plan for national security reasons. Laffey also ran against big government spending, being supported by the anti-tax group Club for Growth. Prior to making the announcement to run, the GOP tried to talk him out of it. Elizabeth Dole and then Rhode Island Republican Governor Donald Carcieri urged Laffey to run for lieutenant governor, putting him in a strong position to seek governorship. Laffey instead elected to run for Senate, leading Dole and Karl Rove to actively work to defeat him. Laffey was endorsed by Steve Forbes who also organized a fundraiser for him. He also debated Chafee which was aired nationally by C-SPAN. The primary was followed nationally due to the Senate seat being considered one that could give control of Congress back to the Democratic party. During the primary, Chafee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee attacked Laffey for calling for the city of Cranston to accept consular ID cards from Mexico and Guatemala. Mailers sent out by the Chafee campaign called the cards "illegal immigration cards" and said accepting them poses a security risk. However, others contended that the cards help police and immigrants. The national Republican establishment went after Laffey, believing he was too conservative for heavily liberal Rhode Island. The NRSC spent $1 million in TV ads attacking Laffey. Laffey was defeated by Chafee in the primary election on September 12, 2006. The Republican primary was the largest turnout in Rhode Island history. Although he lost the primary, Laffey received a total of 29,500 votes, more than the 27,906 votes received by John Chafee in 1994 and more than the combined GOP gubernatorial primary of Carcieri and James Bennett in 2002. The actions of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee during the primary were referred to as unprecedented as they engaged in attacks on an elected Republican. Chafee was eventually defeated by Democratic state attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse in the general election by an 8-point margin (54% to 46%). Despite Chafee's high approval ratings statewide, Whitehouse pointed out that Chafee supported his party's more conservative leadership. After the defeat, Chafee stated that he was unsure if he would remain in the GOP and stated that he felt that the loss may have helped switch control of power in Congress back to the Democrats. 2010 gubernatorial campaign Laffey was believed to be a potential candidate for the governorship in 2010. He was rumored to be a