Chafee explores 2010 run for governor

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Lincoln Chafee lost his Senate seat as a liberal Republican, but he returned Monday as an independent candidate preparing to run for Rhode Island governor as the state  is battered by its worst recession in decades.

By creating an exploratory committee Monday, Chafee can begin fundraising and assembling key campaign staff for the 2010 race to replace term-limited Gov. Don Carcieri, a Republican. Chafee will spend the upcoming months meeting with advisers and supporters to lay the groundwork for a race, he said.

Despite repeatedly expressing his interest in running, Chafee has stopped just short of declaring himself a candidate. No political independent now serves as governor of a U.S. state.

"The time has come to stop the political bickering and start using our collective expertise to make the kinds of bold decisions that will position Rhode Island as a model of economic, civic and social success, not a state in decline," Chafee said in a written statement. Whoever wins the next governorship of the nation's smallest state will confront daunting economic problems.

Unemployment stood at 10.5 percent in February, the fifth-worst in the country. Factories have been shuttered, housing prices have plummeted 26 percent and a credit crisis has squeezed the small businesses so critical to the state's economy.

Chafee did not return a phone call seeking comment Monday, but he acknowledged the economic difficulties in an interview last month. He said the next governor must be a consensus builder and end the quarreling between the Republican governor and the Democratic-dominated General Assembly. "It's no secret," Chafee said.

"The governor fights with the legislature, fights with the unions. It makes a hard job harder." Chafee, who famously clashed with the Republican Party, may have an easier time running as an independent. Unaffiliated voters made up 47 percent of the electorate last year, a larger share than either major party.

"Being an independent, a whole different population is more inclined to be supportive that just could never quite support a Republican," Chafee said. Chafee had a troubled relationship with his old party.

He was the only Republican senator to vote against the Iraq war and in 2004 cast a write-in vote for President George W. Bush's father as a protest rather than vote for the then-president. A social liberal, he supports legalizing gay marriage, abortion rights and strong environmental protections.

He voted against Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, fearing that Alito would expand the president's executive powers, allowing warrantless wiretaps and other searches. Chafee has said he was considering running for governor as part of a ticket, but he declined to name any possible running mates.

His longtime friend, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, a Republican, said he would be interested in running with Chafee, among other political options, but Avedisian has not made any decisions. The two men planned to meet Tuesday.

Chafee, a former Warwick mayor, was appointed in 1999 to fill the Senate post left vacant by the death of his father, John Chafee, who also served as a Republican governor of Rhode Island from 1963-1969.

After winning a bruising Republican primary in 2006 against conservative challenger Stephen Laffey, the younger Chafee lost to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in a race that became a referendum on the Bush administration. Despite unseating Chafee, a poll showed Rhode Island voters still gave him a 63 percent approval rating on Election Day. Chafee left the Republican party in 2007 and became an unaffiliated voter.

He endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president and called the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a "cocky wacko" during a speech last year in Washington. Chafee is now a teaching fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

Democrats including Attorney General Patrick Lynch, General Treasurer Frank Caprio and Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts have said they are interested in running. Republican Rep. Joseph Trillo is also considering a run.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)