Steve Laffey - Rhode Island Senate
Steve Laffey
PRIMARY DATE: September 12, 2006
Describing his 1976 challenge to incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan wrote, "It was time to scale back the size of the federal government, reduce taxes and government intrusion in our lives, balance the budget, and return to the people the freedoms usurped from them by the bureaucrats."
Reagan helped define the mission of the Republican Party. By reestablishing limited government as the central principle of the GOP, he laid the groundwork for the political revolution that bears his name. Almost thirty years later, the Republican Party is at a similarly defining moment. Once again, challengers to certain Republican incumbents are needed to help restore limited government to its rightful place at the center of the Republican agenda.
That is why we urge you to support Steve Laffey, the Republican Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, in his primary challenge against Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee. Steve Laffey is a Ronald Reagan, pro-growth Republican. Conversely, Senator Chafee epitomizes the GOP's waning commitment to limited government and economic freedom.
Consider Chafee's record. Chafee:
- opposed every critical pro-growth tax cut proposed by President Bush and passed by Congress
- repeatedly voted with liberal Democrats like Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle to gut the Bush tax cuts
- wants to keep the Death Tax
- sponsored legislation that would add nearly $500,000,000,000 in new spending over 10 years
- received a pathetic 33% rating from National Taxpayers Union for his profligacy with taxpayer money
- teamed up repeatedly with organized labor on their priorities, and just this year voted for a minimum wage increase
- opposes school choice
- joined other liberal Republicans last year to block reforms that would slow the growth of spending by less than one percent
A Boston Globe profile describes Senator Chafee's ideology as being "well-suited for a centrist Democrat."
Is it any surprise that Chafee voted against the average Republican Senator more often than any other Republican Senator? During his career he voted with John Kerry nearly 70% of the time. There is no doubt he is the most liberal Republican in the U.S. Senate.
Despite his liberal record, Senator Chafee is warmly embraced by the Republican Party establishment who dutifully enforce an unprincipled mutual-defense agreement that ignores ideology.
Steve Laffey Makes A Stark Contrast.
Born and raised in a low-income family, Laffey managed to put himself through Bowdoin College and Harvard Business School. He went into investment banking, rising to the presidency of Morgan Keegan, a respected investment banking and brokerage firm based in Tennessee. Laffey helped engineer the highly profitable sale of Morgan Keegan -- then discovered he wasn't cut out for an early, leisurely retirement.
Instead, he came home to Cranston and successfully ran for mayor. At the time Steve took office, Cranston had the worst bond rating of any city in America. It was a fiscal disaster of such magnitude, the future seemed to promise only bankruptcy, a state takeover and a large and unavoidable hike in taxes.
As Mayor, Laffey ruthlessly attacked the mismanagement that had caused Cranston's problems. He cut costs, established financial controls, rooted out waste and took on bloated union contracts in the courts and in the court of Rhode Island public opinion. Today, Cranston has recovered its investment-grade credit rating and the voters there have re-elected him twice-in a city where only 14% of voters are Republicans!
When he sized up the situation -- including a thorough consideration of the restrictive state laws and union contracts he could not break - Laffey concluded that the path to avoid bankruptcy had to include raising property taxes. And raise them he did -- by 12.8%, 3.9% and 4.35% for the 2003, 2004 and 2005 budgets, respectively. For the 2006 budget, the situation had so improved, Laffey was able to avoid tax hikes altogether.
We agree, it's unusual for the Club's PAC to endorse a candidate who has raised taxes.
But we're convinced that Laffey's actions under the circumstances were justified for two reasons. First, he had no real alternative. We believe that had Laffey not been elected and gone to work cutting spending, the tax hikes would certainly have been far worse. Second, Steve Laffey has gone on-the-record with his strong stance against tax increases on the federal level.
In addition to signing the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) pledge to oppose tax hikes, Laffey:
- supports a constitutional amendment that would require a 2/3 vote to increase federal revenue in any way.
- has promised to vote against any increase in any tax.
- supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent, including the reduced income tax rates that have fed the economy's stellar performance in recent quarters.
- supports permanent repeal of the Death Tax and the elimination of the marriage penalty.
As a senator, Laffey would cut wasteful spending -- especially corporate welfare; make the Bush tax cuts permanent; expand international trade; reform insolvent entitlements and fix broken tort laws. In short, he's a pro-growth, limited government Republican and the Senate badly needs more of them.
In a bow to the somewhat leftward leanings of the RI electorate, Laffey is running as an outsider, criticizing both Republicans and Democrats in Washington. He has harshly criticized pork barrel spending and special interest politics. While he has voiced criticism of corporate interests such as big oil and big pharmaceuticals, his attacks are focused on reducing government subsidies for those industries, rather than trying to punish them for their success. We concede he is not perfect on all economic issues -- he supports higher CAFÉ (fuel consumption) standards for the automotive industry -- but he is far and away better than the incumbent. Also, a win for Steve Laffey will help steer the Republican Party in Rhode Island closer to the vision of Ronald Reagan.
This is a race we can and must win.
PAID FOR BY CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC AND NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE'S COMMITTEE. 202-955-5500.
