Roll Call: Shays-Himes Race A “Barnburner”

From today's Roll Call (subscription required):

16 months after Democrats Joe Courtney and Christopher Murphy ousted then-GOP Reps. Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson and GOP Rep. Christopher Shays held off a stiff challenge for the second consecutive cycle - the Nutmeg State has lost much of its luster as a campaign hot spot for 2008....

The one Connecticut contest that does look like a barnburner this cycle is the Shays-Himes race.....

Democrats here say that Himes is focusing intensively on assembling the kind of get-out-the-vote efforts that could have put Farrell over the top. They also say that Shays' continued support for the Iraq War keeps him out of sync with the district.

"Voters in that district have finally reached a tipping point," argues [Roy] Occhiogrosso, the Democratic consultant.

Democrats say that in this generally Democratic state, the fact that it's a presidential year should produce conditions similar to the 2006 midterm wave. The district includes wealthy areas that have been trending Democratic as well as more urban areas with a strong Democratic lean.

While it's true that 2008 promises to be a lot less crazy than 2006 in Connecticut, it's also true that Democratic enthusiasm and activism here is only increasing - one need only look at recent voter registration numbers to be reminded of that.

...and CT-04 promises to be the main focus of all that energy this year.

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