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'Lincoln Davenport Chafee' (IPA pronunciation: , -[CHAY-fee]) (born March 26, 1953) is a former United States Senator from Rhode Island. He lost his re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse. He has recently indicated that he is thinking of leaving the Republican Party.[1] He is currently a visiting scholar at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.
A Rhode Island native educated at Phillips Academy and Brown, Chafee worked as a professional blacksmith for seven years before entering state politics in 1985. He was a delegate to the Rhode Island State Constitutional Convention, a member of the Warwick, Rhode Island city council, and later the mayor of Warwick. Chafee was appointed to the United States Senate in 1999 upon the death of his father, Senator John Chafee, and was elected to a full six-year term in 2000.
Early life, education, and early career
Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Virginia Coates and John Hubbard Chafee.[2] He attended a Warwick public school followed by Providence Country Day School and the private prep school Phillips Academy. While at Phillips, he was a contemporary of future Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He earned a degree in Classics in 1975 from Brown, where he captained the wrestling team. He then attended the Montana State University horseshoeing school in Bozeman. For the next seven years, he worked as a blacksmith at harness racetracks in the United States and Canada. One of the horses he shoed, Overburden, set the track record at Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta.
Chafee and his wife, Stephanie D. Chafee, have three children: Louisa, Caleb and Thea.
Political offices
Chafee entered politics in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention. A year later he was elected to the Warwick City Council, where he served until he was elected mayor of Warwick in 1992, a post he held until his appointment to the U.S. Senate.
After his father, Sen. John Chafee (R-RI), announced his retirement from the Senate, Lincoln Chafee announced he would run for the seat.[3] When John Chafee died suddenly in October 1999, Gov. Lincoln Almond appointed Lincoln to serve out the term. Chafee was elected to a full six-year term in 2000, defeating Democratic candidate former U.S. Representative Robert Weygand by a 57% to 41% margin in the heavily Democratic state.
Political positions and voting record
Chafee's voting record is notable in that his positions often reflect liberal stances on key issues and he often votes with the Democrats, thus leading many people to label him an independent.
Abortion
Chafee strongly supports legal abortion. In May 2005, Chafee's senatorial re-election bid was endorsed by the traditionally Democratic-supporting NARAL Pro-Choice America, due to Chafee's outspoken support for women's "Right to Choose." NARAL supports individual candidates based on a litmus test of their political records on abortion and related issues; thus NARAL mainly endorses Democrats or Republicans wishing to keep abortion legal. On October 21, 2003, Chafee was one of the three Republican Senators to oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and voted with the Senate Democrats. The bill was passed 64-34 and sent to President George W. Bush for his signature and became law on November 5, 2003. He is a member of the Republican Majority For Choice and Republicans For Choice.
Gay rights
Chafee is a strong supporter of gay rights. While in the Senate, he was the only Republican senator to have expressed support for same-sex marriage.
Environment
Chafee favors strong environmental protection. He was one of the few Republicans to vote against allowing drilling in Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, and is a member of the Republicans for Environmental Protection. He has been endorsed throughout his career by the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters.
Death penalty
Chafee strongly opposes the death penalty, and has consistently voted against limiting federal death penalty appeals, has favored including racial statistics in death penalty appeals, and a prerequisite of DNA testing for all federal executions.
Tax policy
Chafee opposes eliminating the estate tax and voted against both the tax cut bills of 2001 and 2003. On November 17, 2005, he was the only Republican to vote in favor of reinstating the top federal tax rate of 39.6% on upper-income payers.
Iraq
Chafee was the only Republican in the Senate to have voted against authorization of the use of force in Iraq. On June 22 2006, Chafee was the only Republican to vote for the Levin amendment calling for a non-binding timetable for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. He voted against the Kerry-Feingold amendment calling for a binding timetable.
Stem cell research
Chafee is a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
2006 John Bolton renomination
In November 2006, immediately following the 2006 Midterm elections, George Bush announced he desired to renominate John Bolton to the post of Ambassador to the United Nations. Soon thereafter, however, Chafee joined key Democrats in opposing the renomination, so ending chances of Bolton continuing to run his post. On December 4, 2006, the White House announced that Ambassador Bolton would no longer seek appointment as Ambassador to the United Nations and would resign within a matter of weeks.
Others
Chafee favors more federal funding for health coverage and supports an increase in the federal minimum wage. He supports affirmative action and gun control. Chafee was one of only two Republicans to vote against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which banned lawsuits against gun manufacturers and distributors for the criminal acts of third parties. On June 27, 2006, Chafee was one of only three Republicans to vote against the proposed Flag Desecration Amendment.
Some of Chafee's positions that are well within the mainstream of the Republican Party include the following:
★ Support of free trade agreements.
★ Favored the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, which he cosponsored.
★ Supports the partial privatization of social security.
★ Voted against a wholesale ban on gifts from employees of lobbying companies.
Chafee's more liberal stances have led many conservative public figures to refer to him as a "Republican In Name Only" (RINO).[4]
[5] Most notable among these was Human Events, who named Chafee "the No. 1 RINO in the country."[6] Also, the latest ''National Journal'' congressional rating rated Chafee as the most liberal Republican in the Senate, and also placed him to the left of two Democrats, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu.[7]
Chafee, known for often disagreeing with the Republican Party leadership, says he did not cast his ballot for President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, instead choosing to write-in former president George H. W. Bush as a nod to the Republican Party of his father.[8] Chafee was the only Republican senator to vote against the authorization of military force in Iraq in 2002. He has frequently criticized President Bush's record on the environment and he also expressed concern about the 2004 Republican platform and the direction of the party. He described the younger Bush's Presidency as "an agenda of energizing the far-right-wing base, which is divisive."[9] Soon thereafter, he rejected Democratic overtures to leave the Republican Party, after appeals from other Republican senators to remain in their caucus.[10]
In 2003, Chafee bucked his party and voted against the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. However, Chafee also cast a crucial procedural vote against a Democratic attempt to kill the bill, which failed by only two votes.[11]
On May 23, 2005, Chafee was one of 14 senators, known as the ''Gang of 14'', to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus preventing the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and three of the most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.
Chafee was the only Republican to oppose President George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. However, he voted to end debate on the nomination, helping to end any chance of a Democratic filibuster.[12] Additionally, Chafee did not announce his opposition to the nomination until a majority of Senators had already publicly said they would support Alito.[13]
Conservative author and radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt has argued that Chafee is one of the single greatest roadblocks to creating a permanent Republican majority in the country because of his unwillingness to conform to the party's social goals, and therefore Republicans should remove him from office by any necessary means, which includes voting for a Democrat against him, since his votes so often fall on the opposite side of the debate that the loss will not be noticed for the few votes he can get them. Ann Coulter has expressed disgust that Bush campaigned for him in the Republican primary against conservative Steve Laffey.[14] She also said on October 25, 2006 on Hannity & Colmes, when asked about the Rhode Island Senate race, that she would be happy to lose Chafee.
2006 reelection campaign
Main articles: Rhode Island U.S. Senate election, 2006
In September 2005, Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, announced his intention to run against Chafee in the Republican primary. Laffey was considered a formidable challenger, as he is much more conservative than Chafee. Among other stances totally opposite those of Chafee's, Laffey is against abortion rights and against embryonic stem cell research.
Laffey was heavily supported by notable conservative groups, including the Club for Growth and several Ohio-based pro-life groups.
Chafee went on to defeat Laffey in the primary on September 12 by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent. The turnout for the Republican primary was the largest in Rhode Island history. In his victory speech, Chafee credited unaffiliated voters and disaffiliated Democrats for his victory.[15]
Chafee was defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the general election. In response to a question at a news conference on November 9, 2006, Chafee stated that he was unsure whether he would remain in the Republican Party after serving out the remainder of his term. According to Michelle R. Smith of the Associated Press, when asked whether he felt that his loss may have helped the country by switching control of power in Congress, he replied: "To be honest, yes."[1]
In December 2006, Chafee announced that he was accepting a fellowship to serve as a "distinguished visiting fellow" at Brown University's Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. The university planned to have Chafee lead a student group studying U.S. foreign policy.[2]
After 2006 loss
Chafee is currently working as a distinguished visiting fellow at Brown University. He has been mentioned as a candidate for Governor in 2010, as the incumbent Governor Donald Carcieri (who is a Republican, and was re-elected the same day Chafee lost) is term limited. Given his name recognition Chafee might be a strong Republican candidate, as Chafee's father was a popular U.S senator and governor. It has also been suggested that Chafee could mount a successful Independent candidacy for the governorship — not unlike the path Lowell Weicker followed in Connecticut after losing his 1988 senate re-election bid to Joe Lieberman. Chafee might also seek a rematch in 2012 against his successor Sheldon Whitehouse.
Non-political interests
Aside from spending time with his wife and three children, Senator Chafee enjoys all outdoor activies with a particular fondness for skiing and trail riding on his horse, Trapper.[16]
Trivia
★ In 2006, Congress.org (a service of two grassroots lobbying firms) listed Chafee as the 95th most powerful senator, and least powerful within his party.[17]
Footnotes
1. "Chafee May Defect From GOP"
2. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/chafee.htm
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/13/AR2006041301917.html
4. GOP favorite wins Rhode Island primary
5. Sen. Lincoln Chafee Gains GOP Support
6. http://www.humanevents.com/sarticle.php?id=11129
7. http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/pdf/Centrists.pdf
8. http://www.ramcigar.com/media/paper366/news/2004/10/05/News/Chafee.Speaks.With.Students.About.Election-741669.shtml
9. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/ussenate/2004-11-03-ri-chaffee_x.htm#
10. http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/09/republicans.chafee.ap/
11. http://www.projo.com/news/mcharlesbakst/projo_20031202_mcbcol02.116926.html
12. http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/01/30/chafee_says_he_will_vote_against_alito/
13. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183204,00.html
14. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16796
15. http://www.projo.com/extra/election/content/projo_20060913_newgop.37563ed.html
16. http://chafee.senate.gov/
17. Entry on rankings
External links
★ 2006 Rhode Island Senate Candidate List from VIS
★
★ 15 facts about Lincoln Chafee by U.S. News & World Report
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