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NEW FACES IN SOUTHWESTERN CT COALITION...

Shays Unsure Of Where Loss Will Take Him; Ponders What To Do After Losing Office He Held 21 Years
The Hartford Courant
By JESSE A. HAMILTON
December 14, 2008

WASHINGTON —

Chris Shays sits in the basement grill of the capital's Republican club. He's receiving people here, with some papers and a couple of cellphones on the table in front of him, an inward look on his face.

People stop as they pass by. Sorry to see you go, they tell him. That was a tough race. You did everything you could. The congressman is hearing the kind of tone usually reserved for funerals. He shakes hands and thanks them. His face has a way of bursting into a smile, but it can vanish just as quickly, as it does now, when he thinks hard about his situation.

This is all the office he has, here in the private sanctuary of his party, with easy-listening music overhead. After 21 years in the House of Representatives, Shays' last moments have come.

"We all knew you can lose an election," he says, but it doesn't sound like he had believed it. "I told people I thought we were going to win."

He's not ready to consider the next step, yet. He's still stirring the brew of what happened Nov. 4. He talks about His District and His Constituents as if he's not about to hand them over to the man who beat him, Jim Himes. Shays had made plans in his head — plotting his coming months as ranking Republican on the oversight committee. He had plans for energy policy and health care and financial oversight.

Instead, he's trying to find jobs for his staff in a town now filling with Democrats. His scheduler is no longer on his staff. So, sticking near Capitol Hill in recent days as Congress prolonged its session long past its scheduled finish, he has missed some appointments and failed to return some calls.

And, in a final sour note, the Shays campaign is mired in a fraud investigation. The finance people found irregularities in the books, and sources have said campaign manager Michael Sohn is the focus of the investigation. Shays won't say who was involved or comment, except to call it a betrayal and to say its outcome has huge importance to him.

Meanwhile, the constant traveler — from his Peace Corps days to his recent trips to Iraq — jokes that the biggest adjustment may come when he next flies overseas and isn't met at the airport by an official from the State Department who handles the arrangements. In 21 years, he's traveled on a private vacation just once, he said.

But the most significant travel of his life, the steady back-and-forth flights between D.C. and Connecticut, will no longer be necessary. He's talking about consolidating his households, though he said he and his wife, Betsi, haven't decided anything.

Lately, Shays has been helping put together Ikea furniture for his daughter, and he gave her a hand returning books for her bar-exam studies. The regular acts of a father.

Shays, 63, seems as engaged now in matters of home as he is in the business of the House. There's a trace of giddiness in his voice when he talks about his coming weekends — no-strings days off.

"It'll be a much more normal life."

A History Of Independence

Shays' history in public life is that of an individualist. In his youth, he was a conscientious objector who entered the Peace Corps rather than the Vietnam War (though he would later support the war in Iraq). As a state legislator, he went to jail briefly in 1985 when he refused to leave the witness stand in a misconduct hearing against two lawyers. Two years later, he was in Congress, where his habits of speaking his mind and ignoring his party's wishes meant an often contentious road for one of the body's most moderate Republicans.

He pushed for ethics and campaign reform. He was often the most popular Republican among environmental and pro-choice groups. He fought for animal-protection legislation.

And he was talking about the dangers of Islamist extremism before 9/11. His beliefs led him to relentlessly defend the war in Iraq — an issue for which many constituents in the 4th District, in the state's southwestern corner, couldn't forgive him.

"He was a very moderate, independent-minded Republican," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who — even when he was still a Democratic senator — shared a number of positions with Shays. "Part of why we grew friendly … was that we actually did have a generally similar approach to issues which managed to put both of us in hot water with our respective caucuses."

Lieberman, also a staunch supporter of the war, said of Shays, "He has a lot to be proud of."

Shays may have been the last of the House Republicans from New England, but he felt he could be the exception in this year's mighty electoral swing toward the Democrats. He was confident in his record, saying, "We did a hell of a lot." And he said he felt good about his contact with people on the campaign trail. But on Nov. 4, he won 47.6 percent of the vote to Himes' 51.3 percent.

Shays' election numbers in Norwalk and Stamford were tough, but it was Bridgeport, where he won fewer than one in four votes, that kicked the veteran politician in the guts. Bridgeport was his "top priority." He had moved there more than a decade ago, and his adopted city surprised him. "Bridgeport has a hard time knowing what's in its best interests."

"We thought we ran one of our best races," he said. He thinks many people voted straight-ticket Democratic. "I'm surprised I didn't see it coming."

His final bow on the blue carpet of the legislative chamber was an uneasy vote against billions in loan money for the U.S. auto industry. He cast the vote well aware of the 21 years bearing down on him, and this vote felt like none before it.

"When you are coming back, you're very much part of a team that's moving in a certain direction. When you're not coming back, the boat's leaving the dock without you."

But in the traditions of the Hill, there's no gold watch, just an urgent need to clear out the losing incumbents to make room for the new.

"Basically, they toss you out of your office in three weeks," recalls Nancy Johnson, the longtime Republican congresswoman from Connecticut's 5th District who similarly lost an election — to Chris Murphy — two years ago.

For Shays, packing the office meant 700 boxes. "All the old cases," he said, "all the old letters."

Now What?

WASHINGTON -- Two recycling bins half-filled with discarded documents stood outside Rep. Christopher Shays' doorway at the Longworth House Office building Thursday, a testament to the changing times ahead for the 11-term incumbent.

Shays lost his bid for re-election on Tuesday, and though his term does not officially end until January, the office must be cleared out before Thanksgiving to prepare for a new, yet-to-be determined tenant.

While his legislative staff begins the process of cleaning out their desks, Shays is at his desk reading through some 400 e-mails that have come in from longtime friends and supporters.

Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., who like Shays served in the Peace Corps in the 1960s, stopped by for a brief visit. He also received a telephone call Thursday afternoon from Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. Her husband called him Wednesday.

All this serves as a distraction to the larger question of what to do with one's life after 34 years as an elected official -- first in the state Legislature and then in Congress. Shays gives a blunt response when asked that question Thursday while sitting in a cushioned leather chair inside his office.

"I don't know," he says.

Shays explains that he hasn't thought about his future -- putting any thoughts of a life beyond Congress out of his mind while he was on the campaign trail. That kind of focus, he says, is necessary if you want to win.

"It's Thursday and I learned Tuesday night around 9:30 that I needed to think about doing something else," he says.

There are many options open. Shays could see himself working back in Connecticut, perhaps New York City or in D.C. In some ways it will also depend on his wife, Betsi, who has a job at the U.S. Department of Education. One thing for sure is that he does not plan to run for elected office again.

"I don't see myself running for any office," he said. "I definitely do not see myself running for Congress again."

He ruled out running for Bridgeport mayor -- a job he once suggested he would consider -- largely because he doesn't think he could win given his poor showing there Tuesday. He also doesn't see himself running for governor or senator in 2010.

"I'd love to be president, but I don't want to run for it," Shays says.

In fact, Shays admits that had he won re-election this may have been his final term in office.

"Betsi and I kind of hunger for some privacy," Shays says. "We've been in politics for 34 years and have given it everything -- 24/7. We don't know what a normal weekend is like."

Shays is disappointed that he lost. He expected to win. But, he has no regrets about the campaign he ran.

"I don't think anything could have been done to change the outcome," he says.

Shays lost the election in the district's three largest cities, Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk, where there was a lot of enthusiasm for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. He had hoped some of them would support him, but Shays says they appear to have voted a straight party line.

"I just look back with a tremendous amount of gratitude that I've had this opportunity. We did a lot of important things, and I am grateful to have been in the thick of a lot of battles."

The pinnacle of Shays' career came in 2002 when his campaign finance reform bill was enacted into law after a grueling seven-year battle.

He also championed government efforts to bolster national security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As a senior member of the Oversight and Governmental Affairs national security subcommittee, Shays had delved deeply into the Iraq war. He was the first congressman to visit Iraq after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in March 2003 and returned 20 times since, the last time in August.

"I'll miss that," Shays says.

Shays will also miss his staff, which he considers a second family, mentioning in particular his chief-of-staff Betsy Hawkins and his administrative assistant Diana White.

The two women have worked for him for decades. They saw his daughter Jeramy grow from a child into a young woman now out on her own working in a D.C. law firm.

"For me, that's the hardest thing. I can't frankly imagine saying goodbye to my staff," Shays says.

OOPS

Republican not taking $$, Democrat in Senate race taking it:  opponents for seat held by long-time Senator Bill Nickerson, R-36 (not running again) differ.
Greenwich legislature candidates lean toward public campaign financing

• FIRST ADVISORY OPINION:  http://www.ct.gov/seec/lib/seec/AO_2008-01__League_of_Conservation_Voters_6-11-08.pdf

• General Information link from Connecticut Post,  http://www.ct.gov/seec/site/default.asp