Almost a year now since Jim Himes lanced 20-year Republican incumbent Congressman Chris Shays.
Before Shays occupied Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District, Stewart McKinney had it. Lowell Weicker before him. All Republicans. In fact Himes gutted the last surviving New England Republican in the House of Representatives. Republicans thought they had a decent shot of regaining the seat with State Senator John McKinney (son of Stewart) but John let the air out of their balloon when he announced he was working through some family issues. His kids come first.
Whew! said Himes supporters.
Himes was the beneficiary of a Democratic blowout in Bridgeport led by Barack. Last year it was about the war and the economy. Now it’s about health care and the economy. I chatted with Himes the other day and he talked about the never-ending campaigning of the congressional two-year term. Elected today, form a campaign committee tomorrow, raise lots of dough to position for reelection. Himes will have not just dough but tons of it, and Vice President Joe Biden helped pad his bank account with a visit on Monday.
Himes will be hard to beat, but he’s not acting like so many pols do when they get elected for the first time: look in the mirror and love what they see. Republicans had occupied his seat for 40 years. They want it back. He seems to understand how fragile a first term can be.
The leading Republicans to challenge Himes are State Senator Dan Debicella of Shelton and former State Senator Rob Russo of Bridgeport. Both are pounding phones raising money. The one that excels here and woos party regulars will get the party nod. It’s always possible that a fatted Republican shows up and says here’s my $3 million, I want to play. That changes the game.
Meanwhile Himes visits the 17 cities and towns in the district, does the constituent work, makes friends, tries to deliver stimulus money, and raises lots and lots of moolah.
He’s hoping in 2010, as my friend Tommy Kelly says, Let The Good Himes Roll. Stay tuned.
(Check me out at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)
Himes’ $115 Billion Mistake
Himes’ healthcare takeover already has massive cost overruns compared to its advertized costs. Himes voted for a bill that was supposed to cost only $788 billion. Since March, the estimate has been increased by $115-125 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Only in Washington does one encounter the phrase “only $788 billion”. Only with followers such as Himes can Nancy Pelosi pass laws by asking for votes first and admitting to the costs later. Only if the voters return Himes to Washington will we get more of the same fraudulent accounting of the costs of his votes, wasteful spending, and abuse of the taxpayer.
We must all start mobilizing NOW to defeat Jim Himes. The ONLY people he represents are Obama and Pelosi. He is a freshman “representative” that is already acting like a life-long politician. His staff is rude and he neither reads nor responds to his constituents…well just the 2 that matter to him…Obama and Pelosi. We deserve much much better than Jimmy. He is exactly what is wrong with Washington DC…I guess being aGoldman Sachs reject should have been our first clue!
Himes is a disaster equal to this disingenuous president. Letters I have written to him are met with pat, mechanized, Pelosi-like responses, articulating a bland, non-thoughtful point-of-view that parrots whatever the standard democratic talking points are. Whenever someone cannot describe WHY they believe what they believe (even if you disagree with their position), we should all be suspicious (especially with politicians).
I can’t wait until November. I will do everything I possibly can to remove this disaster from office. I hope thousands and thousands will join me.
JIM HIMES IS HORRIBLE AND MUST BE DEFEATED IN 2010!!!! He is nothing more than rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi. He has voted for increasing our deficit in a MASSIVE way. He has not neither READ or written any of the bills he votes yes for. He is getting ready to vote yes for a healthcare bill NOT reform that will massively increase taxes and premiums and decrease access and quality of care in addtion to a deathblow to our economy. Our children and grandchildren will forever live in a second rate country with a struggling economy suffering under the burden of the largest entitlement program in the world. But hey that’s what Jim Himes wants for this country as has become very apparent from his voting!! THROW THE BUM OUT!!!!!!
Re. Jim Himes
There will soon become a time that Himes must cut his umbilical cord to Obama as he is a one-term president.
“Naiive president with a very shallow curriculum vitae” is an understatement Lennie. I want to know if Obama was genuinely a native born American to qualify for office. The only proof so far is that which he he has written in his resume.
I suggest Jim Himes maintain close and direct contact with constituents as the voters do not respect his deeply funded pockets nor recent whistle stop standup act with VP Biden regarding $70 million worth of Merrit Parkway repaving. That act of economic stimulus does not create jobs — just rich repaving companies.
You know what really killed off Chris Shays? We tired of him hopping a plane with staff to Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran … Iran!
Jim Himes, you make more than 1 trip to Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan and you will be dust. Take heed because the voters are sick of the largess that our President, Congressman and Senators routinely receive. Wow, that was great: Obama spent 5 hours lobbying for 2016 Olympics. Failed. Then fit General McChrystal in for 25 minutes on Air Force One returning from Denmark. McChrystal is in charge of Afghanistan campaign past 6 months and this first in-person meeting!
God bless America and maybe me.
Tim English
Bridgeport
PS Just got an e-mail from Bush .. he asks “Miss me yet?”
Jim Himes has done all the right things since his election. Regretfully, he is directly tied to the Obama election. If he hangs around too much with Chris “I’m in my last term” Dodd who has shot enough lead into his foot to send him into that goodnight. Obama, on the other hand has repeatedly demonstrated his inability to sway the U.S. public and looks very much like a one term president. There have been too many trips for no good reason, too much entitlement that has been shown, too much money spent on failed enterprises all in the past 10+ months by this naiive president with a very shallow curriculum vitae.
The biggest difference between Jim Himes and Chris Shays is on the issue of health care. Chris Shays never pushed for health care reform, preferring to back the Bush administration’s nonsensical and ineffectual health savings account scheme instead. That was a typically Republican invention that predictably benefited the wealthiest the most, since they got the biggest tax break, and the poorest Americans virtually not at all. Jim Himes, however, has backed real health care reform, and supports the creation of a public option to compete with private sector plans. Congressman Himes showed real guts in standing up to right-wing provocateurs at his town hall meetings who were dead-set on intimidating him and disrupting those meetings. One had to admire his courage in standing up to the tea party disrupters who attempted to shout him down in Greenwich. By the end of the meeting, all in attendance had been calmed into civility by Mr. Himes’ calm recitation of the facts and unyielding support for reform, which he called a moral issue.
In comparison with Chris Shays who refused to see the health crisis before his eyes, Jim Himes acknowledges that our health care system is crumbling, with 44,000 Americans dying every year due to lack of health insurance and 700,000 more Americans forced to declare personal bankruptcy every year to do overwhelming medical expenses. Nowhere else in the developed world is a single person forced into bankruptcy due to medical debt.
Jim Himes voted for the federal stimulus bill that brought over $2 billion in desperately needed funding to the state of Connecticut. That figure included nearly a half a billion dollars in aid to Connecticut schools. Unfortunately, Governor Rell decided to cut the exact same amount out of the state’s budget for education. Every single Congressional Republican voted against the bill.
Jim Himes is working to reform financial system regulation, which Chris Shays never tried to reform, and which led to the massive financial sector meltdown of 2008. In contrast to Jim Himes’ efforts to create real financial sector reform, Chris Shays, oblivious to the financial tsunami that was about to break over us, declared right before the meltdown in September last year that “our economic fundamentals are strong. No one can disagree with that.”
Jim Himes did not just benefit from a large turnout in Bridgeport. The trend toward Democrats has been gathering steam for years, and the town of Greenwich, which features more registered Republicans than any other Connecticut municipality, went for Democrat Obama, the first time the town went Democratic since 1964. Chris Shays’ support had been thin and declining for years, and his defeat was the result of a state-wide and region-wide repudiation of the conservative and overwhelmingly Southern Republican Party. That pendulum will not swing back any time soon.
Let’s also not forget that Jim Himes endorsed Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw from Iraq, while Chris Shays had backed that disastrous war from the very beginning. We are finally winding down that senseless war for which Shays was a major supporter.
All in all, this district is much better off and much more satisfied with Congressman Himes than it was for years with Mr. Shays.
“How’s Jim Himes Doing?”
The question implies that Himes has been doing something. What?
Hey! If Jim Himes poll numbers start to slip, I have a nice house on Becon St in Bridgeport over looking Black Rock Harbor. He can pick it up for the price of a box of bumber stickers. I think Jim Himes is doing a great job for Bridgeport selling Health Reform, so many people are out of work and with no Health plan. I’ll vote for Jim again.
Note from moderator: C. Shays is not the former congressman, but I’m sure he’d be happy to negotiate a reasonable house sale with Himes to move from Greenwich to Bridgeport.)
I’m a Himes supporter, but I’m at a loss ast to why he hasn’t done more to bring jobs to the city of Bridgeport. The culture of dependency that is created by multigenerational reliance on social welfare programs is not permanent; it begins to fade as soon as regular paychecks start to roll in. Greater employment opportunities for the people of the city of Bridgeport would go a long way toward weaning the city’s retail economy off food stamps, WIC benefits and money earned from the sale of controlled substances.
Obama may not be as Solid As A Rock in mid-term exams. However, Himes should prevail in this middle of the road district. Rob Russo and Dan Debicella will have to really hit strong from the right hand side of the plate to win the Republican Primary. This will make it difficult for them to become a switch-hitter like the Say Hey Shays Kid.
I also don’t see any apron strings effect from M. Jodi Rell, if she runs, in Gubernatorial race. Aunt Linda McMahon is going to be crying Uncle at the end of this tag-team wrestling card.
Of course you never know, as one pundit wrote that, “Shays was going to wipe Himes’s hiney”. That pundit took a long postion on Charmin’ and took it in the shorts.