Former Sen. Chafee to run for R.I. governor

Former Sen. Lincoln Chaffee, who bolted the Republican Party and supported Barack Obama’s presidential bid, is running for governor of Rhode Island as an Independent.

“I firmly believe in the vital importance of governing from the center — of listening to all sides of an issue,” Chafee wrote in a statement on his website. “I believe that when we have the courage to do this, to reach across party lines and ideological divides, we will bring people together and great work will happen.”

Chafee specifically said in his statement that he’s running as an independent, putting him in the odd position of facing the two parties he’d claimed to support within the past few years.