While many conservatives are understandably chafed by it, there is good news for the GOP in Chafee’s victory last night. Michael Barone explains:

But the big news here is the success of the Republican turnout machine. The National Republican Senatorial Committee ran tough ads against Laffey - hitting him for being lax on immigration, for example - and the Republican National Committee sent in hundreds of operatives to turn out the vote for Chafee. Many conservatives are angry about this, of course, but whatever you think about it, it seemed to work.