Projo Politics Blog

Whitehouse, 50, a Providence lawyer, re-emerged from political limbo to run for the Senate seat after his 2002 gubernatorial primary loss to former state senator Myrth York. He has been harshly critical of President Bush and his handling of the Iraq war, as well as the Republican Congress' unwillingness to stand up to the president's "reckless" policies. His criticism hasn't stopped at international affairs. He has said that Mr. Bush's domestic record is replete with blunders as well, be it with the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Social Security, the environment and the economy.

Despite an expectation of a win by Whitehouse -- the Democratic Party's endorsed candidate -- his chief primary opponent drove on yesterday. Literally.

By 3 p.m. Sheeler, 46, a former Marine captain who served in the Gulf War, said he had visited more than 70 polling stations, spreading his campaign message of ending U.S. involvement immediately in the Iraq war as well as the need for the country to form a new and independent energy policy.

"My whole campaign has been about working families and middle class values," said Sheeler as he drove alone in his Toyota 4-Runner to the Elmwood Community Center in Providence. "I don't perceive Sheldon is doing anything more than lip service to the middle class."

Sheeler, a business consultant from West Greenwich who lost a state Senate race in 2004, said his campaign resonated with veterans and their families, who he said made up 11 percent of the state's population, and with minority groups who he said were leery of Whitehouse because of their "long history" with him as attorney general.

Sheeler said he was referring to the cases of Cornel Young, a black Providence police officer who was shot by two white colleagues while off-duty, and Jennifer Rivera, a 15-year-old murder witness who was executed by a relative of the man she was to testify against.

Whitehouse said support from minority groups has been "very, very strong" throughout the race. But he said he wouldn't be surprised if Republicans raise the cases of Young and Jennifer Rivera: ". . . It's hard to say there is anything they won't stoop to."

Whitehouse's other primary opponent was Young, 37, of Providence, who ran not only for the U.S. Senate but for mayor of Providence. Yesterday afternoon he stood on a Route 95 overpass waving to passing motorists.

Young, who said he was starting his own alternative energy company, said he was running for both offices to lessen the odds that he would fall victim to organized crime, which he said had infiltrated the elections process in Rhode Island, manufacturing additional ballots and stealing voter coding numbers.

"The reality is this election will be fixed," he said. Of course, if somehow he did win both seats: "I would do a better job in both offices than any one candidate would do serving in one office."

tmooney@projo.com / (401) 277-7359