Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign)

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)