With all of the obituaries written for the GOP in New England, it’s easy to forget that Rhode Island has a two-term, pro-life, tough-on-illegal-immigration Republican governor, Don Carcieri.
Carcieri is term-limited, and the GOP faces a tough road to holding the seat. Steve Laffey, the former mayor of Cranston who narrowly lost a primary challenge to Sen. Lincoln Chafee in 2006, was widely believed to be interested in running but decided against it, and a state representative who also heads the state GOP, Joseph Trillo, is thinking about a run.
However, a slew of Democrats are interested in the job, so there might be a chance for a messy primary.
A new factor that might make the race a bit more interesting is the potential independent bid of . . . former Republican-turned-independent senator Chafee. He’s filing the paperwork today.
When last we heard from Lincoln Chafee, he was heading up Republicans for Obama (even though he had left the party a while ago) and was volunteering to join a panel that would “reinvestigate” 9/11.
* UPDATE: This post originally said Laffey was considering a run; he has decided against one.