In other contests, the state's Republicans endorse Johnathan Scott, Sue Stenhouse and J. William W. Harsch.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 30, 2006

BY SCOTT MacKAY and ELIZABETH GUDRAIS
Journal Staff Writers

CRANSTON -- Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee won the enthusiastic endorsement of the Rhode Island Republican State Convention last night and skewered his primary challenger, Cranton Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, as a certain general election loser.

The usually mild-mannered Chafee assumed the persona of the Brown University wrestler he was once was, asserting that the conservative Laffey can't defeat Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, the former attorney general.

"Let's be honest, this seat cannot be won on the Republican votes alone," said Chafee to the cheers of most of the 200 delegates present. "We need the votes of independents and Democrats to win."

Chafee decried the politics of "bombast and bluster" and also mocked Whitehouse's statement that he was "bred" to run for high public office.

Laffey decided to boycott the convention, called it a "charade" and said yesterday those attending the convention were just "old-line Republicans living in their mansions down in Newport."

"Luckily," Laffey said on WPRO radio, "those people are getting older and they're dying."

Sitting at the head table last night at the convention at Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet was Eileen Slocum, the octogenarian GOP National Committeewoman and grande dame of Newport's summer social scene.

Laffey's campaign last week curiously spread rumors that Chafee was going to run as an independent. Yesterday, Laffey released a statement that said he decided not to compete for the endorsement "of the state party elite" and said, "I have no interest in participating in their charade of a convention."

Laffey also said he belonged to the Republican Party of "Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan" -- the exact words Arizona Sen. John McCain used in endorsing Chafee at a recent campaign event in Exeter.

Susan Farmer, the former secretary of state who, in 1982, became the first woman to win statewide office in Rhode Island, gave a nominating speech for Chafee and slammed Laffey. She said the GOP state convention was "not a charade" when she was running for office "and it's not a charade now."

Electability was a major theme of Farmer's speech. "There is not one single poll that shows Steve Laffey even competitive against a Democrat. In fact polls show that Laffey loses by as much as 25 or 30 points when paired against Whitehouse."

There was little drama in other endorsements last night. Republicans supported incumbent Governor Carcieri, who faces a primary from Providence business consultant Dennis Michaud. Michaud showed up early at the convention but left before delegates unanimously endorsed Carcieri's bid for a second term.

In the 1st Congressional District, Johnathan Scott, of East Providence, won the party backing over Edmund Leather, also of East Providence. Warwick City Councilwoman Sue Stenhouse was endorsed for secretary of state, and J. William W. Harsch, of Jamestown, for attorney general.

In the contest for lieutenant governor between Kernan "Kerry" King of Narragansett and Reginald Centracchio, former adjudant general of the Rhode Island National Guard, Centracchio captured the endorsement

The Laffey-Chafee showdown will determine -- at least in the short-term -- whether the Rhode Island GOP will remain in the New England moderate mold or turn rightward, as Republicans in the South and Sun Belt states have in the past 20 years.

Laffey is hoping that the Rhode Island GOP this year is not the party of Chafee's father, the late Sen. John H. Chafee, and such moderates as Lincoln Almond, Ronald Machtley, Claudine Schneider and Scott Avedesian. Only two Republicans, Lincoln Chafee reminded the delegates last night, have held a U.S. Senate seat from Rhode Island since the 1930s: Lincoln and John Chafee, who died in office in 1999.

Chafee, who wore a lapel button from his father's 1966 campaign for governor, was lauded by Farmer for his work "as a committed deficit hawk," as an environmentalist, on women's issues and for being a "traditional New England Republican."

The Chafee heritage of moderate Republicanism is that of pay-as-you-go government that is smaller than the Democratic version, support of abortion rights, civil rights for minorities and women, and strong environmental protection laws.

The nastiness in the GOP Senate contest is more reminiscent of the historic fissures that Rhode Island Democrats have had in past elections, when such divisive primaries as the Joseph Walsh-Anthony Solomon scrum of 1984 or the Bruce Sundlun-Myrth York 1994 joust opened the governorship to Republicans Edward DiPrete and Lincoln Almond respectively. Or the 2000 U.S. Senate Democratic primary between then-U.S. Rep. Robert Weygand over Richard Licht, which helped Chafee coast to victory over Weygand.

This year, it is Republicans who have the divisions, with the televised mud-slinging between Chafee and Laffey well under way. By contrast, former Attorney General Whitehouse seems the consensus Democratic Senate choice, even though Carl Sheeler has waged an active campaign.

The GOP is not in good shape at the grass-roots level in legislative races, where Democrats may even add to their already lopsided majorities in the House and Senate.

Carcieri should easily dispatch Michaud but recent public-opinion polls show Fogarty presents a serious threat from a unified Democratic Party. The Republican governor, whose political operation has lagged in organization and fundraising, will presumably have his hands full with Fogarty and won't have much time to spend on legislative races.

Democrats also believe that national trends help them -- President Bush's job approval is in the 20s in most recent polls in Rhode Island and the state is one of the nation's bluest bastions. Chafee is the only sitting Republican senator from a state that went for John Kerry in 2004 by 54 percent or more.

smackay@projo.com / (401) 277-7321

egudrais@projo.com / (401) 277-7045