Sometimes it pays off to get booted from public office.
One year ago, after a 20-year run in Congress, Bridgeport resident Chris Shays was victimized by the Barack tsunami that catapulted Jim Himes into Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, the first Dem to win the seat in 40 years. Himes was a good candidate, well financed and his campaign did an outstanding job reminding voters to fill in all the ovals on the Democratic line, not just Barack’s.
It was just enough for Himes to squeeze past Shays.
Bridgeport is Chris Shays’ political lament. The Republican moved to Black Rock from Stamford 10 years ago purchasing a waterfront gem from retiring People’s Bank Chief Executive David Carson who had purchased it from John and Betty Pfriem, the genial owners of the Connecticut Post-Telegram, predecessor of the Connecticut Post.
Shays was never embraced by the city electorate capped by an excruciatingly low 20 percent of the vote against Himes. If Shays wins 30 percent of the vote in the city – his previous low performance — he squeaks a win. So it goes.
While serving in Congress Shays was not a man of wealth. His net worth was dwarfed by everyone else. The tax bill on his home was roughly $24,000. It was time for Shays to reinvent himself. He landed a position as co-hair of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soon came offers to sit on various non-profit and company boards. And then he put his house for sale and the number listed raised lots of brows. No way he could move it at that number.
Well, the other day the house at 37 Beacon Street closed at a sale price of some $1.5 million, roughly one million more than the price he and his wife Betsi paid for it.
Shays wrote me the other day: “We will miss our home in Bridgeport and all our terrific neighbors. Representing the people of the 4th Congressional District was an opportunity of a lifetime. I am sorry it is over but I am excited about our new opportunities. If you want it to be life can be a magnificent adventure and we want it to be.”
Shays’ political investment in Bridgeport did not pay off, but his real estate investment is quite another story.
(Check out my daily webzine at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)
I was just agreeing with you:
Shays moved to Bridgeport’s Black Rock Section to be with the “little people”. It was a transparent attempt to save his political ass.
But it WAS after I ran against him, with that message.
And Kantrowitz had a fart’s chance in a windstorm to beat Shays. Stop beating your chest Jon, you’ll only hurt yourself.
I take credit for Shays’ move. He did it after I ran against him in 1998 with the message that he represented only the rich suburbs and had done nothing for the inner cities, particularly Bridgeport.
“Shays’ political investment in Bridgeport did not pay off…”
Lennie, some times you make some illogical statements. Your really believe that 20 years in Congress is not a good pay off? You think Himes will last that long?
Shays moved to Bridgeport’s Black Rock Section to be with the “little people”. It was a transparent attempt to save his political ass. While Shays has been a political moderate for the Republican Party he can be faulted for his phony involvement and trips to Iraq during the last term of his office.
While Himes can be tied directly to the Obama tsunami, his congressional district is distinctly Republican and only a weak Republican candidate next year will allow him to continue in office.