TALKING POLITICS Chafee reigns supreme, for now BY IAN DONNIS

US Representative James R. Langevin’s recent decision not to challenge US Senator Lincoln Chafee might seem somewhat surprising, given Langevin’s attributes as a candidate and survey results depicting him as a winner in a match-up with the Republican senator. Yet although Langevin, a three-term congressman, explained his decision by citing the House as a place where he can be more effective now than the Senate, his choice also reflects the conservative nature of electoral politics. In other words, giving up a safe seat for what would be a difficult fight is pretty unpalatable.

Many Democrats perceived Langevin as their great hope for knocking off Chafee and gaining a prized Senate seat. As a former Warwick legislator well respected for overcoming a physical handicap to win a succession of public offices, Langevin could have been expected to run a competitive race. Then again, although Chafee earns the enmity of partisan conservatives — and he did little to help himself by repeatedly stating last year how he wouldn’t vote for George W. Bush — there was already reason to believe that defeating him would be tougher than widely believed (see "Langevin’s big decision," News, February 11). These factors include incumbency, Chafee’s moderate profile, and the senator’s idiosyncratic appeal as an utterly candid maverick in a sound bite age.

In announcing his decision against running, Langevin boosted the potential candidacies of US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, who previously ruled out a run for the Senate seat, and former attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse. Kennedy, who has a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee, must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of staying put versus taking a broad jump with an unknown outcome. If he gets in, the Chafee-Kennedy race would be the most high-profile Senate contest in the country, attracting scads of national campaign contributions — for and against each candidate — while hardly guaranteeing a victory for the Democrat. Whitehouse, who has worked in private practice since losing the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary, has an easier decision to make since he has a lot less to lose, and can easily return to a job in the legal profession.

For now, Secretary of State Matthew Brown remains the only Democratic challenger. Rapped by Langevin as too inexperienced to be a senator, Brown’s audacity has benefited him in the moment, as he continues to hold fundraisers and build his base, but whether he can mount an effective challenge to Chafee remains to be seen. Also unanswered is the related question of whether the Republican senator will face a GOP primary challenge, possibly from Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey.

Meanwhile, in the absence of a united Democratic front, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has renewed its efforts to soften up Chafee, faulting him for backing the GOP’s agenda on votes on issues including judicial nominations and Social Security. In a statement, the DSSC pointed to this excerpt from a recent Associated Press story: "In a candid admission, Lincoln Chafee says his political vulnerability forces him to help advance the national Republican agenda. ‘If I need their help occasionally, I’m going to have to help them,’ Chafee said." J.B. Poersch, executive director of the DSSC, cited this statement as "a smoking gun piece of evidence for why he should lose his Senate seat."

For his part, Chafee once cited a National Journal finding of voting patterns placing him at the midpoint between liberal and conservative interests in the Senate. But even if there are a number of occasions when he sides with national Republicans, this probably isn’t the kind of thing that will move a decisive quantity of voters.