criminal Legislature. No help there from the National Republicans.

What do RIer's have to lose by electing Laffey? Not much.