{news} CT Post: Shays avoiding debates

[David Bedell]

http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_10481547

Himes claims Shays avoiding debates

By KEN DIXON
Staff writer
Article Last Updated: 09/17/2008 12:59:10 AM EDT

Two challengers for the 4th Congressional District seat Tuesday charged that
veteran U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays was avoiding campaign debates.

A Shays spokesman countered by saying he expects as many as nine debates
will take place next month.

However, by Tuesday evening no debates had yet been scheduled for the seat
representing about 650,000 southwestern Connecticut residents.

Democrat Jim Himes of Greenwich and Green Party candidate Richard Duffee of
Stamford said that Shays, the only Republican member of Congress from New
England, was trying to run down the clock to Nov. 4.

Duffee also believes that Shays is undermining his attempt to participate in
campaign events because the incumbent is afraid to be linked with the
policies of the Bush administration.

In response, Shays' campaign spokesman, Mike Sohn, said that he anticipates
nine debates will be finalized by the end of this week.

"The facts speak for themselves," Sohn said in a phone interview.

"Two years ago we had 11 debates and the election before that there were
nine."

Later Tuesday, in a news release, the Shays campaign called the challengers'
claims "ridiculous."

But Dana Houle, Himes' campaign manager, maintained Shays was "hiding" from
Himes. "Chris Shays is the guy who parroted George Bush's claim that 'the
fundamentals of our economy are strong," Houle said.

Duffee, a retired lawyer, charged that Shays was stalling the League of

Women Voters on possible debate dates. The LWV on Tuesday was still not sure
when congressional debates would occur.

"He appears to be delaying," Duffee said in a phone interview, adding that
he is concerned that Shays is working to keep him away from the debates
because of the charges he and other Green Party candidates have leveled
against the Bush administration.

The Green Party wants to impeach President Bush for violating the
Constitution.

Sohn said it's up to the various debate organizers to decide whether minor
and third-party candidates should be included in the events.

The Hamden-based LWV on Tuesday released a tentative list of debates,
including an Oct. 5 confrontation at Staples High School in Westport and an
Oct. 15 forum in Norwalk Community College.

Both events, however, were pending Shays' confirmation.

Sohn declined to detail why Shays, who joined Congress after a special
election in 1987, doesn't want to schedule any debates in September,
including one that had been set by the LWV for Sept. 25.

"We'll have a debate window from Oct.11 to the 20th," Sohn said. "We were
not able to do Sept. 25. This is the window."

Paul S. Timpanelli, president and CEO of the Bridgeport Regional Business
Council, confirmed Tuesday that congressional candidates will appear
somewhere in Bridgeport for a debate on health care on Oct. 24.

He doubts whether Duffee will be invited.

"The answer is probably going to be 'no' because in the past, the
third-party candidate wasn't viable," Timpanelli said in a phone interview.
"I haven't given it any thought at this point, but normally, in the past, we
have made that decision based on our government-relations committee."

On Nov. 4, voters in the 4th District will have four candidates from whom to
choose. Himes will appear on both the Democratic and Working Families ballot
lines and Michael Anthony Carrano is the Libertarian candidate.

Statewide, there are about 2,151 Green Party members and about 1,147 members
of the Libertarian Party in Connecticut, according to the secretary of the
state.

In the 2006 election, Shays won with 106,510 votes compared to 99,450 for
Democrat Diane Farrell. Libertarian Philip Z. Maymin received 3,058 votes.

Green Party State Chairman S. Michael DeRosa said Tuesday that unlike 2006,
when the Greens fielded only one Congressional candidate, there are Green
candidates this year in each of the five districts.

DeRosa, in a phone interview, said he's not surprised that mainstream
politicians may try to keep Greens out of the debates.

"This has always been a problem," DeRosa said. "All parties are equal in
Connecticut, but some are more equal than others." He described the state's
publicly-supported election fund as the
"no-Democrat-or-Republican-left-behind" law while Connecticut lawmakers made
it harder for minor parties and independents to gain public financing.

"We're on the ballot and we have a large number of supporters," DeRosa said.
"The two parties don't want us in the debates because we'll raise issues
they don't want to talk about, like the economy falling around us, offshore
drilling and the war." DeRosa said that Duffee would add a necessary voice
to the BRBC's healthcare forum.

"He would raise the issue that we should be discussing around the nation and
that's the single-payer system like Canada and every other industrialized,
civilized nation in the world has in one form or another," DeRosa said.