Chafee popping up in stories about why Walker survived recall
June 6th, 2012 at 3:48 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
One of the noteworthy statistics in the exit polls from Tuesday’s recall election in Wisconsin was this one, flagged by The Fix’s Aaron Blake: 17% of voters who backed Republican Gov. Scott Walker say they also support President Obama for reelection this fall. Blake called the number “stunning.”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned by covering state and federal politics concurrently, though, it’s that plenty of voters’ views on optimal public policy don’t lead to unwavering support for either party as a national-eye-view might suggest. Rhode Island voters haven’t backed a Republican for president since 1984 – and they haven’t backed a Democrat for governor since 1992.
Meanwhile, Governor Chafee and Rhode Island are being used to put Walker’s victory in context. Here’s Molly Ball reporting for The Atlantic:
It’s not only Republican governors, Walker noted, who are pushing to reform the pension, benefit and pay privileges enjoyed by public workers. He pointed to the efforts of Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, Lincoln Chafee (a liberal independent) in Rhode Island, Andrew Cuomo in New York and Jerry Brown in California, all of whom have approached the issue of public sector pension reform, if in less inflammatory manner.
And here’s The Wall Street Journal:
Labor fights are raging in other states. In Ohio, Republican Gov. John Kasich signed a law removing collective-bargaining rights for public employees until a union-driven referendum repealed it last November.
In Rhode Island, Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, proposed bills that would allow a few financially troubled cities to reduce disability pensions for police and firefighters.
In Michigan, tea-party Republicans who pushed—so far, unsuccessfully—for right-to-work legislation, said a Walker victory could reinvigorate their cause. …
MSNBC (perhaps after reading the WSJ) also lumped together Ohio, Rhode Island and Michigan this afternoon in a report on states where labor wars are raging. Forbes’ Josh Barro argued back in March these strange bedfellows prove “necessity has trumped political coalitions,” while local union activists have described Chafee’s municipal bills as “Wisconsin heavy.”
Chafee and Walker have very different styles, though – a Wisconsin paper suggested voters recall Walker for someone like Chafee, and last year Chafee cautioned Walker against taking on Wisconsin’s unions: “You don’t want a war you can’t win.” Walker, for his part, won more than half the vote in Wisconsin last night, while Chafee won office in 2010 with barely a third.
An earlier version of this story said Rhode Island last elected a Democratic governor in 1994; that was the final full year in office for the state’s last Democratic governor, Bruce Sundlun.
Tags: lincoln chafee, organized labor, republicans, scott walker, unions, wisconsin
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
Quite amazing how fast Walker’s turning that state around. Wish we had him here.
We can only wish the voters in Rhode Island vote anti-incumbent. It is also happening in San Diego and San Jose. It will come west.
Ed, gotta give you credit for being a glass half full kinda guy. However before RI votes out our bought and paid for GA, I fully expect to be turning triple axles on an ice skating rink in hades.
Many of the news stations are indicating that the exit polls in Wisconsin proved to be flawed, so whether that is true about Obama may be questionable.
Sorry, there is little similar between Wisconsin and Rhode Island. Politically, there hasn’t been a real two party system in Rhode Island for at least two plus generations. It’s more like a one and one quarter system. Wisconsin has many more small cities/towns and rural areas. With few exceptions that are conservative and Republican. Wisconsin’s growing suburban belt outside of Milwaukee has trended conservative and Republican. Rhode Island hasn’t had anything like a conservative alternative for generations. Merely using and abusing a Republican label isn’t synonymous with conservative. The career of Rhode Island’s current Governor, whether as Mayor of Warwick or US Senator can hardly be characterized as conservative. So the article rests on supposed similarities between Governor Walker’s and Chafee’s approach to state retirement benefit modifications. The problem for this comparison is that Governor Walker went much further to limit public employee union clout. Governor Chafee has no intention of doing that. The Rhode Island Legislature still behaves as a wholly owned subsidiary of those unions. That’s where the real clout remains. How can we even imply a comparison when there is no effort at changing Rhode Island’s Teacher Collective Bargaining Law. That law has, does, and will continue to drive excessive inflationary increases in public sector spending and taxes at both local and state levels. Finally, there is something called an economy in Wisconsin. Rhode Island is a basket case,period.
Correct on all counts, couldn’t have said it better myself. Between you and Downsized, you said it all
Walker should run for President.GA is in the unions back pockets in the corrupt state of RI.Union members have very little to fear.May change in November if some that stench in the GA get voted out.
I think this is among the most important information for me. And i’m glad reading your article. I was very pleased to find this web-site. I wanted to thanks for your time for this nice read!! It’s really a great and useful piece of info.