Rhode Island’s Tuesday night election results brought both good and bad news for Andover alumni. Rep. Patrick Kennedy ’86 dispatched Republican challenger Jon Scott, but Lincoln Chafee ’71 lost his seat in the Senate to Democratic challenger Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse in a close, competitive election. Mr. Chafee lost the race despite of the efforts of Andover’s Republican Club, which brought a team of nearly 20 volunteers to Warwick, R.I., on November 5. The volunteers met Senator Chafee briefly for lunch, then spent nearly all day Sunday canvassing the state capital, Providence, going door-to-door to sway independent voters and rally support. According to the National Journal, Mr. Chafee has the most liberal record of any sitting Republican senator. The club’s leadership felt obligated to aid an alumnus of similar affiliation, considering his votes against the Iraq War and support for environmental preservation. Although the Democrats Club did not campaign for Mr. Kennedy, they did hold a voter registration drive in Lawrence the weekend before the election. Alexander Heffner ’08, one of the club’s members, also hosted an internationally broadcasted election special Tuesday night on WPAA. Since 1999, when then Mayor of Warwick Mr. Chafee was appointed to replace his late father and become the junior senator from Rhode Island, the state’s national representation has had roots on the PA campus. Mr. Chafee won re-election for his first full term in 2000, and has continued to serve as a senator since. Mr. Kennedy was first elected to the House in 1994, where he presently serves on the House Appropriations Committee. Controversy has marred the incumbent’s year, as he received much publicity for driving his Ford Mustang into a barricade on Capitol Hill while intoxicated in the early hours of the morning. Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Chafee have rich political family histories within New England. Mr. Kennedy entered into politics before graduating from Providence College in 1991, winning his first election to join the state House of Representatives in Rhode Island in1988. Mr. Chafee graduated from Brown University after leaving PA, but he opted to pursue a career as a blacksmith, working at harness racing tracks in the US and Canada before serving on the Warwick City Council. Mr. Kennedy, who has recently acknowledged developing a cocaine addiction during his teenage years, later entered drug rehab, and now must take weekly urine tests as part of his congressional probation program. He is the son of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. The election results of the Andover alumni accurately represented the trends across the nation, as the Democrats seized control of the House, while Mr. Chafee was one of several incumbent Republican senators who were defeated. The re-election of Mr. Kennedy will allow him to serve until January 2009, while Mr. Chafee’s term concludes in January 2007.
