| Chris Shays has taken over Dick Blumenthal's role of Hamlet in CT State politics as he's dithering between running for Governor or challenging Jim Himes for the seat he lost in the 4th CD back in 2008. Either way, he's taken the first step towards re-establishing Connecticut residency, by putting down a deposit on a condo in Bridgeport.
Neil Vigdor had a piece yesterday where Shays continues his waffling and throws in a dig at Congressman Jim Himes, the guy who beat him:
Declaring that his number one focus is on a prospective candidacy for governor, former Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., won't rule out running for his old congressional seat this year.
"I've left both options open, but what I'm looking to do is see if I can run for governor," Shays said...
The Capitol Hill veteran has generally avoided publicly commenting on the man who unseated him in the 15 months since -- until now.
"My view is given the job that Jim has done, that if I were to run against him, there would be a strong likelihood that I would be able to beat him," said Shays.
Maybe he's speaking based on results of the internal poll released by his former deputy Chief of Staff Rob Russo, one of several GOP candidates in the 4th CD, which included Shays "as a baseline". The poll, conducted by Western Wats, showed Shays beating Himes 52-33 in a theoretical matchup. Russo trailed Himes 43-30.
Shays, however, seems to be leaning more towards the Governor's race. He says he plans to make a decision soon:
"I would love to campaign for Congress," Shays said. "I would love it. But if it didn't make sense for me to run for governor, I'm not sure (it would for Congress)."
Shays said he plans to make up his mind on the governor's race by the end of the month, factoring in two major variables.
"Do I have a strong base in the district I used to represent for 21 years?" Shays said. "Given that my primary opponents are both millionaires, will I have a strong grassroots organization to counter $10 million?"
Now call me cynical, but I think there's probably third variable in play here, and that's the
$243,000 outstanding campaign debt from 2008 due to the alleged embezzlement by former campaign manager Michael Sohn.
Although Shays says:"Michael is responsible for restitution of the funds that he embezzled and for paying the legal costs resulting from what he embezzled," he's got to be facing the reality that there's no way a guy who lived the high life on the campaign might well spend time in the Big House for it is going to be able to do that. And there's that very telling quote Shays gave to the
New York Times back in May when the embezzlement story first broke:
Adding to Mr. Shays's problems...is that he cannot solicit money from any donor who gave him the maximum amount allowed during the previous campaign, $4,600 per individual donor.
"I gave serious thought to running again to pay this off," said Mr. Shays, who has kept his campaign running in order to raise money.
Given how late in the game he's coming to this, I seriously wonder how much of Shays' new found enthusiasm for running for office is due to the financial albatross hanging around his neck. |
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