Republican congressman Chris Shays (CT-04) has been permitted to host the annual picinic of the Connecticut Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Association (CT RPCV) at his house in Bridgeport next weekend, a politicization of the Peace Corps that I believe is blatantly wrong.  The RPVC organization is an official affiliate of the national organization, which is in turn a non-profit, non-political 501(c)3.  CT RPCV president Maureen Shanley has stated that official Peace Corps business will be conducted at Shays' house during the picnic.  Peace Corps recruiters have been invited to come from New York, and prospective Peace Corps volunteers have also been invited.  Holding an official Peace Corps meeting at the home of a partisan  elected politician, even when it is a  meeting of returned Peace Corps Volunteers, especially just a few short weeks before that politician stands for re-election, constitues a blatant, ompletely unacceptable politicization of the Peace Corps.  

The last remaining Republican from New England in the House of Representatives is Chris Shays from Connecticut's 4th Congressional District.  He is being challenged this historic year by a bright, young, aggressive Democratic candidate -- Jim Himes.

The last two congressional contests in CT-04 have been very close, but Republican Shays has prevailed by slim margins both times.

We say, "Not this time!"

You can meet Jim Himes and voice your views at a series of town meetings  called 17 towns in 17 days.

more after the break

(Cross-posted from the Himes blog. I am the Online Communications Director for Jim Himes for Congress)

The Himes campaign released its July Quarterly fundraising numbers yesterday. Here's the press release:

Faux moderate and Bush Neocon Chris Shays (Rep-CT's 4th district) will appear on John Dankosky's "Where We Live" live call-in show tomorrow morning (Friday, July 11) on Connecticut public radio's WNPR.  In Fairfield County, it is carried on 88.5 FM.  Please call in or email your questions for Both Ways Shays.  If you live or are travelling outside Connecticut, please send in your pointed questions by email.

Call during the Show:

(860) 275-7266

Or email questions and comments to:

wherewelive@wnpr.org

You have to get on the phone early, because Dankosky actually doesn't take many calls from listeners.  Shays is opposed by a great progressive Democrat- former Rhodes Scholar and Harvard grad Jim Himes.

Despite the hot and humid weather, hundreds of supporters joined Orange-to-Blue candidate Jim Himes yesterday for all or part of the 22-mile walk across the Fourth Congressional district from Greenwich to Bridgeport. Here are some more of the sights and sounds of the day (see part 1 here) - including a few words from DFA Chair Jim Dean at the stop in Fairfield:

Elected officials, bloggers, and reporters all joined the walk for stretches as well. The Greenwich Time was along for the start of the walk:

(I am the Online Communications Director for Jim Himes for Congress.)

Here in Connecticut, we're just about halfway through with Orange-to-Blue candidate Jim Himes' day-long, 22-mile, "Walk in a New Direction" from Greenwich to Bridgeport, and I just popped in our Norwalk office to upload some sights and sounds. Here's Jim at a stop this morning talking about why we're all walking 22 miles in the blazing sun today:

Contribute here to help us reach our goal of $22,000 online before the end of the quarter Monday night!

Just days after the Alaska AFL-CIO endorsed Orange to Blue candidate Mark Begich, fellow Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes has been endorsed by the Connecticut AFL-CIO:

"Jim really understands the issues facing working families," said James Parent, Connecticut State Council of Machinists President and AFL-CIO Vice President. "Jim knows that we need to create good jobs and fight for the manufacturing jobs that we still have, to find real answers on healthcare and education, and to get out of Iraq. I'm convinced Jim will be a tremendous ally for working families, and we look forward to doing all we can to get him elected."

Connecticut's union density is lower than Alaska's, but this is an especially significant endorsement given his opponent. As DavidNYC's introductory post on Himes laid out, a number of Democrats and progressive groups have been giving protective cover to Republican incumbent Chris Shays. The League of Conservation Voters and the Human Rights Campaign have endorsed Shays. They would argue that he's a moderate Republican -- but should an LCV-endorsed candidate turn around and support coastal oil drilling? What kind of moderation is that?

The LCV and HRC might have gotten played on this one thanks to their desire to appear non-partisan damaging the causes they exist to support, but the Connecticut AFL-CIO obviously knows better and won't be supporting someone like Shays just because he only pisses on them 57% of the time (PDF) instead of 90% of the time.

Jim Himes is fighting a tough battle to take out the last House Republican in New England, and unfortunately, he's having to fight against people who should be on his side. But organized labor has his back, and, through the Orange to Blue list, so can you.

Race tracker wiki: CT-04

As DavidNYC noted in his Orange-to-Blue endorsement post of Jim Himes yesterday, Chris Shays has a history of pretending to be a "moderate" while voting again and again for Bush's policies.

This morning, Shays joined many in both parties in Congress by standing with Bush again on the FISA "compromise".

In fact, Chris Shays has been busy doing his best impersonation of a Blue Dog all week, voting for the war supplemental without timelines that passed yesterday before voting for the for the disastrous FISA bill that passed today.

We're off to the races in Connecticut, with one red-hot House race in the Fourth District, and two solid freshman Dems looking to consolidate their support in the Second and Fifth Districts. The GOP has nominated their slate of candidates, and are ready to start the official campaign.

CT-02: Democrat "Landslide Joe" Courtney won election last year in one of the narrowest races in the country. Courtney edged Republican Rob Simmons by just 83 votes, a margin which is actually not unusual for the district. Former Representative Sam Gejdenson won reelection in 1994 by just 21 votes, and lost his seat to Simmons in 2002 by under 2,000 votes.

Courtney is a solid Democrat on national issues, and an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War. The district leans strongly Democratic at the presidential level (Gore won it by 14 points, and Kerry by 10), but it has placed a heavy emphasis in recent years on electing Representatives with the ability to deliver for the district, most particularly with regard to the submarine manufacturing base in Groton. The sub base is the district's largest employer, and Gejdenson lost in 2000 amid rumors of the base closing.

With the prominence of the submarine base in mind, the GOP recruited the former base commander, Captain Sean Sullivan, as their candidate. While this sounded promising for the Republicans initially (as much as any candidate would in a D+7.6 district in a Democratic year), the highly touted Sullivan has proven to be a fundraising dud. He has just over $100K on hand (and that number isn't increasing very quickly, as he pulled in a grand total of $3,000 in three weeks in April).

Courtney, meanwhile, has over $1.2 million on hand to go with a fine record for his first term in Congress. Rob Simmons had some nice words for our man Joe:

Former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons, who in 2006 lost narrowly to Courtney, the one-time Vernon town attorney, belittled his former opponent.

"If John McCain becomes the next president, who do you think he'll turn to for advice in Congress?" he asked Republicans gathered in Willimantic. "A town attorney from Vernon or a decorated Navy captain with more than 20 years of distinguished service?"

Yeah, well...that ain't happening.

CT-04: For the third year in a row, CT-04 is shaping up to be one of the hottest races in the country. Republican incumbent Christopher Shays, who narrowly won reelection with 52% in both 2004 and 2006, is the last Republican Representative from New England left in Congress. After spirited challenges the last two cycles from Diane Farrell, Shays is now challenger by Democrat Jim Himes.

Himes, 41, is a former Goldman Sachs vice president and Rhodes Scholar. He has proven to be a terrific fundraiser, with over $1.1 million cash-on-hand as of last filing. By comparison, 20-year incumbent Shays has roughly $30,000 more in the bank than Himes. Himes is also an early addition to the DCCC's Red to Blue list.

Shays has a long-standing reputation as a moderate, and he's certainly proven to be a survivor in this Democratic-leaning Bridgeport-based district. The Fourth was Lieberman country in 2006, which may well have helped Shays win reelection that year. Still, Himes is a truly formidable candidate, and even after the close calls of the last two cycles, Shays may yet be in for the race of his life.

CT-05: By PVI, the Fifth is Connecticut's least Democratic district (D+3.7). Republican Nancy Johnson represented the area for 24 years until 2006, when she was defeated by Democrat Chris Murphy.

Murphy, 34, has had a remarkable record of political success, particularly for such a young guy. Fresh out of college at 22, he managed the campaign of Democrat Charlotte Koskoff, who ran against Johnson in 1996 and came within one point of unseating her. After graduating from law school, Murphy then defeated a 14-year incumbent to win a seat in the State House, then captured a Republican-held seat in the State Senate before defeating Johnson quite badly in 2006, winning by 12 points after  a series of nasty attacks by the Johnson campaign. Since his election, Murphy has proven to be a popular Congressman and an excellent fundraiser, currently sitting on a $1.5 million war chest.

The Republicans hope to take this seat back with State Senator David Cappiello, who has been forced to run away from his unpopular president in this Dem-leaning district. Needless to say, that hasn't gone over especially well with his based (though he and Bush appear to be getting on fine, as Bush held a fundraiser for Cappiello at Henry Kissinger's house a few weeks ago).

It appears that the line of attack will be to paint Murphy as a DC insider who is soft on terrorism-indeed, it appears that that is already what they're doing. As DemFromCT notes, however, it's unlikely to work:

This is a winning strategery for McCain and Republicans... why? It's not 2002 any more. The inept Republican fear campaign played badly for Nancy Johnson in 2006 and Rudy Giuliani in 2008. Why would it work better now?

Alas, it's going to take a Democratic win in November to purge the system of the idea that Republican fear and smear still work. Chalk that up to yet another reason to vote Democratic.

Hear, hear.

The Republicans are dreaming big about CT-05, but I don't think this is the year they're going to stop Chris Murphy's meteoric rise.

Race tracker wiki: CT-02 CT-04 CT-05

(Cross-posted from My Left Nutmeg.)

Yesterday afternoon, in accepting his nomination for a potential 12th term representing the Fourth Congressional District of Connecticut, Chris Shays sounded a favorite attack theme of his against the Democratic party:

Shays had harsher words for Democrats. Liberal activists, he said are even more divisive.

"Though Democrats speak urgently of the challenges we face, their leaders obstruct and delay," he said.

Mr. Shays, things are just not going that  well in Iraq.

(crossposted at myleftnutmeg.com)

This is the oped I authored that appeared last week in Greenwich Citizen (sorry, but it's not been placed online):

"Lord, I want a timeline!", Republican Congressman Chris Shays blurted out toward the end of a rambling speech on the floor of the House early this month.  But does Mr. Shays really want to establish a firm timeline for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq?  If one looks closely at his pronouncements on the Iraq War, the answer is: "doubtful."  

On Air Force Malaria One (for more info on Bush's taxpayer-funded campaign trip to Henry Kissinger's estate in northwest CT today, see the NYT today):

Courant Photo Credit: President George W. Bush departs Air Force One at the Connecticut Air National Guard Base at Bradley International Airport. Bush is visiting Connecticut to speak at the Northwest Boys and Girls Club in Hartford before attending a fundraising event in Kent. (BOB MACDONNELL / April 25, 2008)

CT bloggers are fighting back today. Join them.

(Disclosure: I proudly work for Jim Himes.)

It's hard cutting through the cacaphony of candidate diaries on here right now, but if you actually made it here, the bloggers in Connecticut sure could use your help fighting back against a Bush fundraiser!

The details, in the form of an email that we are circulating are below.

Help offset President Bush's fundraiser against freshman Chris Murphy and challenger Jim Himes.  Donate today!

Help offset President Bush's fundraiser against freshman Chris Murphy and challenger Jim Himes.  Donate today!

This Friday, George W. Bush is coming to Henry Kissinger's house in Kent, Connecticut for an exclusive, $1000 a head ($10,000 for a snapshot with the President!) fundraiser for Republican Challenger David Cappiello (running against Democratic Freshman Representative Chris Murphy) in Connecticut's 5th Congressional District.

Yep, Neocon Chris Shays (R, CT-04) at a town hall meeting this morning in Greenwich, Connecticut actually said that General Petraeus is "our Peace Corps general."  Now Shays is so whacky to begin with, and his reasoning so goofy that I couldn't possibly explain to you why he made that statement.  But as a former Peace Corps volunteer myself, I'm offended.  And although Shays was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji in the late '60's, he should be ashamed of himself.

It is unfathomable to me what sort of mentality could possibly conflate the killing, bombing and destruction of the Iraq War with the efforts of Peace Corps volunteers in developing countries around the world to improve the lives of ordinary people.  Does Republican Chris Shays even understand the irony of calling a general of the United States Army the "Peace Corps" general?  I suppose that if Ronald Reagan can name an intercontinental nuclear missile "The Peacemaker", then I suppose another Republican conservative like Shays can make an equally idiotic statement like calling the top military commander in the Iraqi theater of war the "Peace Corps general".  But to decent, dedicated, hard-working Peace Corps volunteers around the world, past and present, his expression is inexplicable and reprehensible.

Attention!  While Clinton's desperate attempts to prolong the presidential primary may be interesting, you may remember that there are all these other races that will determine whom our nominee will be working with in the Congress.

And if you stretch your mind back to 2006, you will remember that one of our biggest targets was Chris Shays in CT-04.  Shays is the last of a dying breed: the New England Republican.  In fact, he's the only one left in the House.  In 2006, he beat our Democratic candidate Diane Ferrell in an incredibly tight race.  This year, Jim Himes will be the Democrat to give Shays and New England Republicans the knockout punch.  Best of all, you can listen to me and clammyc interview Jim live at 3pmPST/6pmEST today on BlogTalkRadio!

Republican Congressman, chickenhawk, and conscientious objector Chris Shays (CT-04) admitted today that he never bothered to read the classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate that was made available to every member of Congress prior to the vote on the use of force resolution in October 2002.  And he further admitted that he has never bothered to try to read it since, either.

So Shays, who voted to invade, and served as one of George Bush's biggest cheerleaders for the invasion of Iraq, and who has steadfastly supported keeping troops there for years after, didn't know any more about Saddam's WMD's than anyone else in the country who was reading the newspapers, and probably a good deal less.