Regardless of your political views, please give Mr. Chafee props for his scarf choices.

Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee came to speak to Columbia’s student body of poly-sci/econ joint majors, and political junkie Christina Clark was there to check it out.

One of events hosted by Columbia’s Voting Week was a conversation on Wednesday titled “Dilemmas of Campaigning and Governing in the United States”. Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island was the featured guest, with SIPA professor Esther Fuchs as his interviewer.

Professor Fuchs’ questions traced the path of Governor Chafee’s political evolution, as he served as a Republican politician for years before running for governor as an independent, and finally joining the Democratic Party last year. His experience with politics began when he was eleven and accompanied his father (governor of Rhode Island at the time) to the Republican National Convention in 1964. Chafee followed his dad’s footsteps by becoming involved in Warwick, RI politics in the 1980s. He was a city council member and then the first Republican mayor of the town in 32 years. When asked how he was able to convince voters to vote against their party, Chafee cited his willingness to “stand up to the machine”, a trait that he brought up many times throughout the interview.

Chafee also discussed his experience with national politics beginning in 1999, when he was appointed as a senator upon his father’s passing (he held a senate seat at the time). He described Washington D.C.  in 1999 as less gridlocked and more fiscally responsible than today, while also noting that many of the key issues during that time are still current topics of discussion, such as gun safety and raising the minimum wage. He brought up several instances when he resisted external pressures to vote in the direction he felt was right, such as for pro-environmental policies and against the appointment of John Bolton to the UN. He was also quick to criticize, and often named other politicians as examples of bad leadership. Some of these people included Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who he claimed voted in favor of Bush’s Clear Skies Act in order to please donors, and Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas, for instituting tax cuts as a response to the economy.

Throughout the interview, Professor Fuchs showered Governor Chafee with praise, even exclaiming, “You’re my hero!” when he explained his dislike for budget cuts. During the question and answer session many people seemed to echo this sentiment, and one man thanked him for “being a really nice guy.” Questions ranged from asking the Governor how to bring people together politically again (response: “a good landslide election for the Democrats”) to how civic technology could be used for governing at the state level (response: “I’m a bit stone age with this new technology…after I’m governor I want to learn more about Facebook”).

Professor Fuchs closed the discussion with a final question about what advice Governor Chafee had for students planning on going into politics. He responded, “Have something to fall back on”.

Image via WN.com