Round 2: Race could help determine balance of power in Senate
2006-09-14
Source: Providence Journal
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rss feedDemocrats and Republicans took up the cudgels from Warwick to Washington yesterday for a Rhode Island campaign that could decide which party runs the Senate for the final two years of President Bush's tenure.
Fresh from his victory in a tough GOP primary, Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee turned immediately to frame his bid for reelection as a leader who can buck the White House on issues from tax cuts to the war in Iraq -- and still bring Rhode Islanders the fruits of Republican power.
"It's in Rhode Island's best interest" to have at least one member of its congressional delegation in the majority party, Chafee said during an interview in a Barrington shopping plaza. "It's worked well for 30 years," he said, alluding to the long service of his late father, Sen. John H. Chafee, as a moderate Republican from a strongly Democratic state.
Just as quickly, challenger Sheldon Whitehouse moved to his strongest line of attack: Chafee's partisan tie to the unpopular Mr. Bush. The opening shot of Whitehouse's fall campaign is a new television ad that declares, "A Republican Senate continues the Bush policies and its failures." Without naming Chafee, the ad notes that a GOP victory would mean a Republican would lead the Senate.
As the Senate races around the country stack up today, "The Democrats cannot win the majority in the Senate without Rhode Island," said Jennifer Duffy of the independent Cook Political Report.
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