Hastert Jump-starts Shays' Campaign: "Chris is a good consensus builder and that's what we need in the Republican Party good consensus builders"
Hastert Jump-starts Shays' Campaign
By PATRICIA McCORMACK HYPERLINK mailto:pmccormack@bcnnew.com pmccormack@bcnnew.com
Caption: House Speaker Dennis Hastert, left, walks with Rep. Christopher Shays , R-Conn., after a press conference at Greenwich, Conn. Town Hall, Wednesday June 1, 2005. Hastert raised up to $70,000 for Shays at a Greenwich fund-raiser, and called the 4th District congressman a key member of the GOP team. (AP Photo/Douglas Healey)
Greenwich was treated to a little bit of Washington Wednesday when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., came to town to help jump-start U.S. Rep. Chris Shays'2006 re-election campaign. Flashing lights and sound cleared the way for his police-escorted motorcade from Westchester County Airport to the exclusive Belle Haven Club, where he stumped for Shays at a fund-raiser, and later, to Greenwich Town Hall for a joint news conference with Shays.
Both events were laced with heavy security from Greenwich police, the Capitol police force and Secret Service, all bearing weapons some seen, some secreted. The escort and heavy security at both stops were due to the fact that Hastert is second in line of succession to the presidency. Vice President Dick Cheney is first. Both events were also marked by picketing Democrats who don't want to see Shays re-elected and who oppose his support of the war in Iraq. They included Jim Himes, president of the Democratic Town Committee.
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"Shays supported the war at the start four years ago when 90 percent of his constituents opposed it," picketer and Democrat Peter Berg, a member of the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation, said. "It's now four years later and more than 1,600 troops have died. We have spent more than $200 billion and all we have to show for the loss of life and expense is that the world has lost faith in us." A sign held by Stamford Democrat Kim Hynes who ran against Rep. Livvy Floren, R-149, in the last election said, "Follow the Money."
"I am going to campaign for Diane Farrell when she runs against Shays again," Hynes said. "I am certain she will announce soon." The Belle Haven event raised around $70,000 for Shay's campaign chest, fattened by the 75 invitees. He claims more money will be needed for his campaign this time around and that his opponent unknown at the moment has already started campaigning against him. "They have started a rumor that I am not running," he said. "And computer -generated phone calls against me are ringing phones all over the fourth district.
"I have received at least six of these calls urging me to 'call your congressman about Social Security or call your Congressman about the war in Iraq.' " Shays said he spent $2 million on the last campaign and his opponent, Diane Farrell, First Selectman of Westport, spent more than a million but lots more "under the radar." That is, it was through groups that didn't have to report. "At one point when Paul Newman came out for Diane Farrell, my mom thought I was running against Paul Newman."
Getting down to politics, Hastert, a Republican peer who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 19 years with Shays, said he has no problem stumping for Shays. "Chris is a good consensus builder and that's what we need in the Republican Party good consensus builders," he said. Shays recently castigated U.S. Rep Tom DeLay, R-Texas, distancing himself from the Republican leader, claiming his ethics leave something to be desired.
Hastert, however, told the Greenwich press corps assembled in Town Hall, he had no intention of dealing DeLay out of the political deck in Washington even though his stance is out of alignment with that of Shays. At presstime, Diane Farrell expressed amazement that Hastert was in Greenwich to help jumpstart Shays' 2006 campaign. "This is a classic case of Chris Shays wanting it both ways. He castigates DeLay and then partners with Hastert." Farrell would not commit to being in the race for 2006, but she is mulling it over.
"I had some good conversations with Joe Lieberman recently," she said. "He said that last election is over but the issues remain. "A great many friends are urging me to have another go at it. I've not made a final decision but the tremendous encouragement is helping me reach a decision. "I expect to make an announcement within the month. "You know the race last time was very close. "If I had gotten two percent more votes plus one," I would have won."
