Projo Politics Blog

Journal photo / Ruben Perez
Whitehouse is surrounded by gleeful supporters at the Providence Biltmore.

PROVIDENCE -- Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, who spent a campaign tapping into voter dissatisfaction with the Bush White House and the war in Iraq, has won his battle for the U.S. Senate, toppling popular liberal Republican Lincoln Chafee, whose family has held the seat for three decades.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting and absentee ballots counted, Whitehouse was seen with 53.5 percent, or 205,274 votes, to Chafee's 46.5 percent, or 178,548 votes.

"You believed in me and I will never ever forget that," Whitehouse told a horde of supporters at the Providence Biltmore hotel tonight. The crowd packed into the vast 17th floor ballroom to cheer their candidate, the first person to oust an incumbent U.S. senator in Rhode Island in 70 years.

"I intend to go down to Washington and work my heart out for you every day," he said. Later, when asked how he would influence the national political landscape if Democrats don't regain the Senate majority, Whitehouse said, "Every step closer certainly helps in bringing some balance to Washington."

As of 12:15 a.m., Democrats had regained three of the six seats needed for a Senate majority.

The mood at the Biltmore was electric. Some people waited nearly a half hour for an elevator to the 17th floor before Whitehouse took the stage. And the ballroom was so crowded during Whitehouse's address that it was difficult to move.

In his 10-minute speech, which was broadcast nationally, Whitehouse thanked Chafee -- who initially inherited his Senate seat from his late father, U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee -- for "a long and proud legacy of public service in Rhode Island."

Chafee's defeat is extremely unusual.

Rhode Island voters have not tossed a sitting senator since 1936, when Democrat Theodore Francis Green defeated Republican Jesse Metcalf.

The crowd thinned noticably after Whitehouse left the stage. But a small group of teens remained in the center of the room.

"I'm waiting for my uncle to come," said 17-year-old Patrick Fogarty, the nephew of Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty. He was surrounded by nearly a dozen of his young cousins, most from Glocester.

"I'm just really nervous," the young Fogarty said.

The governor's race was too close to call until about 12:30 a.m. But GOP Governor Carcieri held off a strong challenge from Democrat Fogarty by about 8,000 votes.

Carcieri's victory was the only one for Republicans in statewide races.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

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