Congressman Shays Re-elected

Bridgeport - 71% Farrell,  Darien - 72% Shays,  Easton - 60% Shays, Fairfield - 56% Shays, Greenwich - 60% Shays, Monroe - 61% Shays,  New Canaan - 70% Shays,  Norwalk 53% Farrell,  Oxford - 59%Shays,  Redding - 54% Shays,  Ridgefield - 57% Shays,  Shelton - 59% Shays,  Stamford - 47% Farrell,  Trumbull - 59% Shays,  Weston - 50.66% Shays,  Westport - 51% Farrell,  Wilton - 61% Shays.

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Senator Dodd Re-elected

Color-coding for headlines...
Congress 2004:  link to clearing-house:  articles below...red for Senate,blue for House

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U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, and Democratic challenger James Sullivan of Norwich will debate at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20. U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, the Democratic incumbent from East Haddam, and Republican opponent Jack Orchulli of Darien will debate at 8 p.m. Monday Oct. 18.

"Leading requires that I speak the truth to you and your neighbors," said Shays, who formerly lived in Stamford and represented the city in the State House of Representatives.  "Thank you for your guidance, thank you for your criticism and thank you for your love and affection," Shays told the crowd of Republicans at the bakery.
The fact that Shays, a Republican, is running against Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell, a Democrat, is no surprise. Shays was nominated unanimously by his party in May.

But this election, the first since the U.S.-led war in Iraq, promises to be tougher than Shays' past re-election bids.  The November vote in what he calls "a divided country," may be more a referendum on Shays' continuing support of that war and President Bush than it is about any other issue, Democrats and Republicans said.  Shays agreed that many voters supported the war in Iraq because they believed weapons of mass destruction would be found in the country. Congress and the president bear responsibility for that belief, he said.

[Please read the rest of this article in the archives at the Stamford ADVOCATE website]

Pre-convention (s) reports below:

"There is no way we are going to fix our roads, there is no way we are going to fix our rails, without spending more money," he said.

In a news conference at the Norwalk Inn & Conference Center, Shays, R-Bridgeport, also talked about his recent trip to Iraq, a recent survey of his constituents and other issues. He bristled at the suggestion by his probable Democratic opponent in this fall's election that he was out of touch with his constituents.  Almost 80 percent of the nearly 25,000 respondents to his survey want the assault weapons ban to continue past its September expiration date, Shays said.

"I am a strong supporter of the assault weapons ban," he said. "I am in touch."

Shays, R-Bridgeport, has raised $592,000 overall for his re-election campaign, which he officially will announce May 10. Both candidates have a similar amount of cash on hand. Shays has $365,000. Farrell has $330,000. Farrell, a two-term first selectwoman, said she did not expect the fund-raising success her campaign has achieved. The campaign manager of Farrell for Congress, Adam Wood, said no Democrat seeking the Fourth Congressional District has raised as much so early in the race.

"It's wonderfully heartening," Farrell said. "It's validated our intuition that people are ready for change in the district and eager to talk about the issues both at the local level and the national scene."

Michael Sohn, campaign manager for the Christopher Shays for Congress Committee, said the campaign is confident it will raise and spend the amount needed to "get its message out."

WASHINGTON

The sun set over the U.S. Capitol more than an hour ago; and House members, including U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, are just making their
way to the floor for the first vote of the day.

Shays joins his colleagues on the floor for several votes on procedural matters and the members begin clearing the floor by 7:06 p.m.

The roll call votes are just the tip of the iceberg for Shays on a day packed with meetings, speeches and events that began an hour before sunrise
at his three-story townhouse, that he shares with his wife, Betsi, in the Southwest section of Washington, D.C.

Most mornings Shays is out the door by 7 a.m., as is Betsi, who bicycles the 2.5 miles to work at Peace Corps headquarters on K Street in the
northwest section of the city.

This particular morning starts around 6 a.m. for Shays.

He loads up a gym bag with a foot-thick pile of paperwork and files in manila folders or neatly placed in three-ring binders.

He pops into his garage and grabs a Slim-Fast from a small refrigerator, stocked with cans of the diet supplement and bottles of Gatorade, searches
frantically for a few moments for his keys and heads out to his black Jeep Grand Cherokee.

He drives to the Rayburn House Office Building garage and heads to the members' gym to shower and shave. Some days, he runs first.

She portrayed him as inattentive to growing regional transportation woes and as undergoing a "startling" change in his voting record that has hurt Fairfield County.

"I have no personal animas against Christopher Shays," Farrell told about 50 supporters at Oscar's Deli on Main Street, the first of four district appearances announcing her candidacy.

"This is not about an individual," she said, adding that the race should not be partisan but about "issues and accountability."

"Look at Christopher Shays' (voting) record." Farrell said. "It has changed. It is startling."

Calling Shays "much less of an independent source," Farrell ticked off a list of votes Shays has cast and issues that he has supported that she said have not been in the best interests of his Fairfield County constituents.

"I've generally been unhappy with the Republican agenda and, more often than not, Chris supports the Republican agenda," Farrell, a Democrat, said about the Bridgeport Republican who has held the seat since 1987.  Before making a formal announcement of her candidacy next month, Farrell said she will travel throughout the district
comprising primarily the state's southwest section hosting "brown bag" lunches, as she routinely does in Westport, to meet with the public.

Farrell said her campaign will focus on fiscal responsibility, education and quality-of-life issues such as health care, air quality and transportation.  Midway through her second four-year term as Westport's chief executive, Farrell doesn't risk losing that post if her bid for Congress is unsuccessful.  But she is the most prominent Democratic challenger to Shays in a procession of contenders that he has dispatched with ease since first claiming the seat in a special election following the death of Stewart McKinney.