Republican voters in Rhode Island face a tough choice in today’s Senate primary in the state. They can vote for an opponent of many of President Bush’s policies or for an ideological bedfellow of Mr Bush whom the party chiefs nevertheless do not want.
Senator Lincoln Chafee, who has held Rhode Island since 1999, has opposed the Iraq war and other presidential policies yet has been backed to the tune of more than $1 million (£536,000) by the party. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has announced that the party will abandon the seat to the Democrats if he loses.
Stephen Laffey, a populist rightwinger, is being shunned because polls indicate that he has little chance of beating the Democrats in November. The contest today has echoes of the Democrat primary in Connecticut, when Senator Joe Lieberman was ousted as the party’s nominee, partly for being too supportive of the Iraq war.