As has been reported (I saw it tweeted first by Ian Donnis), governor-elect Chafee has tabbed erstwhile liberal Democrat political insider–lobbyist, Chairman of the Board of NARAL—Richard Licht (h/t Ted Nesi for the link to Licht’s bio) to head up the Department of Administration. The liberalness isn’t a surprise, but lest we forget, there is a history between the Licht and Chafee families. As ProJo 7to7 reminds us:

Licht was lieutenant governor from 1984 to 1988, when he ran for Senate in 1988 against Chafee’s father, John Chafee. He lost that year and ran again in 2000, losing in the Democratic primary. Lincoln Chafee, who had been appointed to fill his father’s seat upon his death in 1999, won that year.
Licht’s uncle, Frank Licht, unseated Chafee’s father from the governor’s office in 1968.

Chafee and his staff are characterizing this as “bipartisanship” because of the Democrat/Independent/Republican mashup. Yeah, right. It really isn’t bipartisan when the scion of a long-time political family brings in a fellow scion of a long-time political family to help him run things. The only real differences Chafee and Licht were their party and some nuance and emphasis. Obviously, there was a lot they agreed upon over cocktails at the club.