A noted scion of Rhode Island politics, Lincoln Chafee is set to announce a run for the Governorship in the Ocean State. The former United States Senator who defected from the GOP after his failed 2006 reelection bid that ended in a loss to Sheldon Whitehouse and who endorsed Barack Obama during the primaries now hopes to become Rhode Island's first governor without a major-party backing in more than 150 years. The last minor party candidate to win a state wide election in the Ocean State was Byron Diman in 1846 of the Law and Order Party, a short-lived party that developed in response to the famed Dorr Rebellion of 1841-42.

There's little doubt that Chafee is still bitter after surviving a bitter primary against conservative Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey in 2006 and less than sanguine about the GOP's electoral chances in New England. In early December after Rory Smith, the state's only Republican candidate for governor, dropped out, Chafee confided to the Providence Journal that "the big base of the party here in Rhode Island said good riddance to Chafee."

"Now they live with the results," added Chafee referring to the GOP's difficulty attracting and keeping candidates. Chafee went on to say that "the Moderate Party was formed in response to the ineffectiveness of the Republican Party. Certainly the wolves are at the door. They drove me out of the party."

The state GOP, Chafee said, is suffering from the "dark cloud" of the national party's agenda.

"The agenda that the national party is bent on pursuing, frankly, for me, is an erratic agenda," he continued. "We saw the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush years, unprecedented spending. And then their agenda on the environment -- that doesn't sell well here in Rhode Island. Using social issues to divide the people -- gay marriage and abortion -- at a time when people just want to get to work."

The outlook for the state and national party has never been this low, Chafee said.

"The years after Watergate, those were tough years. I think this is bleaker than ever."

The last governor in Rhode Island who wasn't either a Democrat or a Republican was William Hoppin, a Whig who served from 1854 to 1857. The current incumbent, Republican Donald Carcieri, is term-limited and can't run again next year.

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Back in February, former liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee endorsed Barack Obama for President -- a story that garnered a bit of media attention, though certainly not as much as the ongoing saga of Joe Lieberman's political relationship with John McCain. Today brings news that former Iowa Republican Congressman Jim Leach, who like Chafee voted against the Iraq War and who was generally left of center on a number of issues (though was a reliable vote for his party on the organization of the House), is joining the chorus of Republicans for Obama.

According to a source in the Obama campaign, former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach -- a Republican -- will be endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama this morning.  Leach, as you may recall, lost his bid for re-election in 2006 after three decades representing portions of eastern Iowa in congress.  Leach was considered a "moderate" Republican and was a backer of campaign finance reform.  Leach did not accept campaign contributions from political action committees.

Leach isn't the only GOPer to add his name to the effort.

Republican Mayor Jim Whitaker [of Fairbanks, Alaska] has said he is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

"My goal is to let Republicans have a clear understanding that their right to vote should not be restricted by any party affiliation," the borough mayor said. He said the economic and political challenges facing the state and country are broader than political parties alone can address and suggested Republicans should consider crossing party lines by focusing on the strongest candidate this year.

Here's The Times on the broader effort:

Led by a former Bush fund-raiser and a former U.S. Senator who bolted the G.O.P. several years ago, a group of current and former Republicans disenchanted with Senator John McCain and supportive of Senator Barack Obama are banding together to start a "Republicans for Obama" effort.

Rita Hauser, a New York philanthropist who raised money for both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, is helping to organize the push to draw Republicans away from Mr. McCain and will serve as a spokeswoman for the group, alongside former U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee, of Rhode Island, who was one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate and became an independent after he lost his seat in 2006.

Now I'm not sure that The Times knows the definition of the word "several," because someone who left the Republican Party less than two years ago did not leave the party "several years ago," but the article does underscore one of the aspects of the Obama candidacy that drew so many to him: His ability to transcend some of the political fissures in the country today and redraw the map. While Obama may be weaker among some segments of the Democratic Party than other previous Democratic nominees, he is clearly stronger in others. The fact that Obama is seriously competing not only for states like Virginia and Colorado but even Alaska and North Dakota is a real testament to this, as is this latest news story.

He's not there yet, because top-level endorsements do not assure the support of everyday voters. But at the same time none of this can really hurt Obama -- particularly in Alaska or Iowa, where two of the latest endorsements emerged from.

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Robert Creamer, who pleaded guilty of bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes in Aug, 2005, and who spent the second half of 2006 living at the Federal Corectional Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana, taught at "Camp Obama" in 2007. His job: to instruct interns and volunteers in political organizing--the very abuses of which sent him to jail.

What did Creamer teach at Obama's week long politial training camp? INSPIRATION!! And he lectured that there are only two groups of voters who decide the outcomes of elections. So these are the targets of communiation that can be affected by political campaigns. They are "persuadables" and "mobilizables."

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Since 1994, following the infamous Republican sweep, a good number of fairly conservative Democrats switched to the other side of the aisle, including Sen. Dick Shelby, Rep. Rodney Alexander, and Rep. Nathan Deal, among others. Now that the Democrats have taken Washington by storm, it is very tempting to contemplate winning some defectors of our own.

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This is outrageous.

A barrage of mysterious emails have been sent out in the last week in bulk to nearly 100 recipients at a time attacking Sheldon Whitehouse in the most vile and tasteless manner. Recipients of this email include news outlets and community leaders throughout the state. The email sender has the name of "Noname Nolast" and the email address "againstsheldon@yahoo.com"

My blog technology administer Alex tracked down the ISP address of this mysterious emailer and guess what?

This email is coming from the United States Senate!

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