Chris Shays is doing everything he can to distance himself from George Bush. But on the big issues -- Iraq, deregulation, economic policy, energy -- Bush and Shays have been hand-in-hand:
Jim Himes kicked off his Listening and Leading Tour in the town where Chris Shays grew up, where Republicans currently outnumber Democrats by a 2-1 margin, but also where residents elected a Democratic majority to the Board of Selectmen in 2007.
Not surprisingly, there were some Republicans in the audience. Attendance numbered between about a dozen and 20 people, including some local DTC and RTC members. Shays had a crew videotape the event, as did the Himes campaign.
Jim introduced himself and talked about his priorities, including restoring the American dream, energy reform, universal health care, education. Then he opened it up for questions.
Once the question-and-answer session started, it became pretty apparent what the Shays-friendly crowd wanted to talk about: illegal immigration, the gas tax, illegal immigration, Europe imposing cap-and-trade standards on American airlines (?), illegal immigration, Jerusalem, and oh yeah, did I say illegal immigration?
In a town where Republican leaders have discovered new ways to lose the last two elections despite their overwhelming majority, it quickly became apparent why that is. Rather than deal with topics that people are gravely concerned about - the economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care, energy reform, education - these folks wanted to dwell on a topic ranked a top priority by only 6% of the population!
This made me think that Chris Shays may be so out of touch because many people in his own Party are out of touch too.
Fortunately, Jim talked a lot about the economy, along with some other issues. Some highlights below the fold:
If I did my math right, Jim Himes has about $3,000 more in cash on hand than Chris Shays at year-end. If the numbers are right, it's unprecedented. (The Himes campaign hasn't officially released its figures yet.)
Himes raised over $944,000 for the year and kept more than $800,000 in cash on hand. Shays is reporting $797,413 in cash on hand for the year-end. That puts Himes up by about 3 grand.
Shays has raised slightly more money ($1.16 million) than Himes, but Shays is burning through it faster.
With a burn rate of just 15%,Jim Himes has done something NO OPPOSING CANDIDATE in 20 years has ever done -- ended the year with more money in the bank than Chris Shays!
There was a terrific letter to the editor in today's Stamford Advocate/Greenwich Time, worth posting here because it spells out many of the ways Chris Shays has failed us as a Congressman, and why Jim Himes is the better man for the job. Nice to see this writer take the time to make these points.
All I have to say is: More like this ...
To the editor:
The ineptitude of Congressman Chris Shays resonates, appearing almost un-American, as he pretends to support the best interests of his constituents and country while actually sabotaging America, our Constitution and the basic security and survival needs of Americans.
The word is "mum" when it comes to his addressing the spiraling effects of the subprime mortgage debacle on both homeowners and our nation's largest financial institutions that are desperately seeking infusions from investors in the U.S., Asia and the Middle East. What about the failure to develop renewable energy sources that has inevitably led to soaring energy prices? The economic downturn, loss of jobs and failure to create new ones? And his continued support for tax cuts for the wealthy that have failed to prime the economy as he and his fellow Republicans contended they would.
Good point: What have Shays and the Republican Party been doing the past eight years other than cutting taxes for the wealthy, ignoring predatory lending, and giving tax breaks to the fossile fuel industry? Oh right, screwing up the Iraq War, ignoring the health care crisis ... and much more below the fold:
Hillary Clinton will be campaigning in Hartford tomorrow morning. Colin McEnroe has directions to the event.
Coming off his big win in South Carolina, Barack Obama was endorsed by Caroline Kennedy, who had high praise for Obama in Sunday's NY Times:
I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president.
On Monday, Ted Kennedy is expected to give his endorsement of Obama.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer headlined a fundraiser for Jim Himes in Stamford on Friday. The event was hosted by State Senator Andrew McDonald and attended by many state legislators from the 4 CD, including Stamford Reps. Jim Shapiro, Gerry Fox III, William Tong and Carlo Leone.
Said Hoyer:
"Jim Himes represents the change I think voters want," said Hoyer, who called Himes one of the most able and competent candidates for whom he has campaigned. [...]
"I like Chris Shays. I consider Chris Shays a decent person who I have a positive relationship with," Hoyer said. "But I believe Chris Shays has uniformly supported a domestic and foreign policy that is not in the best interests' of our country."
I thought I would take a minute to put Jim Himes' fundraising numbers into perspective.
When you think about the qualities every Congressman should have, one that instantly comes to mind is "Does he understand the value of a dollar, and know what to do with it?"
A look at Jim Himes' campaign finances offers a clear answer to that question. The guy makes every dollar count.
Himes's nine-month fundraising total of $944,000 -- including $325,000 in the third quarter -- is more than any challenger to Chris Shays in an off-election year. (Diane Farrell had raised about $575,000 at this point in her 2006 campaign.) Even more impressive is that Himes' "burn rate" -- the percent of the money he's spending -- is just 15%.
Of the $944,000 Himes has raised, he still has about $800,000 in cash on hand. By comparison, Chris Shays had a burn rate of $37% through September, after spending more than $300,000. (Latest totals for Shays are not in yet.)
Equally important is that a good number of Himes' donations are coming in small amounts -- nearly 1300 donations of less than $250. Those $25-$50 gifts add up, especially when you have a large base of support.
Having seen Jim Himes at his living room table stuffing envelopes with teams of volunteers, I can attest to the fact that he values every donation -- and every volunteer.
Maybe it was the years he spent managing scarce dollars for nonprofits like the Enterprise Foundation. Or maybe it was his years at Goldman Sachs (the one investment firm NOT burned by the mortgage crisis). Wherever the experience has come from, Himes is demonstrating that he'll put your tiniest little donation, or your tax dollars, to good use. As a Congressman, that's a valuable trait to have.
We are proud to have Democratic Congressional candidate Jim Himes join us today for a ring-in-the-New Year liveblogging session.
Jim is challenging Chris Shays in Connecticut's 4th CD and offers a clean break from Bush Administration policies, while giving CT voters a clear choice on a wide range of issues -- from the Iraq War to energy, to education, and to effective government oversight.
You can learn more about Jim -- including his background and where he stands on the issues -- at his website, HimesforCongress.com. To learn more about Jim's work at the Enterprise Foundation, where he has helped to vastly improve the region's affordable housing stock, click here.
Also, today is the last day of the fundraising quarter, so we have made it easy to contribute to the Himes campaign -- at MLN's ActBlue page. Please chip in what you can.
If changing the world by electing brilliant new leaders to Congress weren't enough of an incentive, as an added bonus ... Saramerica has offered to immortalize your name in print with a donation to the Himes campaign.
Please join us in welcoming Jim to MLN. Here's Jim's welcome to us:
Thanks for joining me here at MLN today, and best wishes to all for a happy 2008!
Those of you who tuned in a few days ago for the liveblog on FDL know that I was really moved a few weeks ago when I stumbled on Rockwell's "Freedoms" paintings. I was struck, in particular, by "Freedom from Fear". The paintings, of course, were based on Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms". Freedom from Fear . . . imagine! The administration has used fear--fear of attack, fear of people who look, pray or think differently, fear of immigrants, fear of change--for so long that it's now part of the background noise. I was in Bridgeport for a meeting with community activists a few weeks ago, and a burly African American man stood up to talk passionately about the fear he feels, the sense that government has devoted itself not to giving people like him a leg up or a catch should he fall, but to the narrow interests of people who really don't need its help.
This is important I think, because we Democrats are faced with the challenge of how to distill a crisp message from amongst the wreckage of the seven year Bush-Cheney catastrophe. The Bush administration and its supporters in Congress, like Chris Shays, have so wildly bungled nearly every aspect of governance that it is hard to know where to start. Our fiscal deficit has ballooned, our credibility abroad has been destroyed, our economy is hostage to foreign creditors and spiraling oil prices, our Constitution has been tossed aside like so much used Christmas wrapping, and the really critical problems facing most of America--healthcare, education, rocketing energy prices--have been ignored. Seriously . . . where to start?
I think a big part of distilling the progressive message in the face of universally bungled government will consist of taking seriously the notion of Freedom from Fear, and addressing the anxiety I sense around the district by pointing out that government once not only protected the vulnerable and the needy, but did great and ambitious things that benefited all of us (ironic note as I post this on the internet!). Things like building the highways, bridges, school systems, and protecting cities such as New Orleans from unimaginable catastrophe. Surely that's something around which we can rally not just progressives, but all those with a feel for the American legacy. What do you think?
Feel free to start posting your comments and questions.
We are proud to have Democratic Congressional candidate Jim Himes join us today at 11:30 for a lively session of liveblogging.
Jim, who is challenging Chris Shays in Connecticut's 4th CD, offers a clean break from Bush Administration policies and gives CT voters a clear choice on a wide range of issues -- from the Iraq War to energy, to education, and to effective government oversight.
You can learn more about Jim -- including his background and where he stands on the issues -- at his website, HimesforCongress.com. To learn more about Jim's work at the Enterprise Foundation, where he has helped to vastly improve the region's affordable housing stock, click here.
Also, today is the last day of the fundraising quarter, so we have made it easy to contribute to the Himes campaign -- at MLN's ActBlue page. Please consider chipping in.
If changing the world by electing brilliant new leaders to Congress weren't enough of an incentive, as an added bonus ... Saramerica has offered to immortalize your name in print with a donation to the Himes campaign.
As the war in Iraq continues with no end in sight, as the health care crisis worsens, and as income-inequality widens, Chris Shays is set to begin his 20th year in Congress in 2008.
Before the page turns on 2007, however, we at MLN have one more chance to voice our concerns and make a difference.
Jim Himes, Democratic challenger to Chris Shays in the 4th Congressional District, will be liveblogging here at MLN on Monday December 31 at 11:30 AM. Mark your calendars and make a plan to join us.
Just as important: Before Chris Shays begins his 20th year in office, we would like to see if we at MLN can bring 20 new donors to the Himes campaign -- 20 donors to help end Shays' run at 20 years in office. You can contribute here or through the ActBlue widget at left.
The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, along with groups like Freedom's Watch and Tom DeLay's Coalition for a Conservative Majority plan to spend more than $300 million towards defeating Democratic candidates in 2008. We can fight back with millions of people each chipping in small amounts, beginning with 20 new donors before the end of the year.
Each new donor sends a message to Republicans that we want Congressional Oversight (Shays doesn't), that we want universal health care (Shays doesn't), and that we want an end to the war (Shays doesn't know what he wants). And each new donor helps give a progressive Democrat like Jim Himes the ability to wage a powerful campaign.
Mark your calendars for Monday to liveblog with Jim -- he'll also be liveblogging at Firedoglake.com this Saturday at 2 pm -- and consider being one of the first 20 donors to make a contribution -- before the fundraising quarter ends on December 31 and before Chris Shays begins his 20th year in Congress.
UPDATE Feel free to use the comments section below to post questions for Jim, or to express your views on issues you would like him to address.
Chris Shays doesn't do oversight, but his 2008 challenger, Jim Himes, apparently does.
Today the Himes campaign debuted a website, APerfectJob.info, that documents Chris Shays' dereliction of duty on the House Oversight Committee:
Chris Shays serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But instead of using his position to actually conduct oversight of private security contractors in Iraq and ask the tough questions that his job demands, he has been using it to relentlessly defend the Bush Administration and effusively praise witnesses like the CEO of Blackwater USA:
The site gets its name, "A Perfect Job," from the phrase Shays used to describe Blackwater USA during an Oversight hearing in October. The committee was investigating the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards. This was a time when everyone, including Shays' own constituents, was screaming for proper oversight.
We advocate -- no, insist -- on stronger congressional oversight of all outside contractors in Iraq and other war zones. ... If Blackwater USA security guards fired without provocation, they should be tried.
The State Department's actions speak louder than its statement claiming continuing faith in Blackwater USA, whose guards last month allegedly fired indiscriminately on people in a square in Baghdad.
But instead of investigating Blackwater, Shays used his time at the hearing to praise Blackwater CEO Erik Prince for doing "A Perfect Job."
Watch the video:
Shays' Blackwater performance was only his most glaring example of undermining Congressional hearings. Other examples include the investigation of Lurita Doan and the Government Services Administration.
Doan had turned the GSA into a political favor machine doling out government services to Republicans in need of good press at election time - in an apparent violation of the Hatch Act. Shays himself was the beneficiary of GSA favors, but the obvious conflict of interest didn't stop Shays from acting as Doan's personal cheerleader.
Watch the video:
At another hearing, looking into the mysterious friendly fire death of American war hero Pat Tillman, Shays laid off any serious questions of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and merely thanked Rumsfeld for just "showing up."
At a hearing looking into the deaths of Blackwater contractors killed in Falluha, Shays didn't grill Blackwater executives. He ripped into the widows of the contractors.
Over the last several years, by failing to conduct any meaningful oversight of the Bush Administration, Shays has slipped into the role of a Bush lap dog.
Jim Himes, by holding Shays accountable, has become the new watch dog.
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