Ambitious Obscurity: The Lincoln Chafee Story

Olivia Nuzzi

The former Rhode Island governor may have a wide-open schedule, just two campaign staffers, and marked disinterest in fundraising, but he swears he’s serious about 2016.

Lincoln Chafee is not a very busy man.

Getting him on the phone is not particularly difficult, and he will graciously remain on the line until you’ve asked all your questions. In the next three weeks, he has just three public events on his schedule: two meetings with local Democratic groups in New Hampshire and one appearance in Iowa, at the Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame ceremony. For a former governor—which Chafee, who served one term as Rhode Island’s executive, is—a spare dance card is not atypical.

But Chafee isn’t in retirement. He’s running for president.

If you’ve heard of him at all, you may know that Chafee is a Republican, turned independent, turned Democrat who was appointed to the Senate after the death of his father, John Chafee. He looks like a cross between Jeff Daniels and Steve Doocy, with a demeanor reminiscent of Ron Paul.

Those who know Chafee call him “Linc” for short. The last of a dying breed of liberal Republicans, he earned the distinction of being the only GOP senator to vote against the war in Iraq. He placed a symbolic vote for George H.W. Bush for president in 2004, as a means of expressing his disapproval of W. Later, in his time as Rhode Island governor during the Great Recession, he earned the nicknames “Governor Gump” and “Governor Grinch,” the latter after a fight over what to call Christmas trees.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/25/ambitious-obscurity-the-lincoln-chafee-story.html