WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican Main Street Partnership, a coalition of GOP party leaders and strategists that work to elect moderate conservatives, sharply criticized the Conservative Club for Growth's involvement in the Rhode Island Senate race Wednesday, attributing incumbent GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee's defeat to the powerful anti-tax lobbying group's support of Chafee's primary challenger Steven Laffey.

"Harry Reid and the Democratic leadership in the Senate should call Pat Toomey and thank him for working hard to undermine the Republican majority," Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, Executive Director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, said in a statement.
Toomey, a native Rhode Islander and former GOP Rep. from Pennsylvania, is the President and CEO of the Club for Growth.

Chafee, who lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, was the GOP's most liberal senator. He was the lone Republican to vote against the Iraq war and voted against President Bush in the 2004 election.

Rhode Island Senate results

--CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney