Moderate Republican fights for his life

The BBC's Jamie Coomarasamy reports from the north- eastern US state of Rhode Island, where moderate Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee is facing a tough challenge from a fellow Republican ahead of November's mid-term elections.

It is a bad year to be a centrist politician in the United States.

Senator Chafee: Political maverick

Just weeks after Connecticut's Democrats threw out their long-serving Senator, Joe Lieberman, in a primary election, the Republicans could be about to do the same thing in neighbouring Rhode Island.

The target there is Lincoln Chafee, a maverick who has voted against his party on just about every major issue.

When Senator Chafee arrives at his campaign HQ, for an end-of-campaign barbecue, he displays the diffidence of a political novice rather than the confidence of someone who has served seven years in the US Senate.

He seems almost embarrassed by the cheers of the volunteers.

This is just one way that he stands out from the crowd.

Senator Chafee has opposed the Bush administration on everything from tax cuts to the war in Iraq to abortion, yet as he prepares to fight the primary on Tuesday, he finds himself in the unusual position of being supported - through gritted teeth, no doubt - by the national Republican machine.

Why? The answer is that this most disloyal of Republicans is thought to be the only electable kind in a state where only 15% of residents are registered with the party and where independence is a badge of honour.

Rhode Island was, after all, the last state to sign the US constitution.

With Republicans nervous about the mid-term elections, they fear that the loss of one of their rare footholds in the largely Democratic-held north-east could cost them control of Congress.

Senator Chafee is being challenged by Steve Laffey, the Mayor of Cranston.

Accompanied by his wife and five young children, he has been pounding the streets so energetically during the campaign that he has got through three pairs of running shoes.

Although he doesn't advertise it much, he is far more socially conservative than the incumbent, who inherited his seat when his father, Senator John Chafee, died in 1999.

Running as rebel

Mr Laffey is running - literally, at times - as a different kind of Republican: an anti-establishment, self-made man, the son of a tool worker made good.

Man in a hurry: Stephen Laffey

The trouble for him is that the Republican party thinks - and most opinion polls suggest - he doesn't have a chance of beating the Democrats in the November general election.

For all his diffident campaigning style, Senator Chafee does.

He likes to compare himself to the "independent man", the gold figure on top of the state house building in Rhode Island's capital, Providence.

And he seems almost bemused by the support he is getting from the party.

I asked him how he feels about getting the backing of President George W Bush, considering that he didn't even vote for him in the 2004 election (the senator chose instead to write the name of the president's father, ex-President George Bush senior, on his ballot paper).

"Well it's a double-edged sword," he told me. "But there are some Republicans in Rhode Island who support the president. And the fact that the First Lady, Laura Bush, has been here to raise funds shows I can work with everyone."

In a year when the president's low approval ratings are likely to be an electoral factor, this suits fellow Republican Steve Laffey just fine.

"Linc Chafee is President Bush's man," he smiles. "Tell that to everyone."