Changing of the R.I. guard

As best as can be determined, the last son of a deceased U.S. senator to decline appointment to his lather's vacant seat was Robert Taft Jr. In Ohio in 1953. At 36 and with no elective experience behind him, young Taft felt he was riot prepared to fill the shoes of his namesake-father, warmly known across the nation as "Mr. Republican.' So Taft declined the offer of appointment. (He would go on, however, to win election to the Ohio state legislature, the U.S. House, and finally made it to the Senate in 1970-only to be defeated after one term.)

With the sudden death of four-term Rhode Island Republican Sen. John Chafee last week, few pundits and polls doubt that GOP Gov. Lincoln Almond will offer appointment to the vacancy to Chafee's son-or that the younger Chaise will! accept ft. Unlike Bob Taft in 1953, Warwick Mayor Lincoln Chafee does have elective experience and was, at the time of his father's death, the [one Republican actively campaigning to succeed him in office (77-year-old John Chafee had previously announced he would not seek reelection in 2000).

Under state law, the governor may appoint someone to fill an unexpired Senate term until the next general election, "so long as that election is more than 70 days after the vacancy occur.' Thus, Almond is now expected to declare Nov. 7, 2000, as the date of the special election to fill the vacancy and name Lincoln Chaise to serve until then. Next fall, therefore, the special election to fill the remaining two months of John Chafee's term and the general election for another six-year term will be held on the same date.

Like John Chaise (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 300/6), Lincoln styles himself a social liberal, but says he is more fiscally conservative than his father. Earlier this year, he won national news coverage and widespread editorial praise when, amid the to-do over George W. Bush's awkward answers about whether he had ever used cocaine, the Rhode island Republican freely admitted that, as a young man, he had once tried the illegal drug.

But candor, a record in office, and an illustrious name may not be enough for Republicans to retain the Senate seat that national party operatives have long considered the likeliest to go De tic in 2000. The Democratic registration edge in the state is overwhelming, as is the clout of Big Labor. In winning his seat in 1976, John Chafee became the first and only GOP senator from his state since Jesse H. Metcalf was unseated 40 years earlier.

Prior to Sen. Chafee's death, most surveys had shown son Lincoln trailing either of the Democratic hopefuls-Rep. Robert Weygand (lifetime ACU rating: 23%) or former Lt. Gov. Richard Licht. (The nephew of the late Frank Licht, who ousted the elder Chafee as governor in 1968, Richard Licht drew 451% of the vote against Sen. Chafee in 1988.)

Will appointment to the Senate give Lincoln Chafee a leg up in his bid to win a full term? Uncertain. According to the U.S. Senate historians, appointed senators running in subsequent elections since 1950 have had only a 50-50 success record.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 5, 1999
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