Lincoln Chafee runs for R.I. Governor (user search)
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  Lincoln Chafee runs for R.I. Governor (search mode)
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Tender Branson
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« on: January 05, 2010, 02:02:57 AM »

Ex-Senator Runs for Governor in Rhode Island as Independent

By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: January 4, 2010

BOSTON — Lincoln D. Chafee, the former Republican senator from Rhode Island who lost his seat to a Democrat in 2006 despite his family’s longtime presence in state politics, announced Monday that he would run for governor there as an independent.



Mr. Chafee, 56, left the Republican Party after his loss to Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, saying the party’s agenda had grown too conservative. In Congress, he opposed President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and was the only Senate Republican to vote against authorizing the war in Iraq.

Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican who took office in 2003, cannot seek re-election because of term limits, and the only Republican to enter the race dropped out last month. Mr. Carcieri, a conservative with flagging approval ratings, is the only Republican in statewide office.

On the Democratic side, Patrick C. Lynch, the state’s attorney general, and Frank T. Caprio, its general treasurer, are competing for their party’s nomination. Both are well known in the state, but so is Mr. Chafee, whose family has loomed large in Rhode Island politics for more than a century. His father, John, was the state’s governor for six years in the 1960s before serving in the Senate for two decades; upon his death in 1999, his son was appointed his successor.

“I believe that running as an independent will free me from the constraints that party politics impose on candidates,” Mr. Chafee said in his announcement speech in Warwick, R.I. “This freedom will allow me to bring in the best people from both major parties and people without political ties to solve our problems.”

During the recession, Rhode Island has suffered from some of the nation’s worst budget problems and one of its highest unemployment rates. In his speech, Mr. Chafee said the state should “carefully examine” expanding its sales tax to cover some items — like food, clothing and over-the-counter drugs — that are currently exempt.

Mr. Chafee faces significant challenges in the governor’s race: Rhode Island is overwhelmingly Democratic, and he trails his Democratic opponents in fund-raising. But New England voters have elected a number of independents in recent decades, including two governors — Lowell P. Weicker Jr. in Connecticut and Angus King in Maine.

In Massachusetts, Timothy Cahill, the state treasurer, is running for governor as an independent after leaving the Democratic Party last year.

Darrell M. West, vice president of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said Mr. Chafee would be a strong candidate even without the backing of a major political party. His name recognition, his personal wealth and the fact that about half of Rhode Island voters are not affiliated with a party all work in Mr. Chafee’s favor, Mr. West said.

“The Chafee family name is the gold standard in Rhode Island,” he said. “And while Rhode Island does tend to elect Democrats, independents are the largest voting bloc in the state.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/us/politics/05chafee.html
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