Dem Sheldon Whitehouse has won the first big showdown of the general election fight against incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee: The Rhode Island AFL-CIO endorsed Whitehouse at its state convention last night. Chafee, easily the most pro-labor Republican in the Senate, made a strenuous pitch for their support, hoping that he could prevent them from reaching the two-thirds threshold for an endorsement, thus denying Whitehouse their support. But Whitehouse carried the day by saying: "I can tell you this: I will never cast that vote to empower the Bush administration and its agenda." This is going to be Whitehouse's message in this very blue state -- will it work with the wider electorate?