http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/12/wuselect12.xmlA Conservative insurrection in New England is threatening the Republican Party's control of a key senate seat that President George W Bush's party cannot afford to lose. The uprising is led by a 44-year-old investment banker, Steve Laffey, who has attacked the sitting Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee, as a moderate and a "Rino" (Republican in name only).
Party strategists accept that the challenger can win the vote among party activists tomorrow, with his pungent attacks on Sen Chafee. But they say he will lose to the Democrats in November's critical mid-term elections, threatening Republican control of the senate, where the party enjoys a 55-45 ajority.
Mr Laffey, a small town Republican mayor, believes in conservatism, God, the sanctity of life and the Iraq war. Yet by a quirk of American politics, the fearsome Republican campaign machine, run by Mr Bush's "brain", Karl Rove, has thrown its weight behind Sen Chafee. This despite the senator's support of abortion rights and his opposition to Mr Bush and the Iraq war. He so dislikes Mr Bush that he refused to support him in the 2004 election.
But for the party's campaign managers, the ideologically suspect senator has one overwhelming advantage. He is a Republican with a record of winning in the Democratic stronghold of Rhode Island. "A Republican from Rhode Island is a gift from the gods," one party strategist said.
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