PROVIDENCE -- On the day when state Democrats were nipping at his heels over a staffer's improper e-mails and a new poll showed his Democratic opponent, Sheldon Whitehouse, with his widest lead yet, embattled U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee picked up what will no doubt be remembered as the most unusual endorsement of the campaign season.

With her voice dissolving into laughter the first time she tried to say "Republican," Myrth York, the state Democratic Party's three-time nominee for governor, enthusiastically endorsed Chafee over Whitehouse, who she faced and beat in the 2002 Democratic primary race for governor.

With Chafee at a news conference at the Federal Reserve restaurant, York said she has nothing against Whitehouse. She said she was pledging her support to a Republican for the first time in 40 years because "I place greater value on the character of the man than on party."

To win, Chafee must woo Democrats and left-leaning independents away from Whitehouse. Former state senator York's pitch yesterday was part of that effort.

York said: "I am a Democrat.(and) When it comes to political parties, there is no doubt in my mind that "the Democratic party comes closer to representing my values than the Republican party,." she said Chafee "comes even closer to representing my values" because

York said Chafee is not only "anti-war, anti-torture, pro-environment, pro-civil rights and pro-personal freedoms he had the wisdom and the courage to vote against the Iraq war when his president, his party and the Democratically controlled Senate did not."

The Whitehouse campaign chose to ignore York's endorsement and Chafee's new 60-second radio ad attacking Whitehouse for denouncing as "unfair" the 1996 federal law requiring voter approval for a casino on tribal land in Charlestown and drew attention to Whitehouse's own endorsements and a new poll.

Whitehouse leads the incumbent by 14 points, according to a poll released today by the national independent pollster Zogby International. While Whitehouse has led consistently in recent polls, his lead over the Republican Chafee has never been larger than 10 points.

Whitehouse topped Chafee 53 percent to 39 percent with a margin of error of 4 percentage points. The survey of 601 likely voters was taken Oct. 24 to Oct. 30. A new local poll is expected today.

Chafee said: "Just remember, in the primary I think one poll had me down 17, so polls are all over the place."

Asked what his own polls showed, he said: "I am going to confess that we are so broke we are not polling. A few seconds later, he said: "We're not broke. Let me correct that.

From the Whitehouse camp came a series of prepared statements hailing the Zogby poll as evidence of "the real momentum behind Sheldon's campaign and the real possibility that the Democrats could take back the Senate this year" and endorsements from the Rhode Island Lodge Fraternal Order of Police and the labor-affiliated Alliance for Retired Americans.

A statement attributed to the alliance's executive director Ed Coyle said the endorsement reflects Whitehouse's "leadership on issues such as the need for a comprehensive prescription drug benefit program under Medicare that benefits seniors not insurance and drug companies."

Meanwhile, the two camps battled it out in radio ads.

Chafee geared his new $8,000 radio campaign to comments Whitehouse made during their last televised debate about the so-called Chafee amendment requiring voter approval for a casino on South County tribal land.

Channel 10 reporter Bill Rappleye asked Whitehouse: "If you were in the Senate, would you take steps to reverse the measure introduced by the late Sen. John Chafee that stripped the Narragansett Indians of their rights under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and what is your position on building a casino in West Warwick?

After Whitehouse reiterated his opposition to the proposed West Warwick casino proposal, Rappleye followed up with this question: "And what about steps to allow the Narragansetts to build on their own land?"

Whitehouse: "I think it would be fair. As I said, the Narragansetts, I think, have taken the short end of the stick a lot I think that leveling the playing field for them is a fair thing to consider."

A day later, Whitehouse spokeswoman Alex Swartsel said Whitehouse was not calling for repeal, but, "No, he does not think it is fair because it singles out the Narragansetts . . . and should be reviewed." (A federal court decision upholding the Chafee amendment said the Narragansetts were not, in fact, the only tribe in the nation subject to state gambling laws.)

Whitehouse's statements and his aide's attempts to clarify them provided the basis for the new Chafee ad that cites the $9,575 in campaign contributions Whitehouse has received from the major players in the Harrah's-Narragansett Indian casino drive. It says, in part: "Remember: even if you vote no on casinos, you still may get them if you vote yes for Sheldon Whitehouse."

Without commenting on Chafee's ad, the Whitehouse camp launched one of its own.

It was hinged on the discovery Wednesday that Lammis Vargas, a staff assistant in Chafee's district office, had used her Senate computer to send personal e-mails critical of Whitehouse's work as attorney general and, in particular, the May 2000 slaying of 15-year-old Jennifer Rivera days before she was to testify in a murder trial.

The e-mails violated a rule prohibiting Senate equipment from being used for political purposes. Immediately after she was effectively outed by the local blog RIFuture.org, Chafee suspended Vargas without pay for two weeks.

State Democratic chairman Bill Lynch demanded immediate answers to a litany of questions, among them: "Why was this employee suspended and not fired? Doesn't that send the signal that you don't believe violations of Senate ethics rules are serious?"

Chafee's reply: "I condemn the fact that any government equipment was used for political purposes. It's wrong. I won't stand for it." Asked why the employee was not fired, Chafee said he is still investigating "exactly what happened," but "I just spoke to her briefly. She is very, very remorseful,her husband has just been redeployed to Iraq and I want to take all that into consideration."

Asked what he made of the fact that Lynch, not Whitehouse, lobbed the grenade, he said: "OK, should I be more blunt? Sheldon Whitehouse doesn't want the Jennifer Rivera case being rehashed in the political dialogue and that was the subject of one of the e-mails."

A short time later, the Whitehouse camp released the script of its new ad, which said, in part: "Lincoln Chafee. Ethics violations. A gutter campaign. Bush and the Republicans will do anything to stay in power."

Said Chafee campaign manager Ian Lang: "To bring her [Vargas] into this merely to advance a political point is beyond despicable. This is gutter politics at its worst."

Added Pablo Rodrigues, founder of the Rhode Island Latino Action Committee and Democratic Party executive committee member, in a telephone call to The Journal: "I am just sick and tired of politics in this state. This is a young woman that has worked hard to support her family. For her to be in the middle of this, when she just made an honest mistake out of ignorance and loyalty to her boss, is just crazy."

Late in the day, Sen. Arlen Specter, the chairman of a key appropriations subcommittee, joined Chafee for a quick tour of the crowded neonatal intensive-care unit at Women & Infants Hospital. Chafee takes credit for getting $200,000 earmarked in a federal spending bill toward a $64-million addition that will include an obstetrical-care floor for mothers with high-risk pregnancies and two floors for a neonatal intensive-care.

Specter, R-Pa., said he came to Rhode Island to see how federal money is being spent and because the Senate "will be a very lonely place" if Republican moderates such as himself, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Gordon Smith lose Chafee's help. If Chafee loses, the message will be that independence is not prized, he said. "He had more foresight than the rest of us" on Iraq.

Whitehouse would be just one of many similar voices in the Democratic caucus, while Chafee, as an independent and a moderate, enjoys leverage in the Republican caucus, Specter said.

With reports from staff writers Greg Smith and Steve Peoples