for the seat. When John Chafee died suddenly in October 1999, Governor Lincoln Almond appointed the younger Chafee to serve out the term. In the general election he faced the Democratic nominee, then-U.S. Representative Robert Weygand. Chafee won the election 57%–41%. 2006 In September 2005, Steve Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, announced his intention to run against Chafee in the Republican primary election. Among other stances differing from those of Chafee, Mayor Laffey opposed abortion and stem cell research. Laffey was supported by notable conservative groups including the Club for Growth and several anti-abortion groups. Chafee went on to defeat Laffey in the primary on September 12 by a margin of 53%–47%. The turnout for the Republican primary was the largest in Rhode Island history. In his victory speech, Chafee credited independent voters and disaffiliated Democrats for his victory. Despite Chafee's high approval ratings statewide, the state had tended to lean heavily toward socially liberal or moderate candidates for many decades. As a result, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse succeeded by attacking the instances in which Chafee supported his party's conservative congressional leadership (whose personalities and policies were very unpopular statewide). Chafee lost to Whitehouse in the general election, 54%–46%. In response to a question at a news conference on November 9, 2006, Chafee stated he was unsure whether he would remain in the Republican Party after serving out the remainder of his term. According to Michelle R. Smith of the Associated Press, when asked whether he felt that his loss may have helped the country by switching control of power in Congress (away from Republicans and toward the Democrats), he replied: "To be honest, yes." Tenure Descended from a long line of moderate, center-right New England Republicans, Chafee's stances became increasingly liberal, more so than his father's positions had been. The now dominant conservatives referred to him as a "Republican In Name Only", or RINO. Most notable among these was Human Events magazine, which named Chafee "the No. 1 RINO in the country." In 2006, the National Journal rated Chafee as the most liberal Republican in the Senate, and placed him to the left of two Democrats, Nebraska's Ben Nelson and Louisiana's Mary Landrieu (the only Republican ranked to the left of the latter senator). GovTrack also ranked Senator Chafee as the most liberal Republican member in 2006; according to GovTrack's analysis, Chafee was to the left of his