# The 'purge' not worth mentioning (RI)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-purge-not-worth-mentioning-ri/370311>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 26, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-purge-not-worth-mentioning-ri/370311 "2006-08-26T11:58:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-purge-not-worth-mentioning-ri/370311/41 "2006-09-14T01:33:38Z")

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[QUOTE=Mithril]  
Are you from RI, **RTFirefly**? As far as I can tell, there isn’t any news coverage of the contest because Laffey has absolutely no chance. He’s kind of a joke around here.  
[/QUOTE]  
Dunno how it looks up close, but it sounds from here like a lot of people who aren’t usually registered Republicans did whatever they had to do under RI law to vote in the GOP primary and save Chafee’s lukewarm ass. (For now. :))

I gather Laffey’s people were expecting a high-turnout primary of 50-55K voters, and were expecting to win that. Laffey got \>29K votes, so they would have. But turnout was \>63K - oops.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-purge-not-worth-mentioning-ri/370311/42 "2006-09-14T03:50:09Z")

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One is news and the other one isn’t.

The Democratic Party is up for grabs; the confrontation between Lamont and Lieberman and the subsequent elections might foretell which way the party goes for the next generation.

But a moderate Republican being swept aside by a Conservative? Let’s face facts, that train left the station about fifteen years ago. It doesn’t matter whether Chaffee is re-elected or replaced; he’s a remnant of an ideological group that has long since lost control of the Republican party.

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