As Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy told me yesterday, "The seat becomes his to lose."

When John Chafee was alive and headed for retirement, Mayor Chafee, who has never run statewide, seemed an underdog in this traditionally Democratic state against either likely Democratic Senate nominee, Rep. Bob Weygand or former Lt. Gov. Richard Licht.

Now the seat goes from "leaning Democrat" to "should be Republican if Chafee can just take hold and make a name for himself."

Yes, I said a name for himself. "Chafee" is a powerful moniker, but I doubt people in 2000 will vote for him in sentimental tribute to his father. Chafee, 46, has to earn support, and fight for it, and he knows it. "I can't ever imagine a Republican having an advantage in this state," he said at the State House.

David Hansen, a National Republican Senatorial Committee aide, told me, "I feel very confident he's going to be a very good senator and a senator the people of Rhode Island will be proud of."

Chafee will be aided by his father's staff. And GOP Senate leaders, though more conservative than he, likely will toss him some plums to enhance his 2000 prospects and their chances to keep a majority.

Still, the new senator will face a steep learning curve. Democratic Sen. Jack Reed had the benefit of six years in the House, where, he recalled yesterday, he arrived amid the turmoil of the nation's imminent entry into the Gulf War and Rhode Island's being awash in the credit union crisis. Even when he switched to the Senate, Reed said, he had to accommodate himself to new personalities and procedures.

"It really will be a function of hard work and his commitment to the job," Reed said of Chafee.

He said he looks forward to working with him but remains "very confident" a Democrat will win the seat next year.

Kennedy said he was well into his second two-year House term before he felt entirely comfortable.

Kennedy also said he looks forward to working with Chafee. As for 2000, a presidential year, he sees Democrats scoring big in Rhode Island, but he says Chafee has a chance to withstand the tide.

Yes, for the record, Kennedy, himself a senator's son, laughed, "The one thing I really can't stand is people running or advancing because of their family name."

At the State House yesterday, you couldn't help but think of John Chafee, senator and governor. I showed Linc and brother Zechariah a Journal story about how they and their siblings thrilled to the National Guard's 19-gun salute at their dad's first inaugural in 1963. Zechariah, 48, said, "I remember it to this day... We were standing on the balcony out here... The guns thundered... I remember arriving with the limousine under the North Portico of the State House. And (last week) I felt a twinge of memory and the poignancy as we stepped out through that same portico with my father's body."

Linc recalled the reverberations of the guns and the crisp cold, and he marveled at the span of time, and how, with wife Stephanie, he now has three kids of his own. Had he thought, growing up, he'd be a senator? "No," he said.

And here was Stephanie, after the news conference, exulting, "I'm married to a senator. Wow!" She is 42. She formerly worked as an AIDS clinical research nurse. In recent years she has been doing volunteer organizing work for a free health-care clinic.

I spoke by phone with Virginia Chafee, widow of the late senator, mother of the new senator, from her home in McLean, Va.

Since hearing that the appointment would be coming, she said, "We've just been so excited for Linc. It's fabulous to follow after his dad, and I know he'll do just as well in his own way."

She beamed, "We're so proud."