Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everythingin 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign) [Hardcover]

Steve Laffey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2007

The inside story of the most shocking Republican primary of 2006—and what it means for the GOP’s future

Why should anyone care about a Senate primary in the nation’s smallest state? Because that one unique race tipped the balance of power in Washington and exposed everything that was wrong with the GOP in 2006. It also points the way toward the Republican Party’s recovery, in 2008 and beyond.

Steve Laffey isn’t the kind of slick politician who wanted to be a senator since kindergarten. He’s a down- to-earth guy, with working-class Irish Catholic roots, who made good in business and then wanted to save his hometown from financial ruin. As the twice elected mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, he won over a city full of Democrats with Ronald Reagan’s classic message: Fight the special interests, cut out the waste, and opportunity for all.

But when he decided to challenge Senator Lincoln Chafee—the most liberal Republican in Congress— Laffey collided head on with the biggest names in the Washington Republican establishment. First, they tried to bully Laffey into dropping out. When that failed, they gave all their support and millions of dollars to Chafee, and even slandered Laffey to the press, breaking Reagan’s famous eleventh commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.”

Conservative activists nationwide were outraged and supported Laffey with thousands of e-mails, phone calls, and small donations. It was the ultimate David vs. Goliath campaign, drawing national attention as“the first skirmish in a very important war,” as Pat Toomey wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

Now, with his straight talk and quirky sense of humor, Laffey reveals the inside story, naming the powerful people who felt so threatened that they resorted to lies and threats. He also shows how much fun it can be to run a go-for-broke campaign, fueled by gut instinct, adrenaline, some passionate staff and volunteers, and a whole lot of pizza.

Above all, Laffey shows what happens when a party gets so obsessed with holding on to power that it abandons its core principles. If Republicans read Primary Mistake and take it to heart, they will be back on the road to victory.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this passionate but meandering political memoir, the author reconstructs his failed 2006 bid to unseat then incumbent Lincoln Chaffee for the Republican nomination in the Rhode Island Senate race. Positioning himself as a political underdog fighting against the power-hungry Republican leadership, Laffey accuses the National Republican Senatorial Committee of an unprecedented negative campaign against him in favor of his more moderate opponent. The author holds a number of key Republicans responsible for his defeat, including John McCain, President Bush and especially NRSC chairwoman Elizabeth Dole, who he believes chose power over principle by supporting Chaffee in the primary. The text alternates between colorful anecdotes about the campaign and vitriolic attacks on his adversaries. Laffey's candid, sometimes playful tone is both charming and abrasive: when he talks about campaigning with his family, he strikes an appealingly human note, but when he imagines conversations between Washington insiders, he seems desperate to dramatize a conspiracy about which he can only speculate. The text ends with a prescription for the future in which Laffey calls on the Republican party to return to the conservative ideals articulated by Ronald Reagan. This overly brief postscript is the closest the book comes to offering the primer for the Republican party of the future that Laffey promises. (Sept. 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Steve Laffey was elected mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, in 2002, and reelected by the widest margin in Cranston history in 2004. Before entering politics he had had a successful career in finance, including a stint as president and COO of Morgan Keegan, an investment bank in Memphis.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel HC (September 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230408
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230409
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,503,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How the GOP nominated an incumbant liberal over a conservative Mayor, February 16, 2008

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everythingin 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign) (Hardcover)

Steve Laffey was the Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island when he decided to run for the Senate in 2006. The problem was that the GOP already had an incumbent Senator in Lincoln Chaffee and their ironclad policy of supporting incumbents would not allow them to support Mr. Laffey. This book is Mr. Laffey's account of his experiences in becoming Mayor without the support of the local Republican Party and his campaign for the nomination against Senator Chaffee and the entire weight of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

So, why would Laffey run against an Republican incumbent? The Chaffee family is one of the original settlers of Rhode Island are treated in Rhode Island similarly to the way the Kennedys are treated in Massachussetts. However, the Chaffees tend to vote with the Democrats much more often than they have voted with the Republicans since the era of Ronald Reagan. Lincoln Chaffee took over the Seanate seat from his father John and carried on the family tradition of caucusing with the GOP when selecting leadership, but otherwise voting against most everything the GOP has stood for since Reagan.

Laffey's positions, and he provides them side-by-side with Chaffee's, are fiscally traditional Reagan Republican conservative positions and somewhat socially conservative as well. His positions in this book are somewhat at odds with what you can find out about him on the Web, but do you believe what the author says he stands for or what others say about him? Whatever the case, the point is Laffey is clearly much more traditionally conservative and Republican than Chaffee. If you want proof of this, note that once Chaffe was defeated in his bid for re-election he left the GOP and became an "independent". Here is Chaffee's quote from Feb 14, 2008 endorsing Barack Obama for President, "I believe Senator Obama is the best candidate to restore American credibility, to restore our confidence to be moral and just, and to bring people together to solve the complex issues such as the economy, the environment and global stability.'' How many other Republicans have you heard endorsing either Hillary or Obama?

What you will find stunning in this book is the kind of smear tactics the GOP used to defeat Laffey and benefit Chaffee. They used the exact words to go after Laffey as they do Democrats. They sound absurd to the ears and read very strangely, but there they are. Because he had worked in the private sector, they claimed that he couldn't stand up to the special interests such as oil companies. It sounds like Democrats! They dug up articles Laffey had written for his college newspaper to try and make him sound like a crank. And so much more.

However, the people of Rhode Island finally had to face a choice: a Chaffee as a Democrat wearing a GOP hat, or a real brand-name Democrat. And they chose the real Democrat with 53% of the vote since there was no advantage to putting a mole into the GOP that was becoming a minority party once again.

Could Laffey have won if nominated? Laffey would say yes, I think that the tide was against the GOP pretty strongly and Rhode Island is a heavily Democrat state. However, at least the voters would have had a choice with a difference.

Laffey has written an entertaining and often informative book. However, he comes across as brash and somewhat simplistic. Politics is not a religious faith. There is no central dogma in a political party and there cannot be. The purpose of a political party is to gather together enough people to get elected. They do that by putting together coalitions of varying degrees of agreement. Everyone has to compromise something because people have different views, beliefs, principles, and core convictions. Some just want the power, others want jobs, and others find politics a fun hobby. Laffey's shock that the GOP establishment could make a calculated choice to keep a "moderate" (read very liberal) Senator in office and on the team to try and keep control of the Senate over some hotshot Mayor who is probably too conservative to get elected seems naïve or disingenuous. Laffey closes the book with a chapter on what he believes the GOP needs to do to regain its core values and power. He would dump No Child Left Behind, the Medicare Part D prescriptions for seniors, earmarks, and comprehensive immigration reform. He would be for school choice, support a Health Care Freedom Plan, Securing the Border, and a return to Reaganism.

I think readers who want to learn about how party politics works, what candidates have to go through, and an insight into the 2006 GOP failures will find this book a very interesting read. I enjoyed it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just finished the book, September 13, 2007

By 

Lisa K. (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everythingin 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign) (Hardcover)

This is a must read for anyone interested in politics. This Laffey Guy has really hit it on the head. As they say in baseball, he knocked the cover off of the ball. As a Republican this is a really hard read in that the book provides "tough love". Reading this book is like taking a long look in the mirror. I have read a lot of political books, this one has a style all of its own, it is human and real. A must read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lincoln Chaffee Exploited President Bush's Sense of Loyalty, September 21, 2007

By 

David Thomson "Second Rate Eric Hoffer Imitator" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everythingin 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign) (Hardcover)

Lincoln Chaffee has now officially left the Republican Party. The reality, of course, is that in his heart of hearts he left it a long time ago. He openly warned that this might be a possibility. George W. Bush goes out of his way to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. He sometimes even trusts those who obviously don't deserve it. Steve Laffey found out that his well-earned conservative credentials were not deemed sufficient to encourage the abandonment of the very left-wing incumbent. The GOP establishment treated him disgracefully. What happened to Laffey in the Rhode Island U.S. senatorial race ultimately angered conservatives throughout the United States. It is safe to assume that this contributed greatly to keeping many home on Election Day. One finds it impossible to disagree with Laffey's opinion that the Democrats didn't really win in 2006. No, "The Republicans lost."

Steve Laffey particularly takes to task the country club Republican Elizabeth Dole. "Clearly, Liddy Dole's management of the NRSC was not that different from how the Republican-controlled Congress ran the country," asserts the author. No truer words were ever spoken. These so-called centrists feel uncomfortable around conservatives. And this is the irony of the situation. Laffey realizes that the majority of Americans prefer supporting candidates in the mold of Ronald Reagan. Everyone preparing for the 2008 elections should read Primary Mistake. The nation is in crisis. We are in an existential fight to the death against the Islamic totalitarians. The self-hating Americans who dominate the Democratic Party are not up to task. I also highly recommend that you read Norman Podhoretz's most recent work, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism.