R.I. native may have pushed Sen. Specter from GOP
6:22 PM Tue, Apr 28, 2009 | Permalink
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By John E. Mulligan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The biggest political story since Barack Obama's election has a Rhode Island angle. When he announced his defection to the Democratic Party Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter generated shock waves in the Capitol -- and instant speculation that he left the GOP because his political life was at stake. Specter, one of the last of the vanishing breed of comparatively liberal Republicans from the Northeast, has long planned to run next year for a sixth term in the Senate. But the resilient Specter faced a tough challenge from the right in the 2010 Republican primary from the man who nearly ended his career in 2004, a native Rhode Islander named Pat Toomey. Toomey, who was raised in East Providence and schooled at La Salle Academy, won a scholarship to Harvard and went on to make a fortune in business. He became a congressman from Pennsylvania and came close to knocking off Specter in the 2004 GOP primary. Toomey later became chief of the Club for Growth, a Washington-based organization that has specialized in financing federal candidates who support lower federal taxes, among other conservative positions on domestic issues. Toomey made news in Rhode Island in 2006, when the Club for Growth helped to bankroll Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey's Republican primary challenge to then-Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee. Chafee defeated Laffey in the primary but fell to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the general election. Now Chafee, who has since left the Republican Party, is preparing for a possible run for governor as an independent. 
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There's another Specter/Chafee angle to the Pennsylvania Republican's party switch that no one in the RI media has picked up, to my knowledge. During his news conference Tuesday, Specter spent several minutes discussing Chafee's loss in 2006 as an example of the extreme conservative bent the GOP has taken on. Specter talked about how the Fund for Growth spent tons of money on the Laffey primary campaign so Chafee had to spend all his money on the primary fight and had little left for the general election. Specter went on to say that the Republicans lost the Senate that year because of the Chafee defeat. Gene Valicenti of Channel 10 interviewed Chafee last night and never mentioned what Specter said about him.
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1. Now that he's a democrat, maybe he finally get that New England Patriot Congressional Hearing he wanted after the Pats won the Super Bowl over the Eagles.
2. Ethically, shouldn't he return any and all campaign funds to donators who gave believing he was championing Republican goals?
He was a wolf in sheep's clothing this entire time anyway.
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