Log Cabin Republicans who favor gay rights, abortion rights supporters and environmental activists are holding events to honor Chris Shays and help his re-election campaign, even as they sometimes denounce President Bush and Republicans in general from the stage
Shays bucks party tide
By Louis Porter
Staff Writer
September 1, 2004
NEW YORK -- U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, received rare praise Monday night for a member of his party.
At a Planned Parenthood concert timed to coincide with the GOP's convention, organizers announced from the stage that he was one of their Republicans because he campaigns to keep abortion legal.
Shays was among only a handful of politicians singled for their support in the heavily Democratic crowd that included musicians Moby and Chuck D.
The gaps between Shays and his party's leadership over social issues are as evident this week as ever.
Log Cabin Republicans who favor gay rights, abortion rights supporters and environmental activists are holding events to honor him and help his re-election campaign, even as they sometimes denounce President Bush and Republicans in general from the stage.
Republicans approved a platform this week that takes a conservative stand on those issues, although moderate Republicans and Democrats fill the convention speakers' list.
Shays said party platforms are essentially meaningless.
"It doesn't tell me how to think, it doesn't tell me how to act and it certainly doesn't tell me how to vote," he said. "I have never looked to any platform to determine how to represent the people of the 4th Congressional District. It is a self-imposed minefield."
At the same time receives the benediction of supporters of traditionally Democratic causes he encourages those pushing for them to remain open to his party. "I don't think that the pro-choice movement helps themselves when they align themselves to one party," Shays said.
As midnight approached Monday, Shays was at a restaurant in Chelsea for a gay rights cocktail hour, co-hosted by the bipartisan Human Rights Campaign. The HRC has endorsed Shays and has donated to his re-election campaign.
He praised Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, which co-hosted the party, for not leaving the GOP, even though it has shown him "hostility and lack of sympathy."
"Even if you are an ardent Democrat, admire a Republican who hasn't given up on his party," Shays said. "There are a lot of things that make us different from the Democrats, but it is not this issue."
For his part, Guerriero joked that his group scheduled cocktail parties during the convention because "my party doesn't invite me to too many anymore."
Shays' Democratic challenger, Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell, isn't convinced Shays is really that independent on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. She points out that Shays supported the ban on so-called partial birth abortions.
"I am not surprised he is trying to distance himself from the majority," Farrell said by telephone from Connecticut. "He is with the majority most of the time."
Farrell said the HRC and the League of Conservation Voters, which held a party for Shays on the eve of the convention last week, refused to consider her qualifications for endorsement.
"They want to maintain their bipartisan appearance," she said. In the end, voters will base their decision on Shays record in Congress not on the "casual affiliation" with some advocacy groups, Farrell said.
But Tucker Gallagher, a Greenwich resident and volunteer coordinator with HRC, said it is pretty simple why he supports Shays. "Chris votes for us," he said. "Our issues transcend party. . . and there is resistance on all sides."
For his part, Shays sometimes seems frustrated by his party's rigid attitude on social issues.
"This isn't an election that needed to be close," he said of Bush's campaign. Bush seems to have gone out of his way to antagonize the supporters of some issues, Shays said. "It's almost like he wanted the environmental community to be against him to energize his base."
Shays may differ with elements of the GOP on some social issues but there are also those -- like defense, the response to terrorism and the war in Iraq -- in which he does not.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were a warning to the country not to ignore the threat of terror, he told members of the Republican Jewish Coalition in the packed ballroom of the Plaza Hotel just south of Central Park.
"The people of the United States realized what it has been like to be in Israel for 60 years," Shays said. "I have not had one Israeli leader who has said anything but 'thank you' for getting rid of Saddam Hussein," Shays said.
Of course, support from groups like those who Shays visited this week don't just mean votes. It also often means campaign funds.
That was a point made clearly at the Republican Jewish Coalition by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who faced a primary challenge this year. "The good news is that I won. The bad news is that I spent all my money," he said.
In the first couple of days of the convention, Shays said several people approached about holding fund-raisers for him.
"I have interacted with some folks who have asked me about my race and said they would like to help me," he said, adding that he expects to have three or four fund-raisers as a result of those discussions.
Shays said he was pleased the Republicans decided to hold their convention in New York City. For Shays, the city is full of reminders of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, even those as simple as a subway sign which says "to the World Trade Center."
"There is no World Trade Center to go to. Isn't that eerie?" Shays said.
Shays' positions have drawn protesters. Conservative anti-abortion activists have been outside events for pro-choice Republicans, and peace activists stood outside the Plaza Hotel trading yells with delegates.
"My first big surprise is how nicely it works to have a convention in New York City," Shays said. New York has been able to accommodate delegates and protesters, he added.
Shays is full of praise for the New York Police Department, which he said has greatly reduced the chance of a terrorist attack.
But holding the convention in New York City does mean the risk of a terrorist attack is greater, he said. "You have an Amtrak going right under the convention," he said.
Copyright © 2004, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
