August 23, 2005

Rhode Island Politics

Chafee Power Play by the National Republican Party?

Carroll Andrew Morse

The Projo’s description of why Republican party official Robert Manning is blocking a $500,000 contribution from the national party to the state party needs a bit of refinement. Here’s how Scott MacKay’s story describes it…

Under the system established by the Republican National Committee, Manning can single-handedly block the money from state GOP coffers by virtue of his position as national committeeman.
But Manning’s power to block funding from coming to Rhode Island is not as broad as the above paragraph indicates. It is based on rule 11(a) of the national Republican Party’s rules
The Republican National Committee shall not, without the prior written and filed approval of all members of the Republican National Committee from the state involved, contribute money or in-kind aid to any candidate for any public or party office except the nominee of the Republican Party or a candidate who is unopposed in the Republican primary after the filing deadline for that office….
Manning only has the power to block the money if it is being designated for a specific candidate prior to his or her nomination. The question that needs to be asked about this $500,000 is how much of it has been designated by the national party solely for the support of Lincoln Chafee?

6:11 PM
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What about the fact that Laffey is being used by the Club for Growth??? The Club for Growth doesn't care about RI, all they care about is getting Chafee out of here. How come nobody seems to care that Laffey will be beholden to the Club for Growth, if they manage to elect him. Isn't anyone comcerned about that?? I mean this isn't just some group endorsing him, this group is staffing and running the show for this guy....that should scare some people in RI.

Posted by: Ari at August 24, 2005 8:49 AM

Ari,

First, saying that an outside interest group "is staffing and running the show for this guy" is a pretty serious charge. Can you back that up?

Second, if it is fair to say that Laffey is being "used" by the Club for Growth, is it also fair to say that Chafee is being "used" by NARAL?

Posted by: Andrew at August 24, 2005 11:25 AM

Mr. Morse, when did Laffey announce for the Senate??
Huh, guess I missed that because this money has been held up by Laffey's minion Mr. Manning since MAY.
It is inexcusable how Laffey plays his self serving games and never gets called on it by people like Mr. Morse.
This money issue is not about Linc Chafee, Chafee has more money than god and a half mil coming from the RNC is not going to make or break his Senate run.
This money issue is about Laffey not getting what he wanted (jobs, open offices) from Carcieri and Morgan and this is his way of sticking his finger in their eye.
I'm no fan of Linc Chafee, he's far too liberal for my taste but anyone who thinks Steve Laffey cares one wit about the state, the party or anything but himself is sadly mistaken.

Posted by: Tim at August 24, 2005 3:34 PM

Tim, you're wrong. If the national party wants to give $500,000 for party-building efforts, Robert Manning cannot stop them, nor would he want to.

Manning can only block the contribution if the national party is putting strings on the money, i.e. it can only be spent on certain candidates.

Posted by: Andrew at August 24, 2005 4:32 PM

I'm telling you, people are so scared of a Laffey campaign they'll say anything. Tim says he doesn't care at all about RI. The people of Cranston may disagree, as he just saved them another half million a year by contracting for private crossing guards. Think how many books that could by for school libraries, or maybe even a bit of tax relief.

And just to clear things up for Ari, the Club for Growth doesn't elect anyone. We the voters do.

Posted by: rightri at August 24, 2005 4:50 PM

Andrew, how can you possibly justify this behavior on Manning's part when Laffey has been trying for months to get jobs at the state house and in Washington in lue of running for the Senate??
manning has sat on this money since May for a non-candidate who's been trying to make deals to better himself.
How proud you must be, Mr. Morse.!!
Rob Manning works for and is loyal to Steve Laffey not the Republican party.
Never forget that!
BTW, Laffey is in for a major surprise next year. He's not quite as popular with the population around here statewide as he thinks he is. And what should really bother him is I'm a unaffiliated voter who votes 99% of the time for Republicans in RI yet I'll never vote for Laffey. He's all about himself and Manning's actions speak directly to that.

Posted by: Tim at August 24, 2005 5:40 PM