Himes captures 4th District
Connecticut Post, Wednesday, November 05, 2008
By KEN DIXON
Republican U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays of Bridgeport couldn't fight the Democratic tide of 2008 on Tuesday. Jim Himes, a 42-year-old former Wall Street banker, is the next congressman from Connecticut's 4th District.
Himes will be the first 4th District Democrat since Donald J. Irwin of Norwalk, who lost to Republican Lowell P. Weicker in 1968.
Shays, who has held the seat since 1987, conceded defeat at 9:50 p.m., ending a campaign that cost the candidates a total of $9 million
Late Tuesday night, with about half the 17-town district reporting voting results, Himes had about 57 percent to Shays' 42 percent.
The 63-year-old Shays, looking sad in the Norwalk Inn with his wife, Betsi, before about 400 supporters, thanked the district for sending him to Washington for the last 21 years and wished Himes good luck.
Shays said he would have liked to have been a part of the next Congress.
"My contract is not being renewed," Shays said. "There is absolutely no regret whatsoever and I have a tremendous amount of gratitude."
Shays said he felt he was going to win re-election this year, despite an anticipated large turnout for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
"I know that people were so good to me and I think that some of them were just very nice to me but they decided they were going to go the other way," Shays said, noting that he had hoped that his "positive campaign," accenting his record of achievements, could have overcome Himes' aggressive campaign and negative attacks.
"We had this tsunami that was on its way," Shays said, noting that while both John McCain and Barack Obama ran good campaigns, the latter's Connecticut support swept Shays out of office.
Himes, who left investment banking six years ago to work for an affordable housing company, said at about 10:20 p.m. that Tuesday's result was historic.
"My brothers and my sisters, I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Himes said. "We have in many ways changed history tonight." Himes called Shays "a man of courage and grace and an example for all of us." Himes praised Shays for breaking from the Republican mainstream in Congress during his congressional tenure.
Himes parlayed a big turnout from Obama supporters, particularly in the cities of Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford, to end Shays' incumbency, which dates back to an August 1987 special election following the death of U.S. Rep. Stewart B. McKinney of Fairfield.
Himes won in Bridgeport, 25,796 votes to Shays 6,970, not including absentee ballots.
Shays didn't even win his neighborhood district, Black Rock School, where Himes won 1,256 votes, compared to 933 cast for Shays.
Himes spent more than three hours greeting early morning voters outside Bridgeport's Blackham School, joined by local candidates for the General Assembly, as well as Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. "I think Jim will make us proud," Blumenthal said.
Himes said in an interview that he would use his 12 years of Wall Street experience to help add extra congressional oversight to the nation's crisis in the financial and credit markets.
"It has become evident that Washington doesn't understand the economy," said the former Goldman Sachs investment banker.
Shays spent most of the day around his Black Rock home and visited two nearby polling places.
At about 4 p.m., Donald Neafsey, a retired computer salesman, sat in a beach chair outside Fairfield's McKinley School waiting for a ride home.
"He's been there too long and he's too complacent," said Neafsey, a military veteran who criticized Shays for not helping local vets get regular rides to the VA Hospital in West Haven.
Kristyn Castaldi, a 22-year-old social worker who just cast her first ballot, said she voted for the 42-year-old Himes because Shays, 63, seemed to have held the job for too long.
"I don't know much about the candidates, but I believe Jim Himes will support the middle class," she said outside McKinley School. Gerald Dewitt-Smith, 42, of Bridgeport, said it was worth the hour-long wait at Bridgeport's Blackham School to vote for Himes.
"It was the economy," said the security officer. "The way everything's unfolding."
"It's time for a change all around," said Leola Davis, a 34-year-old single mother of two who was leaving Blackham School at about 9 a.m. Tuesday. "Jim Himes said he's going to help the middle class."
Shortly before noon, Baruch Levine, a 78-year-old retired professor of ancient and near eastern studies at New York University, left Shelton Intermediate School, where he had just voted with his wife, Corinne, 73, an artist.
"It's the age of the negative vote," Levine said. "It's a shame it has to be that way." He admitted not knowing much about Himes, but he voted for him anyway.
A Republican has represented the 4th District for all but six of the past 66 years, since Clare Luce Booth was elected as the first woman representative from Connecticut in 1942.
Luce was a moderate on most issues but won favor among conservatives for her isolationist views. Irwin won three terms, first in 1958 and again in 1964 and 1966. There have been 31 representatives of the 4th District dating back to 1837. The first Republican elected to the 4th District was Orris Ferry of Norwalk, who served from 1859 to 1861.
Staff writers Neil Vigdor and Tony Spinelli in Norwalk and Peter Urban in Washington contributed to this report.
