What's missing from this poll? Oh, how about WHO the sampling would VOTE FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The Club for Growth is a pro-laffey organization, and I suspect the results they released don't tell the whole story here...

where's the rest of the poll????

do you think they would simply SKIP the most important question about the race!?!!?

The Club for Growth has not taken a position on the Laffey/Chafee race. While I think it would be fairly obvious that they aren't going to support Chafee under pretty much any circumstance, it is much too soon to say that they are a "pro-Laffey organization."

They are just trying to gauge the effect of the NRSCs early efforts to inject itself into this particular race, when there are many other races across the country where the Republican is facing a strong challenge from the Democrats, and the national Republicans aren't spending nearly as much time or money to help out there (Santorum vs. Casey in PA comes to mind).

I think the results speak for themselves. If I were a Chafee supporter, which I am not, I would be very concerned about effect that the out of state negative attack ad campaign by the NRSC is having on my own.

What's so wrong with simply letting the best candidate win based on his own merits?

I am sure in due time that the horse race results of the poll will be announced and I am sure that it will show Laffey ahead -- BTW the poll sampled 300 Reg. R's

I hate to do this...but see RIFuture's posting on the "neutral" Club for Growth

http://rifuture.org/blog/?p=869

I was one of those Republicans polled and the question were definately pro-Laffey, not a neutral poll.

One of the questions was, paraphraising: "Do you support attack ads on Steve Laffey a fellow Republican?".

They also mispronounced Chafee's name. When I corrected the caller, the caller responded with "Oh that's the way we were told to say it."

Another question likened Chafee to Hillary Clinton and then asked who you vote for in a Republican primary.

I guess it will make for good propaganda for Laffey.

Anthony: Thanks for that info. I don't think this was the poll I was a part of. The pollster I talked asked questions that seemed very fair, were more pro-Chafee if anything and pronounced everyone's name correctly!

Cranston Moneyman: RIFuture has some decent stuff on the GOP primary race, though I suspect that schadenfreude is the motivation.

If we have the CfG, the NRSC, the Laffey campaign, the Chafee campaign, and various news organizations all conducting polls of likely Republican primary voters over the course of a year, do you get the feeling that every Republican in the state is going to get called by a pollster on multiple occasions?

Andrew, Good point. As the general consensus is that there enough registered Republicans in RI to fill out the roster of the average college football program, I'd say there's a shot we'll all be polled a few times over.

Instead of spending all this money on polling maybe Chafee and Laffey could send us all gift certificates to a dinner at Chelo's.

Anthony,

You need to have bigger aspirations ... gift certificates to Capriccio's for everybody!

PS I've already answered several telephone polls myself, as well as received enough mail to reconstitute a small forest. It's only Dec. 1!

How about this idea. The pollsters call all of the Republicans in the state once. Then, anyone who changes their mind over the course of the year calls them back.

Anthony, that's the best idea I've heard yet.

I bet about 90% of registered Republicans already know who they are going to vote for and not much will change their minds. Only 10% of Republicans can probably be moved one way or the other.

The rest of the election is going to depend on how many unaffiliated voters turn out.

At the start of Carcieri's race against Bennett alot of Republicans I talked with indicated that they were going to wait some time before supporting a candidate.

This race is different. Every Republican with whom I've spoken already knows who they're voting for next September.

Republicans either think Laffey is a charismatic, 'real' Republican who will usher in a new wave of conservativism in Rhode Island or they think he is an egomanical, self-centered demagogue who will cost the GOP the Senate majority.

On Chafee, they either think he is a 'RINO' who is ideologically wrong on virtually every issue and is an embarrassment to the White House or they feel he is a viable candidate who will help maintain control of the Senate while being a true moderate in the a storied tradition of past Rhode Island leaders.

As you can see, there ain't much middle ground in this race!

I would agree with Anthony, in so far as most people's minds are fairly made up at this point, and a lot of this is just a waste. There's not a lot of wiggle room in a Republican primary, because the candidates do have contrasting positions, and simply becuase there are so few voters in them. If I had to guess, some of the out of state focus from the NRSC seems to be intended to disgust the electorate to a point that they don't even want to participate in the process.

I don't "hate" Chafee by a longshot. He's a genuinely nice guy. However, based on his stands on many issues which I care about, in good conscience, I need to vote for the candidate whose positions come closest to my own, and not simply because he's the incumbent.

If Laffey does not win the GOP primary in September (though I'll be more than willing to go on the record now by saying that he not only will win, but will do so handily), then I will throw my support behind Chafee. I'm not saying I'll be knocking on doors at 5AM, but I'll support him. As bad as Chafee is, he's no Sheldon Whitebread or Matt Brownnose. HOWEVER, unless I'm forced to make that choice, I'm standing for what I think is right, and basing my support on principle and values, and not on political expediency or because the party establishment wants me to vote a certain way.

Will, That's a good example of pragmatic idealism. Vote your conscience but don't throw a tantrum if you lose. Thus, to you:

Laffey > Chafee > Democrat

If you keep to this logical progression, you will vote for the best candidate every time.

To clarify, you will vote for the best candidate "for you" every time.