Talk:John Chafee

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He was also the inspiration for the main character in "The Marines of Autumn" by James Brady, according to the afterward of that book. Edward2020 (talk) 22:53, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Regarding the article on John Chafee's election and then failed re-election as RI Governor, a few key points were missed. His successful run for Governor was because the state was so thoroughly disgusted with the current governor that 'even the Democrats worked to elect him, a "Democrats for Chafee" committee. Campaign materials included "Democrats for Chafee" coloring books (I was in grade school at the time) with pictures of donkeys working arm in arm with the elephants. In the months leading up to his re-election the KEY issue became the idea of having a 5% sales tax (raising the income tax rate was also there but it was not the rallying cry). His opponent from the Democratic Party, Frank Licht, ran on the single issue that he would NOT institute a sales tax. Mr. Chafee might have been able to beat him back on this issue but when his daughter died in a horseback riding accident, he lost the will to fight and lost the election. Within a week after Mr. Licht was sworn in as Governor and to the utter astonishment (and dismay) of the citizens of Rhode Island, the 5% sales tax was made effective (the forms were distributed throughout the state). It should come as no surprise then that when John Chafee decided to run for the Senate, the citizens of Rhode Island elected him overwhelmingly -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- and the job was his for as long as he chose to stay there. Charwing (talk) 18:16, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Liberal Republican
John Chaffee was something which was fairly commonplace in his youth, a relatively liberal (especially on social issues) Republican, but even during his career (let alone now) such person had become exceedingly rare and are now almost nonexistent. There needs to be something (well-referenced, of course) to this effect about how by then of his career he was one of the very few remaining Republicans of this then-vanishing, now vanished breed, and that his son left the party due to this fact shortly after his father's death. 2600:1004:B141:CAF2:8C51:879B:A93:1CC6 (talk) 00:47, 8 November 2017 (UTC)