Can an incumbent Senator withstand a primary challenge by running against the party base? That's the strategy that Lincoln Chafee, under pressure from Stephen Laffey's primary challenge, appears to have adopted. He hopes to win the Republican nomination by increasing the overall turnout and minimizing the percentage of Republicans voting in the primary. It's an interesting twist on what happened in Joe Lieberman's primary: While Lieberman tried to hang on to his Dem base while vying for independents, Chafee's reach for independents is all about running against GOP positions.

With registered Republicans making up only about ten percent of Rhode Island voters, Chafee openly admits that he'll lose if only GOPers vote -- hence his quest to pump up the independent vote:

Chafee was equally blunt about his own chances in the Sept. 12 primary, with polling that tells him: "I've got a tough race if it's just going to be the core."