From California to New York, Democrats and Republicans are targeting U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee's reelection race.

10:40 AM EDT on Friday, April 7, 2006

BY SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Journal State House Bureau

Rhode Island's Senate race is hardly a local contest.

Two out of every three dollars raised so far have come from out of state.

And more out-of-state money is likely to flow in as Election Day nears in what is expected to be one of the most expensive campaigns in Rhode Island history.

U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee holds one of a handful of seats nationally that are considered vulnerable. Because of that, deep-pocket donors from both parties concerned about the balance of power in Washington have been drawn to the race.

With less than six months to go before the Senate primary, donors have contributed nearly $4.3 million, as of the reporting period that ended Dec. 31. That number is expected to grow substantially when new figures are released April 15.

Most of the money so far has come largely from big cities on the East and West coasts.

New York residents donated more than $500,000 by the end of December. California contributors were right behind, with $440,000. Money also flowed in from Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

"This is one of the few Senate seats in the country that's seen as being possibly up for grabs this year, and therefore it's being highly targeted," said Anthony J. Corrado, a political science professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "As a result, I think that it would be likely that you'll see more money from outside the state in this year's Senate race than you've ever seen before."

Take Democrat Matt Brown, who is running in a primary against former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse.

Brown has raised 72 percent of his money from out of state, a higher percentage than any other candidate.

Brown's top-giving ZIP code outside Rhode Island is the posh Beverly Hills 90210. In the last four months, Brown has spent at least nine days fundraising in the Los Angeles area, according to his campaign.

Whitehouse is also tapping national money, with New York his top source so far.

Director Martin Scorsese hosted a Whitehouse fundraiser in his Manhattan townhouse last month, an event cohosted by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

The event was the subject of The New Yorker magazine's The Talk of the Town column recently, where Daschle is quoted telling the crowd: "Wouldn't it be nice to have a Whitehouse in Washington we can count on?"

Corrado said events such as this draw "the traditional liberal donors in the Democratic Party -- individual donors who tend to support particular efforts to try and win back a Democratic majority."

Republicans hold 55 of the Senate's 100 seats. Democrats hold 44, and independent Jim Jeffords, of Vermont, has the final seat.

Of the 33 seats up in this year's election, only 7 are considered by pundits to be really competitive -- 6 are held by Republicans, 1 by a Democrat.

Democrats hope to win those six seats and regain control of the Senate. Republicans hope to hold on to as many of those seats as possible and gain the Democratic seat.

Chafee is considered one of the six vulnerable Republicans.

His lack of support for the Bush administration as well as his willingness to break from party lines has made him unpopular with some Republicans. At the same time, Rhode Island is one of the bluest states in the nation.

There have been only two Republican senators from the state since the 1930s -- Chafee and his father.

A BROWN University poll in February showed the first-term senator ahead of Brown and Whitehouse by a few points, with 26 percent of those polled undecided.

"Every state counts. While a lot of these Democrats don't have arguments with Chafee, they'd rather have somebody with a D beside their name," said Jennifer Duffy, a former Rhode Islander who analyzes Senate races for The Cook Political Report, a Washington newsletter.

But before Chafee gets to the November election, he has to get past Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey in the September primary.

Chafee, however, has the backing of the national and state Republican parties, the Bush administration and the National Republican Senatorial Committee -- all who see Chafee as the best hope for keeping the seat Republican.

And then there is a group of donors upset with Chafee -- those who consider him a "Republican in name only" -- and want somebody in office who is more conservative and more supportive of President Bush.

Those people are backing Republican Laffey.

Corrado said this much out-of-state money, this early in the race, is unusual.

"And it's largely because you have a rather atypical incumbent and moderate Republican, which has encouraged some of the more conservative Republican donors to get involved in the race," he said.

Right now, the push behind Laffey is coming largely from the conservative Club for Growth, a national group that promotes tax cuts and free trade and likes to challenge moderate Republicans in primaries. The group has endorsed Laffey and has already spent $100,000 on ads and mailings.

THE SMALLER the state, the harder it is to finance a campaign without contributions from elsewhere.

"Senate races are expensive. When you're raising it essentially in increments of $2,100 [the limit on individual contributions for each race] . . . you're not going to be able to raise the kind of money you need in a state as small as Rhode Island," said Duffy.

In 2004, Daschle got 92 percent of his money from outside his home state of South Dakota, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks money in politics. Daschle lost the race. The same year, California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, raised 79 percent of her money in-state.

While Rhode Island's race has drawn $4.3 million in individual donations through December and will probably see more, it pales in comparison to the $91.8 million spent in New York's 2000 Senate race.

The Center for Responsive Politics shows that campaign as the most expensive Senate race in history, working out to about $7.75 per vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton and $14 a vote for her unsuccessful opponent, Republican Rick A. Lazio.

By comparison, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spent $77.9 million of his personal fortune on his reelection racelast year. That's about $100 a vote.

THE JOURNAL analyzed reports that campaigns file quarterly with the Federal Elections Commission, looking at who the individual donors are. Campaigns are not required to disclose donors who contribute less than $200 a year.

The data is not perfect. Names of donors and cities are misspelled. Other times data is missing. For instance, 36 of the 1,121 contributions reported by Chafee lack any information for the donor's home state.

The reports cover a reporting period up to Dec. 31. Data for donations for the first three months of this year is due in two weeks.

When The Journal examined data on who had donated to Laffey and then whom else those people had donated to, the Club for Growth was the overwhelming leader. Laffey donors made at least 386 donations, totaling $265,000, to the Club for Growth.

Duffy said this shows the club's great coordination and ability to get its supporters to contribute to its slate of candidates.

Whitehouse and Brown donors have also given generously to several other Democratic candidates in competitive races.

Leading the list are Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Bob Casey, who is challenging Republican Sen. Rick Santorum for one of Pennsylvania's seats.

Two senators with large national donor outreach -- Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts -- also top the list of campaigns that Whitehouse and Brown supporters back.

"The common thread is making sure that there is a Democratic majority in the Senate," said Alex Swartsel, spokeswoman for Whitehouse. "People want to make sure that they can contribute resources where they feel as though they are needed.

"Democrats all over America -- both in Rhode Island and throughout the country -- know that the road to a Democratic Senate majority leads through Rhode Island," she added.

Someone living in California or Florida doesn't just find a Rhode Island candidate. The campaigns work hard to tap well-known national donors.

"You start off with friends and you work from there," said Brown spokesman Matt Burgess.

Brown recently was accused of violating campaign-finance laws because of some of the out-of-state money he received.

The Democratic parties in Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts each gave money to Brown. In turn, four of Brown's backers who had already given him the maximum allowed, gave those parties a total of $30,000.

When rasing money, it also helps when your friends have large donor lists.

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has held an event and done a mailing for Chafee, according to Chafee's campaign manager, Ian Lang. Chafee also had an event in Missouri in January sponsored by Sen. Kit Bond and Jack Danforth, a former senator and United Nations ambassador. Sen. Susan M. Collins of Maine and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have also helped out.

Chafee so far has received 62 percent of his donations of $200 or more from outside the Ocean State.

Lang said many Rhode Islanders contribute, but give only $10, $25 or $50, which doesn't show up on the filings with the FEC.

"The senator is very proud and honored to have support of numerous Rhode Islanders in raising money for this race. We've made a very aggressive outreach effort for a lot of direct-mail, low-dollar donations," Lang said. However, "Rhode Island is a small state. It's hard to raise the millions of dollars that you need to run, just in state."

smayerow@projo.com / (401) 277-7513

DIGITAL EXTRA: Search campaign-finance reports by candidate, and find more campaign data, on the Federal Election Commission's site at:

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norcansea.shtml

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly indicated that Rhode Island voters had been unwilling to vote Republican in presidential races since 1928. A majority of Rhode Island voters chose Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in their reelections and voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower twice.