Senate Hopeful
Chris Shays
Photo Source: Wikipedia
Posted 10/17/11
Former Republican congressman Christopher Shays, who lost his Fairfield County seat in 2008, is back in Connecticut and taking on a tough task—running against millionaire candidate Linda McMahon for the 2012 GOP U.S. Senate nomination. Despite Shays’ experience he is the underdog.
Shays just finished up an assignment in Washington as co-chair of the independent and bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting, a federal panel. Now he’s ready for another crack at elective politics in Connecticut.
In an interview last week with the Connecticut Radio Network, Shays said he’s running because “our country is imploding, we are in danger of seeing our economy break apart.” Continuing in that dire tone, Shays added: “I feel like our country is on its knees and our leaders are turning and looking away.”
Shays maintains he has “shown that I can get things done in the minority or the majority and believe that in the Senate I would have an opportunity to do things that I wasn’t able to achieve in the House.”
Shays most imposing obstacle, at least for now, is McMahon who spent $50million on her unsuccessful Senate campaign in 2010 and believes she has a better chance this time around because now she has statewide recognition.
The Quinnipiac University Poll seems to be Shays’ best piece of evidence that the Connecticut GOP should consider his candidacy. In the most recent Q-Poll, McMahon loses by wide margins in potential matchups with Democratic Senate hopefuls Chris Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz, but Shays shows up within striking distance of both Democrats.
The bad news for Shays is that Republicans surveyed for the same Q-Poll preferred McMahon over Shays as their potential nominee by a margin of 15 points. McMahon’s familiarity to GOP voters and her ability to self-fund her campaign apparently still make her the favorite.
“Whatever happens there will be a primary,” said Shays. “I have ten months to get my story out.” He believes GOP voters ultimately will realize he doesn’t “need any learning experience” and is the best candidate for Senate.
While McMahon might use that “experience” against Shays, portraying him as just another recycled career politician, Shays said voters will see through the argument. “My opponent tries to say she is the outsider and I’m the insider, but I’ve never been the insider,” he claimed. He noted that it’s McMahon who’s issuing news releases announcing endorsements from Republican legislators. “That’s old style politics,” he explained. “It’s not political leaders; it’s the people trying to make a living who will decide on August 14th (the GOP Senate primary day).”
McMahon still has the campaign funding advantage thanks to the millions of dollars she helped rack up as a former executive at the family business World Wrestling Entertainment. She maintains she’ll be raising campaign funds the conventional way this time around, but won’t rule out tapping her personal fortune again.
Shays repeatedly refers to McMahon as “my wealthy opponent” and contends her big money is a negative not an asset, not just the amount but the way it was made. He said many voters are turned off by the sex and violence depicted in pro wrestling on TV and agree with him that such fare is “detrimental to society, and particularly to children.”
He also believes McMahon’s desire to win in 2010 caused her to blitz the airwaves and mailboxes with ads and brochures, irritating voters in the process, a first impression that may be hard to shake. “She’s willing to spend $50 million, and you have to ask, if you’re willing to be so wasteful with your own money, what are you going to do with the taxpayer’s money?”
McMahon proved in the last go-round she’d use her resources for research against her opponents. Most voters will recall her campaign’s role in raising questions about how Democrat Richard Blumenthal portrayed his military service, and questions were also raised about her GOP rival former congressman Rob Simmons.
Asked if he was ready for close scrutiny by the McMahon campaign, Shays replied: “Absolutely, bring it on. What do you think I encountered the last three or four times I was up for reelection in Congress?” Shays said he was attacked in those campaigns by key operatives of the national Democratic Party. “My wife and I are prepared to have everything that could possibly be said, said, and things frankly distorted and made up.”
Some Republican elected officials quietly say they are puzzled by Shays’ desire to jump back into Connecticut politics, especially against McMahon. While McMahon launched her campaign with a well-attended and heavily-covered announcement at a Southington factory, Shays simply filed some federal paperwork.
For a start-up candidate who can use all the free media he can get, Shays let reporters track him down for interviews. As of last week he had a campaign office in Stratford, but no phone service or business cards for his aides.
That “stealth” approach caused some observers to wonder if Shays’ is serious or just testing the waters and he charged that McMahon’s campaign was fueling the fire. “You have her political operatives saying I won’t even be in the race by December,” Shays said. Asked if it’s possible he will drop if things start to look tough, Shays fired back: “Not a chance in hell, not a chance in hell.”
The former congressman said he will be battling McMahon into the GOP nominating convention next spring. “If I win the convention, that will be helpful, but if I lose it I will still be in the primary,” he vowed. “I can’t tell you for certain that I’ll win the primary, but I do know that if I win the primary, I think I’ll win the general election,” he predicted.
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