April 4, 2006
 
Tiny State, Big Money: Senate Race in Rhode Island of Big National Interest
 
By Scott Mayerowitz
The Providence Journal
 
Rhode Island's Senate race is hardly a local contest. Two out of every three dollars raised so far have come from out of state. And more out-of-state money is likely to flow in as Election Day nears.
 
Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, a Republican, holds one of a handful of seats nationally that are considered vulnerable. Because of that, deep-pocket donors from both parties concerned about the balance of power in Washington have been drawn to the race.
 
With less than six months to go before the Senate primary, donors have contributed nearly $4.3 million, as of the reporting period that ended Dec. 31, 2005. That number is expected to grow substantially when new figures are released April 15, 2006.
 
Most of the money so far has come largely from big cities on the East and West coasts.
 
New York residents donated more than $500,000 by the end of December. California contributors were right behind, with $440,000. Money also flowed in from Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.
 
"This is one of the few Senate seats in the country that's seen as being possibly up for grabs this year, and therefore it's being highly targeted," said Anthony J. Corrado, a political-science professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "As a result, I think that it would be likely that you'll see more money from outside the state in this year's Senate race than you've ever seen before."
 
Take Democrat Matt Brown, who is running in a primary against former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse.
 
Brown has raised 72 percent of his money from out of state, a higher percentage than any other candidate.
 
Brown's top-giving ZIP code outside Rhode Island is the posh Beverly Hills 90210. In the last four months, Brown has spent at least nine days fund-raising in the Los Angeles area, according to his campaign. Whitehouse is also tapping national money, with New York his top source so far.
 
Director Martin Scorsese hosted a Whitehouse fund-raiser in his Manhattan townhouse recently, an event co-hosted by former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
 
The event was the subject of The New Yorker magazine's The Talk of the Town column recently, where Daschle is quoted telling the crowd: "Wouldn't it be nice to have a Whitehouse in Washington we can count on?"
 
Corrado said events such as this draw "the traditional liberal donors in the Democratic Party -- individual donors who tend to support particular efforts to try and win back a Democratic majority."
 
Republicans hold 55 of the Senate's 100 seats. Democrats hold 44, and independent Jim Jeffords, of Vermont, has the final seat. Of the 33 seats up in this year's election, only seven are considered by pundits to be really competitive -- six are held by Republicans, one by a Democrat.
 
Democrats hope to win those six seats and regain control of the Senate. Republicans hope to hold on to as many of those seats as possible and gain the Democratic seat.
 
Chafee is considered one of the six vulnerable Republicans.
 
His lack of support for the Bush administration as well as his willingness to break from party lines has made him unpopular with some Republicans. At the same time, Rhode Island is one of the bluest states in the nation. When it comes to presidential elections, Rhode Islanders have voted Democratic since 1928.
 
There have been only two Republican senators from the state since the 1930s -- Chafee and his father.
 
A Brown University poll in February showed the first-term senator ahead of Brown and Whitehouse by a few points, with 26 percent of those polled undecided.
 
"Every state counts. While a lot of these Democrats don't have arguments with Chafee, they'd rather have somebody with a D beside their name," said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for The Cook Political Report, a Washington newsletter.
 
But before Chafee gets to the November election, he has to get past Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey in the September primary.
 
Chafee, however, has the backing of the national and state Republican parties, the Bush administration and the National Republican Senatorial Committee -- all who see Chafee as the best hope for keeping the seat Republican.
 
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