Lincoln Chafee - Independent Candidate for Rhode Island Governor

Media: April 2010 Archives

Chafee Tours Community Group In Providence

April 21, 2010

News.WBRU

Yesterday gubernatorial candidate Lincoln Chafee toured Year Up, a training program in Providence that provides young adults with workplace skills and helps them land corporate internships. While visiting, Chafee met with administrators and students, who shared their hopes for success with the former senator. Chafee said as governor, he would help students land internships in state government. Chafee also accepted an invitation to appear at the group's May 13 Walk for Opportunity. A former Republican, Chafee is now running as an independent.

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Who Needs a Party?

The Daily Beast
By, Samuel P. Jacobs

As Florida Gov. Charlie Crist considers exiting the GOP to run for the Senate as an independent, he'll have company on the campaign trail. Samuel P. Jacobs on tips for going it alone.

After a blistering primary campaign against conservative golden boy Marco Rubio, Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist, is seriously considering taking the road less traveled: completing his U.S. Senate run as an independent.

He has good reason--and it's not just because he's trailing Rubio badly in the latest primary polls. The voters seem increasingly down on both Democrats or Republicans. In a recent Gallup poll, nearly four out of 10 voters polled identified themselves as independent rather than as belonging to either major party. Compare that to 1980, when an NBC exit poll found 25 percent of voters self-identifying as independents. In nine states, stretching from Maine to Iowa to Alaska, more voters are registered as unaffiliated than with either of the major parties. And Florida seems to be catching the wave: The number of independents there has grown 11 percent since 2008.

So far, those numbers have not helped install many self-proclaimed independent candidates in office. Of the nation's 50 governors, not one is an independent. The same is true of the U.S. House. In the Senate, there are two independents--Connecticut's Joe Lieberman and Vermont's Bernie Sanders--yet both caucus with the Democratic Party. Thus as Crist weighs his decision, he doesn't have a huge bank of role models to draw from.

Still, New England might be a good place to look for some tips. At the moment, there are three independent candidates running credible campaigns for governorships. Eliot Cutler of Maine entered politics working as an aide for Sen. Edmund Muskie, later practicing international law, and is a big draw in a wide open field made up of five Democrats and seven Republicans. Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican senator from Rhode Island, is looking to return to public office after losing his 2006 reelection bid after one term. Chafee was defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, but a difficult primary challenge helped Chafee make up his mind to leave the GOP after the election. Chafee holds a double-digit lead at the moment over Democratic State Treasurer Frank Caprio and Republican John Robitaille. In Massachusetts, State Treasurer Tim Cahill quit the Democratic Party to run against incumbent Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick and the Republican challenger Charlie Baker. Cahill is in second place in the most recent poll.

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Best Future Governor: Lincoln Chafee

April 19, 2010

In the Providence Phoenix's "Best 2010" edition, Lincoln Chafee was voted "Best Future Governor." Click here to leave a comment on Lincoln Chafee's selection, and here to see all winners.

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Third party rumblings

April 14, 2010

The Leaf Chronicle
By, Froma Harrop

They make less of a ruckus than the tea party people, but independents in New England are brewing their own revolution. Third-party governors may have been elected elsewhere -- Walter Hickel in Alaska (1990) and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota (1998) -- but in New England, such candidacies have become almost routine.

Independents are making credible runs for governor in Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island. The strongest contender, Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee, is a former U.S. senator and former Republican. Polls show Chafee comfortably ahead of his likely Democratic and Republican rivals.

This regional trend preceded the tea party phenomenon. The U.S. Senate's two independents are Connecticut's Joe Lieberman and Vermont's Bernie Sanders, both of whom caucus with Democrats. Connecticut's former governor, Lowell Weicker, had been a Republican-turned-independent. And if elected, Eliot Cutler would be Maine's third independent governor.

I asked Chafee: Are these independents eventually going to have their own party headquarters complete with an animal mascot?

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Can independents seize the day?

April 7, 2010

By, John Avlon
CNN.com

New York (CNN) -- Three credible independent candidates are running for governor this year in three New England states where registered independents outnumber Democrats and Republicans.

It's the latest sign that independent voters are rising from the ranks of the politically homeless to become the largest and fastest growing segment of the American electorate.

A CBS/New York Times poll released last month found that 42 percent of Americans identify themselves as independents. Registered independent (or unaffiliated) voters now outnumber registered Democrats or Republicans in 10 states, including Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine.

In those three states, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, State Treasurer Tim Cahill and businessman Eliot Cutler have embarked on independent candidacies for governor.

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Linc Chafee is a tested leader of unquestioned integrity and a strong independent voice. As Governor, he will work hard to create new jobs, rebuild our economy, solve our chronic budget problems, end corruption, and forge a new way forward for Rhode Island.

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