Strategic Voting 2006

By Neil the Ethical Werewolf

Mischievous consequentialist that I am, nothing gets meexcited like a chance to advance the liberal agenda through devious acts of strategicvoting. (Okay, other things do get memore excited, but you can't do them in a voting booth.) The coolest strategic voting opportunities inthis country arise in states with open primaries, where independents andsometimes Democrats can vote in the Republican primary and cast theirvotes for unelectable Republicans. When the Republicans lose in the general election, you get to cackle with glee at being the superintelligent architect of liberal victory. This strategy is sensible if theRepublican primary is more competitive or more ideologically significant than the Democraticprimary.

The biggest strategic voting opportunity of the 2006 primaryseason might be in Rhode Island. It’ll be a tough race if Lincoln Chafee winshis primary – while he’s one of the top five endangered Republican Senatorsthis year, he tends to lead Democrats by a little in polls. But if right-wing goofball Steven Laffeywins, it’ll be an easy victory for Democrats. This is why Bush is supporting Chafee. The only problem with strategic voting here is that you can only vote inone party’s primary, so you won’t get to vote in the Brown-Whitehouse race forthe Democratic nomination. But it looksto me like the Republican side is more important – a Laffey victory wouldbasically guarantee us a Senate seat. IfI were a liberal with Independent registration in Rhode Island, I’d cast my vote forLaffey. If I were a registered Democratthere, I’d consider changing my party affiliation to put Laffey over the top,especially if Brown-Whitehouse was decided already. Looking at this questionnaire, both Democrats support abortion rights, the freedom to marry, anduniversal health care. So we'll be happy whoever wins.