May 7, 2008
Himes, Shays set to get nominations for fall battle
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When Cos Cob resident Jim Himes is officially nominated on Monday as the Democratic candidate in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District he will do so as the party’s best chance ever to unseat longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Christopher Shays, according to the recent nonpartisan Cook Political Report that ranks Mr. Shays at the top of its list of “2008 Politically Vulnerable Incumbents.” The report is said to be based on past election results, party registration in the district and current fund-raising totals for both opponents.
Mr. Himes has posted record fund-raising numbers for an opponent against Mr. Shays, who’s been in office since 1987 and is the lone Republican in either the House or the Senate from the region.
Mr. Himes called the Cook report “a nice validation” and said the findings matched the sense he gets from voters.
“People have finally realized that we need to do a whole lot of things differently and there’s a lot of enthusiasm out there for that,” Mr. Himes told the Post on Tuesday. “People want forward progress in Washington on health care, on energy policy, on education, and on finally at long last getting something done about the gridlock in our traffic.”
Mr. Himes is expected to be nominated this coming Monday at 7 p.m. at Cesar A. Batalla Elementary School in Bridgeport. He said he was “honored and humbled” to be in line for the nomination and was looking forward to getting to work officially as the Democratic nominee. While he isn’t the only candidate, Mr. Himes has been the nominee in all but name for months and has already had fund-raisers with prominent Democratic congressmen.
Mr. Shays also is set to receive his party’s nomination this weekend at 5 p.m. in Darien at its town hall. While the last two races, in 2004 and 2006 against former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell, have been close, Mr. Shays triumphed each time. Michael Sohn, Mr. Shays’ campaign manager, told the Post on Monday that the Cook rankings do not faze them.
“We had that ranking in the last election as well,” Mr. Sohn said. “Chris will have that ranking for several election cycles to come. It’s the product of this district and it’s the nature of congressional races these days. This district, as much as Republicans and Democrats like to say it’s a Republican district, is an unaffiliated district. In this district, 43% of the voters are unaffiliated and not with either party. You run the campaign you need to run in this district. We’re going to have a discussion with the voters about Chris Shays’ accomplishments and the agenda he wants to bring to his next term.”
While some issues stood out in Mr. Shays’ recent tour of town meetings through the district, Mr. Sohn said it’s hard to tell which issues will stand out during the election.
“This is going to be an ever-changing election,” Mr. Sohn said. “I could tell you right now about which issues I would like to focus on and which issues we have focused on in the past, but things are going to change through the course of this election. For Christopher, it’s going to be about the things he’s done and his actions in Congress and the legislation he’s brought forward on the leading issues, like the bipartisan health care he’s proposed and commonsense environmental and energy policy legislation.”
This week, in advance of his nomination, Mr. Himes received Ms. Farrell’s endorsement. When she ran in the last two elections, Mr. Himes offered strong support as chairman of Greenwich’s Democratic Town Committee, and now she will be returning the favor as his supporter, praising him as someone “with his finger on the pulse of the needs of families” who “understands the needs of the district.”
“Jim has a perspective that is extremely important,” Ms. Farrell said in a campaign press release. “I think the story of this campaign is Jim’s qualifications, and the closeness of the last two races indicates that voters have looked closely at Shays’ record.”
Mr. Himes said he was eager to “rally the troops” on Monday at the convention.
“This is right within our grasp,” Mr. Himes said.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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