RI-Sen: 'We Might As Well Have a Democrat'
Kimberly Strassel has an insightful op-ed ($) in today's Wall Street Journal about the Rhode Island Senate race. Excerpt:
Northeasterners explain that this is the price of re-election, and by extension the GOP's hold on Congress. But has it backfired? Despite a steady march to the left, Mr. Chafee and a dozen Northeast House members are on the brink of being routed this November. High gas prices, rising interest rates, concern over Iraq, these play some part. Yet there's something else going on, in particular in those highly gerrymandered Northeast districts that have often delivered Republican incumbents upward of 60% of the vote. GOP voters, frustrated by Washington earmarking, scandal and obstructionism, may have decided their particular breed of Republicans just aren't worth the trouble.
That's the mood up here in Rhode Island, where I heard the phrase "We might as well have a Democrat" so many times I quit writing it down. Mr. Laffey is seeking to capitalize on this frustration with a populist agenda that delicately walks between the Democratic contender, former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse, and Mr. Chafee. On tax and spending issues, the former investment banker tracks Milton Friedman, wild about marginal rate cuts, an extension of the dividend and capital gains cuts, and torpedoing a few Alaskan bridges to nowhere. He backs the president in Iraq, supports free trade and is passionate about school choice.
