This is a letter to my friends in Rhode Island about the upcoming RI Senate election. I wrote this myself: it's not a form letter or anything I copied off a web site. I don't have any kind of special agenda here, merely the hope that at the end of this letter, you'll be more likely to vote for Sheldon Whitehouse, and less likely to vote for Linc Chafee.
Now, to start, I am actually a fan of Sheldon Whitehouse and I am confident that he will be an effective advocate for the state of Rhode Island, but this letter really isn't about Whitehouse.
For decades, the name "Chafee" has been synonymous with Rhode Island government and leadership. John Chafee was a RI governor and a senator until 1999, when he died unexpectedly and was replaced by his son Lincoln Chafee. For his part, in the Senate, Linc Chafee has been one of the few "moderate" Republicans and an advocate for the environment, choice, gay rights, and an opponent of the Iraq war. He even hinted about not voting for Bush in 2004!
Based on a record like this one and a real history with the state of RI, why would Rhode Islanders want to get rid of Chafee and replace him with Whitehouse? Because there is one vote that Chafee casts that is more important than all his other votes put together. That vote is his caucus vote in the Senate: the vote that determines whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate. This is a big deal, a huge deal. The party that controls the Senate controls all legislation that gets to the floor and the chairmanships of powerful committees. There is a night-and-day difference between a 51-49 Senate and a 50-50 one. All the Republican-sponsored bills that Chafee makes a show of voting against would not even be on the floor if the Democrats controlled the Senate. Additionally, the party that controls the committee chairmanships can vote to issue subpoenas and compel people to testify under oath, something the current Republican leadership has failed to do, especially in critical areas such as the ongoing war. Lincoln Chafee votes with the Republicans on Senate organization, and they desperately need him.
When Steve Laffey ran against Chafee in the primary, the national Republican campaign organizations parachuted in operatives from all over the country to defend him despite the fact that Chafee is supposedly Bush's least favorite Republican. Why? Why would Karl Rove take such an interest in a sworn enemy? A guy who often votes against the Bush agenda and shows unacceptable amounts of disloyalty? Because Laffey was unlikely to win against Whitehouse, but both of them will equally vote for Republican Senate control. The Republicans do not care at all how often Chafee votes against them, because he will ultimately vote for Republican Senate control, something that is more important to them than all the votes he'll ever cast.
For the last several years, Chafee has had the option to switch from the Republican party to the Democratic party, or to an independent that caucuses with the Democrats as did Jim Jeffords of Vermont. He has seen the Bush agenda and the disasters it has caused, but Chafee has refused to change parties, primarily (as I understand it) due to loyalty to his late father. This loyalty is admirable, but it is horribly misplaced and in my opinion cannot be considered a mitigating factor for the RI voter. There are times when it is right to vote for "the right man" regardless of his political party, but now is not that time, even if Chafee was the "right man" (which I believe he isn't). This situation is deadly serious. Chafee's presence in the Senate continues to put everything he supposedly stands for at risk, from the environment to the economy to reproductive choice and even to the lives of our soldiers.
Unfortunately, the reality is that a vote for Chafee is a vote for George Bush to continue to do whatever he wants unimpeded. This race is bigger than personalities, no matter how much we might like Chafee. The national race for the Senate is extremely close, and could conceivably be decided by Rhode Island alone. Thousands or millions of lives and livelihoods in the US and all over the world very likely depend on whether the next RI senator has an (R) or a (D) after their name. A Republican Senate will continue to support the Bush agenda full steam ahead, and Chafee will continue to support the Republicans in that effort and do nothing to stop it.
I wish it didn't have to be this way, but unfortunately reality is not always what we wish it to be. Chafee has made his choices, and now we must make our own choices (well, you must, since I vote in Massachusetts). If you oppose the Bush agenda as I do, I feel that we should support Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, as the next Senator for RI.
For more information about Whitehouse, see his web site at:
http://www.whitehouseforsenate.com/
Anyway, thank you for listening, and again, please vote for Sheldon Whitehouse in November. Please email me back or call me if you want to talk about this: as you know, I love talking politics.
Sincerely,
Me