Though some in the party wonder whether he was ever really in it. Anyway, the former Rhode Island Senator (and Montana blacksmith) says he quietly quit the Republican Party a few months back:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he has left the Republican Party because the national GOP has drifted too far from him on critical issues, including the war in Iraq, the economy and the environment.
“It’s not my party anymore,” Chafee, who represented Rhode Island from 1999 until 2007, told The Providence Journal in an article published Saturday.
Chafee said he is now an unaffiliated voter after leaving the GOP “in June or July.”
He said he made the move because “I want my affiliation to accurately reflect my status.”