Stephen Patrick Laffey /ˈlæfiː/ (born 1962) is an American politician and businessman[3] who served as Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island from 2003 to 2007.

A former member of the Republican Party (now unaffiliated), Laffey lost primary bids for the United States Senate from Rhode Island in 2006 and the House of Representatives from Colorado's 4th congressional district in 2014.

[7] He decided to apply to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, on the advice of his high school history teacher and was accepted with full scholarship.

In June 1992, he began working for Morgan Keegan & Company, a Tennessee-based brokerage firm with $500 million in revenues and over 2,000 employees.

One company insider described him as being in charge of everything except bond trading[10] and the Wall Street Journal cited him as the "sole decision maker" over picking stocks for the firm's focus list.

[6] He left the company in 2001 after initiating and overseeing the sale of the firm to Regions Financial Corporation, a deal reported to be worth $789 million.

He attended the retreat with some of his Harvard Business School classmates and it was at that time that he stated he felt the "call" to enter politics.

He recruited numerous local and well-known Cranston residents, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate executive committee member Norman Orodenker who stepped down from his position to assist Laffey with his campaign.

Laffey stood on street corners and knocked on doors handing out Laffy Taffy to help spread his name.

In 2006, Laffey distinguished Cranston by making it the only Rhode Island city to cut property taxes that year.

The Board of Elections ruled unanimously that the free airtime and name recognition amounted to political contributions in excess of $1,000, a violation of state law.

[16] Laffey then filed a lawsuit against the Board citing violation of his 1st Amendment rights and for treating him differently than other politicians.

Laffey ran as the populist/conservative alternative to Chafee, being anti-abortion, and supporting both the Central American Free Trade Agreement and Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court.

[19] Main points of Laffey's campaign include eliminating what he calls pork barrel spending, simplifying the tax code, and reducing prescription drug costs.

[5] He was considered "the metabolic opposite of Chafee" by Joe Klein and was said to "enjoy populist tirades against corporate special interests (especially the oil companies)", favoring a robust alternative energy plan for national security reasons.

Laffey instead elected to run for Senate, leading Dole and Karl Rove to actively work to defeat him.

The primary was followed nationally due to the Senate seat being considered one that could give control of Congress back to the Democratic party.

[20] During the primary, Chafee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee attacked Laffey for calling for the city of Cranston to accept consular ID cards from Mexico and Guatemala.

[1] Laffey is the author of the book Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign).

[29] The book talks about the GOP control loss due to what he describes as the Republican Party compromising their conservative principles.

He also details what he describes as the betrayal of the vision of Ronald Reagan by the GOP engaging in negative and personal attacks on fellow conservatives, including him.

Professor and political science commentator Darrell M. West from Brown University described the book as "vintage Steve Laffey…smart, energetic, and hard-hitting.