2008.10.14: October 14, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Fiji: Politics: Congress: Connecticut Post: Shays a true survivor, but will he win again?
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2008.10.14: October 14, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Fiji: Politics: Congress: Connecticut Post: Shays a true survivor, but will he win again?
Shays a true survivor, but will he win again?
Rep. Christopher Shays looked out across the U.S. Capitol grounds from the steps that lead to the House chamber, absorbing the moment as the sun beat down on his head. The House of Representatives had just approved a $700 billion emergency bill to bail out Wall Street -- a blueprint that the Bush administration hoped would stop the bleeding that threatened to kill the national economy. "That could have been my last vote," said Shays, who turns 63 next Saturday. Shays won a close re-election in 2006 and, in fact, was the only New England Republican elected to the House. He expects another close race this time as he seeks a 12th term. Since winning a special election in August 1987, Shays has cast thousands of roll call votes as Connecticut's 4th District representative -- some as trivial as naming a post office -- but others like the latest one that are destined for the history books. "I've cast five legacy votes and this is one of them," he said. The others: Supporting a 1991 resolution giving President George H.W. Bush powers to initiate military operations against Iraq. Opposing four articles of impeachment brought against President Clinton in 1999. Supporting a 2002 resolution to allow President George W. Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction. And, opposing a 2007 resolution decrying President Bush's decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq. Shays looks back on the five votes and believes he got four correct. He now regrets his support for the resolution that started the Iraq war that has now claimed the lives of nearly 4,200 Americans because no weapons of mass destruction were found. Congressman Chris Shays of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji in the 1960's.
Shays a true survivor, but will he win again?
Shays a true survivor, but will he win again?
By PETER URBAN
Staff writer
Article Last Updated: 10/14/2008 07:35:21 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Christopher Shays looked out across the U.S. Capitol grounds from the steps that lead to the House chamber, absorbing the moment as the sun beat down on his head.
The House of Representatives had just approved a $700 billion emergency bill to bail out Wall Street -- a blueprint that the Bush administration hoped would stop the bleeding that threatened to kill the national economy.
"That could have been my last vote," said Shays, who turns 63 next Saturday.
Shays won a close re-election in 2006 and, in fact, was the only New England Republican elected to the House. He expects another close race this time as he seeks a 12th term.
Since winning a special election in August 1987, Shays has cast
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thousands of roll call votes as Connecticut's 4th District representative -- some as trivial as naming a post office -- but others like the latest one that are destined for the history books.
"I've cast five legacy votes and this is one of them," he said.
The others:
Supporting a 1991 resolution giving President George H.W. Bush powers to initiate military operations against Iraq.
Opposing four articles of impeachment brought against President Clinton in 1999.
Supporting a 2002 resolution to allow President George W. Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction.
And, opposing a 2007 resolution decrying President Bush's decision to send more U.S. troops to
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Iraq.
Shays looks back on the five votes and believes he got four correct.
He now regrets his support for the resolution that started the Iraq war that has now claimed the lives of nearly 4,200 Americans because no weapons of mass destruction were found.
A native of Stamford, Shays grew up in Darien, the youngest of four sons and an early fan of biographies, particularly for those in public service. A Christian Scientist, Shays went on to Principia College in St. Louis, graduating in 1968, and later married his high school sweetheart, Betsi DeRaismes. The couple served two years in the Peace Corps in Fiji while the U.S. was at war with Vietnam.
Shays filed as a conscientious objector to military service.
In 1974, Shays was elected to the state House of Representatives and served there until 1987 when, in August, he won a special election to replace Rep. Stewart B. McKinney, who died of complications from AIDS.
In between, Shays did lose a 1983 mayoral contest in Stamford.
Shays moved to the Black Rock section of Bridgeport in 1999 from Stamford. He also owns a townhouse in the Southwest section of Washington, D.C. His wife now works at the Department of Education and their daughter, Jeramy, 29, recently graduated from law school.
In many ways, the Iraq war has come to define Shays' tenure in Congress more than his championing of campaign finance reform in the 1990s or his support for a 9/11 Commission that has been instrumental in reforming domestic national security in the wake of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Shays has traveled to Iraq on 22 occasions since the fall of Saddam Hussein -- reporting back each time to his colleagues, the president and the public his views on the situation as he saw it on the ground.
He has been elated, depressed, frustrated and everything in between -- and has often seemed at odds with himself over what direction should be taken. He's proposed timelines for withdrawal while also supporting a surge in troops.
Stephanie Sanchez, a Stamford Democrat who lost to Shays in 2002, said that his support of the Iraq war could be a bigger factor than most pundits expect this election as voters absorb its economic cost.
"People are beginning to understand that it is costing us $10 billion a month and that the Iraqi government is sitting on a $70 billion surplus," she said. "Whatever Shays says on a timeline doesn't carry water. People want someone who has a totally different view and is committed to getting us out."
Sanchez accused Shays of using "scare tactics" to help Bush launch the invasion. He defeated her by nearly a two-to-one margin in 2002.
Shays insists that he goes where the truth takes him, but his critics see it differently. They view his shifting position on Iraq as another example of his election year conversions aimed at appealing to moderate and independent voters that make up the bulk of the 4th District.
"It is one of the things that Chris Shays always has managed to do," said Jonathan Kantrowitz, a Fairfield Democrat who lost by wide margins to Shays in 1994 and 1998. "Sometime shortly before the election he will do a couple of maverick type things to separate himself from the rest of the conservative Republican Party."
Kantrowitz believes it is absolutely a political calculation. This time around, Shays co-sponsored a universal health care bill to bolster his bipartisan credentials. The legislation has gone nowhere in Congress.
"He is out to fool people. He purposely goes out and obscures his overwhelmingly conservative voting record," Kantrowitz said.
Shays has been hearing a similar refrain from Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes, who is challenging him this election. A Himes campaign analysis found that Shays votes overwhelmingly with Republicans when it matters even as other surveys show Shays to be more of a maverick.
"Chris Shays has been riding on a reputation as an independent but he has not been an independent in many years," said Connecticut Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo, of Trumbull.
"He is a strong Bush supporter who votes with the Republicans when they need him and votes with Democrats when they don't."
Shays was one of only two Republicans whose 2007 voting record ranked outside the 200 most conservative members of the House, according to a National Journal analysis of 107 "key" votes. A Washington Post analysis found that Shays voted with the majority of House Republicans on 79.8 percent of 1,775 votes cast during the 110th Congress. Only four other House members diverged with their party more frequently.
"He has a record as the most bipartisan member of Congress. He votes for what he thinks is the right thing to do," said Darrell Harvey, chief executive officer of the Ashforth Company in Stamford, and a longtime contributor to Shays' campaigns.
State Sen. John McKinney, the son of the former congressman for the district, said that Shays is a classic Rockefeller Republican who has established a progressive voting record on social issues while maintaining a conservative stance on fiscal policies.
"He is an outspoken and independent thinker, and I think the district knows it," McKinney said, citing his support for the environment, gay rights, universal health care and abortion rights.
John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said that his organization has endorsed Himes this election but has supported Shays in the past.
"When Republicans took the majority in 1994, Chris was not necessarily aligned with them and cast votes that defined him as a maverick. He still casts some positive votes for working people but with the Democrats now in the majority he has supported a lot of Republican alternatives," Olsen said.
Olsen said that Shays has supported the Iraq war and anti-terrorism initiatives that strain civil liberties, which have drawn criticism from Democrats as well as some Republicans.
Westport Democrat Diane Farrell, who lost to Shays in 2004 and 2006, is convinced that voters this year will support the candidate that convinces them they will work for them in the coming 111th Congress.
"This is just not a time for small politics but one for tackling the single biggest economic challenge that has faced the nation since 1929," she said. "Voters want to know who has the skills and who shares the basic philosophy they have to get us out of this mess."
If Shays is elected, he will most likely be named the minority leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and will be a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. Both panels are expected to be key players in any future legislative reforms for the financial markets.
Shays has carved himself out a niche as a proponent of greater regulation of the two government-sponsored mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He is convinced they are the catalyst of the current economic meltdown.
"What has brought this debacle is the collapse of the housing market and at the very center is Fannie and Freddie because they securitized half of all mortgage loans and they didn't have to play by the same rules as everybody else," Shays said.
If he is re-elected, Shays will certainly clash with the committee's chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. The two already have had lively exchanges over the past two years. Just last week, Shays ripped into Waxman for failing to hold a hearing on the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the current financial crisis. Shays claimed it was to cover up Congress' complicity in the scandal.
"The reason we haven't scheduled hearings on these two institutions and haven't requested documents from either is because their demise isn't someone else's fault -- it's ours, and we don't want to own up to it," Shays said.
But, Farrell believes voters will have a lot of questions for Shays as to what role he played over the last two decades in trying to rein in the mavericks on Wall Street.
"Chris does have some explaining to do in regards to his stewardship of financial oversight," she said.
Kantrowitz said that Shays has swallowed the "pure Republican line" on the financial crisis.
"I don't think people are really going to blame Democrats for this huge economic meltdown that occurred during a Republican administration," he said.
Shays says he is "more excited about the possibility of coming back to Congress" than ever before given the national focus on the economy and security.
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