Rhode Island: Chafee will likely run for Governor, Laffey and Cicilline out

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Easily lean Independent.  The question is, will he break 40%?

[Kaine for Senate '18]

He could win over 50%. With Chafee in, the Republicans clearly stand no chance, so the battle is all the Democrats against Chafee. This means all but the really diehard conservative Republicans (the sort who voted for Laffey in the 2006 primary, but even some of those will switch) will vote for Chafee instead of their own candidate.

So, could we see something like Lieberman '06, with a 50-40-10 result?

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I don't know, he's strongly pro-choice, pro-environmental regulations, pro-gay rights, anti-death penalty, pro-estate tax, anti-Iraq War, pro-raising the min. wage, pro-affirmative action, and pro-gun control.

He has like two conservative positions, being pro-free trade and supporting the PATRIOT Act. He is generally probably somewhere to the left of conservative Democratic Senators on economics, but I could see why a libertarian-leaning forum would prefer him over Generic Rhode Island Democrat #8.

Maybe I won't support him, actually.