The move is expected to help the Republican senator raise money for his 2006 reelection campaign.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 20, 2005

BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee has won the endorsement of the nation's leading abortion-rights group, a coup that could have been of help to his prospective Democratic challengers.

But Democratic candidates Matt Brown, the Rhode Island secretary of state, and Sheldon Whitehouse, the former attorney general, quickly made clear that they view the abortion-rights issue as up for grabs in the 2006 Senate race. Both attacked Chafee's record of supporting some federal judges deemed "anti-choice" by the lobbying group itself, NARAL Pro-Choice America. (The acronym stands for the National Abortion Rights Action League.)

Both attacked Chafee for voting to seat at least three federal judges that NARAL lists as "anti-choice." But a look at the Rhode Island Senate race -- widely expected to be one of the nation's toughest -- underlines the fact that the "pro-choice" banner covers a variety of sometimes-conflicting positions on abortion.

Chafee's office said, for example, that the Democratic Senate campaign chief, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, and other Democrats joined Chafee in voting for some of the judges that NARAL lists as foes of abortion rights.

Chafee, Brown and Whitehouse all classify themselves as strongly "pro-choice," meaning they support the right of women to choose abortions.

A further wrinkle on the other side of the abortion issue: NARAL President Nancy Keenan said she hoped the group's early endorsement -- to be formalized when Chafee addresses the organization today -- will help the senator sink a potential primary fight from Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey. Laffey declined to speak in detail about how he views the abortion issue, except to say that seeing the sonograms of his five children made him want to "protect life."

Laffey also said he considers one prominent abortion-rights supporter, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to have staked out "reasonable" positions on the issue.

Chafee expressed pleasure with the endorsement and said he will try to stress to NARAL members today that the Senate should not cut back the ability of Democrats to filibuster President Bush's judicial nominees, many of them conservative opponents of abortion.

Keenan said NARAL opted to give Chafeee its first endorsement of the 2006 campaign for several reasons. One is that NARAL supports incumbents and "we stand by our friends," such as Chafee, who have amassed what NARAL considers to be good records on the issue.

NARAL gave Chafee a 100-percent rating on its review of how senators voted last year on legislation the group considers important.

Keenan also emphasized NARAL's devotion to helping Republicans who support abortion rights. "We need Lincoln Chafee's sensible, moderate, Republican voice" in the Senate, Keenan said.

Keenan was asked why NARAL did not prefer Brown, a candidate who has pledged to apply a "litmus test" to all judicial nominees -- opposing any who do not show support for abortion rights.

She answered that Chafee has a record of tough votes, while Brown has no congressional voting record.

Brown attacked Chafee for refusing to embrace a litmus test. Brown and Whitehouse both attacked Chafee on grounds that, as a Republican, he will almost certainly support a Senate Republican leadership team that would set an antiabortion agenda, no matter how he votes on individual abortion-related bills or on judicial nominations.

On that basis alone, "It doesn't make sense" for NARAL to endorse Chafee, said Whitehouse, who acknowledged that he has privately made this case to NARAL officials.

Whitehouse, Brown and Laffey all appeared to downplay the importance of the NARAL endorsement, noting that Rhode Island voters -- not a campaign and lobbying group in Washington -- will elect the next senator.

But Chafee and Keenan both granted that the endorsement will help him to raise money from the powerful NARAL network of abortion-rights supporters.

On the issue of judicial nominations, Brown and Whitehouse said they would have voted against three federal circuit court nominees that Chafee has voted to seat: Deborah Cook, Tim Tymkovich and Dianne Sykes.

Chafee spokesman Stephen Hourahan countered that a number of Democrats, including Schumer, joined Chafee in those votes. Hourahan suggested that Chafee and these Democrats looked not only at the abortion issue but at the nominees' complete records.

The endorsement of Chafee is not surprising, but its timing makes it "probably a welcome piece of news for Chafee," said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst for the independent Cook Political Report.

Duffy noted that recent events have put the middle-of-the-road Chafee under a lot of stress lately. The left and the right pushed him hard on Mr. Bush's nomination of conservative John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, which Chafee reluctantly helped to send to the full Senate for an up-or-down vote.

But Chafee has also bucked his party's leadership, voting against its budget blueprint for next year and pledging to help the Democrats fight off any Republican bid to ban filibusters on judicial nominees.