Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Davenport Chafee (born March 26, 1953) was a liberal Republican Senator from the state of Rhode Island. 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. Although he is a member of the Republican party, Chafee recently gave an indication that he would soon be switching his political affiliation. After winning a fierce Republican primary battle against conservative Mayor, Steven Laffey, Chafee lost his re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat, Sheldon Whitehouse, by a narrow margin. Chafee began serving as a visiting fellow at Brown Universityâs Watson Institute for International Studies in January 2007.[1] 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 or Independent candidate.
Fake Republican
Before his defeat in his race to keep his senate seat, Chafee had a very liberal voting record and fell in line with the Demmocratic Party position on almost every issue. Chafee strongly supports abortion. In May 2005, Chafee's senatorial reelection bid was endorsed by the traditionally Democratic-supporting NARAL Pro-Choice America. In 2003 he was one of only three Republican Senators to oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. He was also the only Republican Senator to vote against President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. While in the Senate, Chafee was the only Republican senator to have expressed support for gay marriage. When asked if he would support giving the death penalty to al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, his response was, "Rhode Island executed an innocent man, in the 18th century, and I'm against the death penalty." He has a record of being a tax and spend liberal. Chafee opposes eliminating the death tax and voted against both the tax cut bills of 2001 and 2003. He was also the only Republican in the Senate to have voted against authorization of the use of force in Iraq. In 2004 he wrote-in former President George H.W. Bush instead of voting for President George W. Bush. There are some issues were Chafee is considered to be more conservative. He has expressed support for privatizing social security and supports the Patriot act.