Lincoln Chafee Enters Democratic Race for President, Offers Pointed Critique of Hillary

Chafee hammered Clinton for ethical lapses and for her early support for the Iraq war.

Another Democratic long shot entered the race for president today. Former Rhode Island governor and senator Lincoln Chafee, who switched from Republican to Democrat in recent years, made the announcement during a previously scheduled speech at the George Mason Center for Politics & Foreign Relations in Arlington, Va. The 300-person room was half empty, perhaps a reflection of the lack of interest in his candidacy.

Chafee joins Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley on the Democratic side. He came out swinging against front-runner Clinton in his speech, declaring, “The integrity of the office of Secretary of State must never be questioned.” Attempting to distinguish himself from her on foreign policy, much of his speech condemned military decisions under previous presidents Bush and Obama, throwing around words like “lies and “neocon” (the latter three times).

Chafee, 62, is the son of former Rhode Island senator and governor John Chafee, and comes from a long line of “Rockefeller Republican” politicians. He received his bachelor’s degree in Classics, then attended Montana State University horseshoeing school. For several years, he worked as a farrier at harness racetracks, with one of his horses setting a record.

Chafee served on the Warwick City Council beginning in 1986, becoming mayor of Warwick in 1992. In 1999, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate to replace his father, who had died while in office. He lost reelection in 2006 to a Democrat as the state was becoming more liberal. He was frequently ranked the least conservative Republican Senator, even to the left of some conservative Democrats. He left the GOP in 2007 and became an Independent. In 2008, he supported Obama’s election campaign. In 2010, he ran for governor as an Independent and won. He finally switched his voter registration to Democrat in 2013.

Chafee is liberal on almost every single issue, especially social issues. While a senator, he opposed the Partial-Birth Abortion Act. He supports Obamacare and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. As governor, he referred to the Christmas tree at the Rhode Island State House as a “holiday tree.” In 2013, he signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. He opposes charter schools and supports gun control and affirmative action. He calls for a two-state solution in Israel.  In 2008, he described Sarah Palin as a “cocky wacko.”

He may be even more liberal than O’Malley, who was conservative on crime as governor of Maryland. Both are rated as “moderate liberals” by On the Issues. Clinton is characterized as a “hard-core liberal” and Sanders slightly further left than her.

As the only Republican senator who voted against authorizing the Iraq War, Chafee is using it as a wedge issue to hammer Clinton. He has said, “Considering the premise for invading Iraq was based on falsehoods and considering the ramifications we live with now from that mistake, I would argue that anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not be president and certainly should not be leading the Democratic Party.” He said it disqualifies her from being president. Some believe that Clinton lost the nomination to Obama over that vote, which Obama hammered her on during the campaign.

Clinton has since recanted her vote. She wrote in her book Hard Choices last year, “I thought I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had. And I wasn’t alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple.” Chafee also points out that Clinton has flip-flopped on gay marriage and amnesty, unlike him.

Chafee is going after Clinton on ethical issues more aggressively than Sanders or O’Malley have. Here’s what he told NBC News:

It’s a long list of ethical misjudgments on behalf of Mrs. Clinton starting back from her time as First Lady and the Rose Law Firm records that were lost and then found. It just seems to never stop. Now, as Secretary of State, the email servers and the Clinton Foundation … it is just a long litany of ethical missteps in my view. And the American people support what I am saying. All of the polls show that there is a lack of trust with Secretary Clinton.

However, like Clinton, he’s going to be closely tied to the Obama administration. He served as co-chairman of Independents for President Barack Obama in 2008 and was national co-chairman for Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.

Chafee admits he is a long shot and doesn’t plan to spend a lot of money. His longtime donors and strategists had no idea he was going to announce, and notice that he’s done little to set up a national ground game. His wife recently lamented on Facebook that even his hometown newspaper hadn’t bothered to contact him about running.

Polls in 2013 showed that he wasn’t likely to win reelection as governor, likely due to his proposed tax increases, so that autumn he announced he would consider running for president instead. That strategy doesn’t appear to be doing any better for him, as he’s tied with O’Malley for last in the Democratic primary polls, with barely over 1% of the vote. Even Sanders is doing better at 10%, by wooing the progressive base.

Unless there is a drastic change of events, Clinton, who is polling around 50%, will be very difficult to beat. Chafee may have to just settle for getting a headstart on 2020 — which is what this may really be about.