Despite his characteristic candor, Linc Chafee remains a somewhat enigmatic figure.
If the Republican Party has moved too far to the right for his taste, as he told the Sunday ProJo's Bruce Landis in explaining his decision to disaffiliate, it's not like this is a new development. Chafee was an (understandably) uncomfortable member of the national GOP well before the election that cost him his seat last year.
Yet Chafee seemed constitutionally incapable of leaving the Republican Party while serving in the seat that he basically inherited from his late father. After flirting with a change around the time of Jim Jeffords' departure from the GOP, Chafee pretty much ruled it out while in office.
So why now?
Perhaps it presages a run for mayor of Providence -- even though he used his Exeter, rather than his Providence address to make the affiliation change. While the Chafee name goes a long way in transcending partisan labels in Rhode Island, Linc would be a more palatable mayoral candidate as an independent than as a Republican.
Then again, it could be that Chafee will remain ensconced at Brown for years to come, and that being free of the hurly-burly of politics gave him the final push to do something that he was unwilling to do as a sitting senator.
Kudos, btw, to Anchor Rising and RI Report for breaking the story of Chafee's disaffiliation ahead of the Sunday ProJo.