Primary Mistake: Dole's argument

Steve Laffey says U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole sabotaged his campaign.

In his new book, "Primary Mistake," the former candidate in the Rhode Island Senate Republican primary argues that Dole undercut his challenge to Sen. Lincoln Chafee.

He says Dole, then chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the group's executive director, Mark Stephens, a Raleigh political consultant, tried to talk him out of running.

In a meeting in Washington, D.C., in 2005, he says they tried to convince him to run for lieutenant governor instead, but he thought the position has no responsibilities.

What about "I don't want to ride around on a bicycle waiting for the governor to die" did they not understand the first time around?

Laffey lost his challenge to Chafee, who lost the general election.

A short excerpt after the jump.

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Laffey says that in the meeting, he challenged Chafee's record, saying he did not vote for President George W. Bush or tax cuts:

STEPHENS AND DOLE: We're not here to defend Lincoln Chafee.

That's funny, I thought, because that's exactly what you told me you were going to do — defend Linc Chafee because he's the incumbent. But I let that whopper of a confession go without so much as a whimper as the conversation made its inevitable way toward trying to convince me to run for lieutenant governor.

Excuse me for interrupting, but there is something I just don't get, and this seems like an appropriate point in the narrative to blow off a little steam. These guys are supposed to be smart, right? They're heading up the national Republican Party, so you'd think they would know what they were doing. What about 'I don't want to ride around on a bicycle waiting for the governor to die' did they not understand the first time around? Why didn't they actually try to come up with something useful for me to do?

I explained to them as simply as I could that the lieutenant governor in Rhode Island does nothing. I reviewed my background again — Harvard Business School, president of Morgan Keegan, mayor of Cranston, financial turnaround, the whole shebang, and put this question to them: "Do I look like a lieutenant governor to you?"

Silence. That's when Liddy Dole mentioned that she and Mark Stephens are both Christians.

I was stunned to say the least. To this day, I don't know what religion had to do with any of this.

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Re: Primary Mistake: Dole's argument

Submitted by dahedgehog on September 17, 2007 - 4:17pm.

Um, the post was about winning an election in RHODE ISLAND...not Salisbury.

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Re: Primary Mistake: Dole's argument

Submitted by Proctor on September 17, 2007 - 12:48pm.

Those Salisbury Republicans can surprise you by being pretty darned progressive from time to time, so you just never know. I have kinfolk who are Salisbury Republicans, and just like Elizabeth Dole, they'll come up with a forward-looking plan for education or economic development, only they don't make a big show of it.

Ever since my cousin from Salisbury clobbered me in a game of "The Presidents," I learned then and there never to underestimate the political prowess of a Republican from Salisbury!

So it would take a Democrat with a lot of traditional Ervin-type conservative appeal along with a strong loyalty to the principles of the Democratic Party to be able to carry the day in the 2008 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina.

Then, don't forget that it would take a lot of grit to run for the Senate against an incumbent with a senatorial spouse such as Bob Dole. Television may not be the kindest medium in the world to some people, but when you see Bob Dole in person at a rally or campaign event, he cuts a very impressive figure, like one of those frontier lawyers helping to straighten out a town in the Old West. Like Bill Clinton, he's already had a turn at bat serving in the office being held or being sought by his spouse.

So matter how good a speech you can write, one wisecrack by Bob Dole can charm the audience and leave you feeling like you just missed the last train to Dodge City. You could wind up sounding like Chester in "Gunsmoke":

"Doc, I don't know what happened--people were listening closely to what I was saying in my speech and then Bob Dole rode into town and they all ran across the street to shake his hand."

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Re: Primary Mistake: Dole's argument

Submitted by Proctor on September 17, 2007 - 12:20pm.

What a great job--Lieutenant Governor. How could anyone interested in running for statewide office not give that position a good looking over?

And in North Carolina, with Gov. Mike Easley not exactly going all out to win the Rob Christensen "Ceremonial Governor of the Century" award, just think of all the festivals, concerts, pageants, conventions and general hubbub of community celebration you can stop in on as the representative of the executive branch of the State of North Carolina.

Speaking of the executive branch, why, if you're a lieutenant governor in any state in the Union, you probably would have a good chance of scheduling a luncheon with Vice President Cheney to discuss the constitutional question of whether your office really belongs to the executive branch of state government or to the legislative branch.

Best of all, you get to cast the deciding vote in the case of a tie in a tally of members of the North Carolina Senate on a current bill. You could even probably score a nice cigar from Sen. Tony Rand's collection unless of course it would be considered a violation of ethics.

Nevertheless, there is lots to be said in favor of the accoutrements and high privileges of serving as Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, including trying to outrun all those special assistants to the Governor whenever they come up with a "brillaint idea" that they have not taken the time to think through to their logical conclusion.

Yes, the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina should be loyal to and supportive of the Governor's program but independent of all state executive branch offices in the specific, constitutionally-designated duty of serving as president of the North Carolina Senate, a great and noble position of responsibility whether the senators invite you into their club or not.

And don't forget, being a part-time position, the Office of Lieutenant Governor gives you plenty of time to explore the mountains, Piedmont, Sandhills and coast of the Old North State, "Land of the longleaf pine where the sun doth shine, where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great."

David McKnight

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Re: Primary Mistake: Dole's argument

Submitted by dahedgehog on September 17, 2007 - 12:12pm.

Of course, maybe they didn't want Laffey to run because he's waaaaaay on the right (hardcore Club for Growth), and Dole knew that he had no shot in an election!

The irony is that Dole's politics are probably closer to Laffey's than to Chafee's, but that's another (sad) story.

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