Laffey in Today's OpinionJournal's Political Diary

John J. Miller's aforementioned NRO article is also mentioned in today's OpinionJournal's Political Diary in a blurb by John Fund. Political Diary, as I have mentioned before, is one of the "must haves" for any political junkie. Published by the Wall Street Journal and e-mailed to you daily and available for the ridiculously low price of $3.95 per month, it's a no brainer to subscribe. In light of this unpaid ad for their product, I reproduce the Laffey part here, and pray that I don't go to WSJ's Internet Jail:

"Republicans vs. Conservatives

Donors to the National Republican Senatorial Committee are raising questions about its priorities. This week, the NRSC put up its second TV ad in a month attacking conservative Steve Laffey, the Cranston, R.I. mayor who is challenging incumbent liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee in a primary. The NRSC is currently spending more money on negative advertising against a Republican than it is spending to soften up any Democrat -- and that includes Bob Casey, who has built a near-double digit lead against GOP Senator Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania.

The NRSC's latest ad uses a cartoon format to attack Mr. Laffey's record as mayor. Its main theme is that Mr. Laffey used taxpayer dollars to soundproof his mayoral office and ordered "spy cameras to spy on city employees." But, as political reporter John Miller points out, the cameras were set up to monitor the activity of union workers who were notorious for not performing their duties. The local Teamsters union bitterly attacked Mayor Laffey when the cameras revealed lax behavior. Sounds like good Republican city management procedures, which makes it all the sadder that the NRSC has decided to use its donor money to side with the union rather than the taxpayer.

Meanwhile, Mr. Laffey is showing some strength in fundraising, having brought in about $380,000 in contributions in the last three months -- almost $100,000 more than Mr. Chafee, an incumbent with access to endless political honey pots."

This piece and Miller's piece both mention the NRSC's ad that talks about the "spy cameras on city employees". I neglected to mention this ad yesterday because I hadn't see it yet. But I remember the story well. The only people in Rhode Island that were upset about this were the union members involved - because they got caught going to work for a few minutes a day and then taking the rest of the day off while still getting paid. And I remember other union members being interviewed and being upset at the "no-show" workers - because that reflected badly on the majority of city workers who did show up for a full day's work! Other than some union heads and privacy zealots no one else came out publicly and criticized the cameras once the tapes were made public - there was pretty much universal outrage against the workers involved. Most notable was the fact that the tactics used by Laffey were very similar, if not identical, to the tactics used by local media outlets and the Providence Journal to uncover similar no-show municipal workers, workman's comp fraud cases, etc...

So the NRSC runs an ad that received kudos from the taxpayers and everyone other than the people caught and their union enablers? NRSC strikes out again!

Comments

[Chris Baker]

I'm not the biggest fan of the NRSC as an organization (I actually worked there last cycle) because I think the "protect incumbents first" mantra is riduclous. They end up spending money to defend Senators who win easily instead of financing challengers with a good chance of winning. However, I think the Chafee race is an exception.

While Chafee is no conservative, neither is Laffey. And, according to some friends of mine in Rhode Island, Laffey has doe some pretty wacky things. Bottom line is that it's Laffey's own fault he's being targeted because he's running against a Republican incumbent and it's the NRSC's job to protect incumbents.

In terms of this race, if Laffey were to actually win the primary, we might as well hand the seat over to the Democrats to send another lefty to join Jack Reed in the Senate. While Chafee may not be an angel in our party, he is better than any of the Rhode Island Democrat alternatives. As a conservative, I say that we hold our noses on what's going on in RI and concentrate on keeping the levees from breaking because there's a real chance we could lose the Senate this cycle.