You know it's serious for Shays when there are two front page articles today, one in the New York Times and the other the Connecticut Post.
Via the New York Times article:
In another sign of trouble for Republicans, there are two Congressional districts in which the party’s incumbents stand only an even chance of holding on their seats, according to analysts monitoring the races.
One is Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District, where Mr. Shays, the Republican incumbent, has proved to be a nimble politician who has frustrated repeated attempts to defeat him.
Mr. Shays, the only House Republican in Connecticut to survive the 2006 elections, has survived largely by blurring any distinction between himself and Democrats in a district that has voted solidly Democratic in the last two presidential elections.
Now, he is being challenged by Jim Himes, a former Goldman Sachs executive. Mr. Himes has $1.4 million on hand, compared with $1.7 million for Mr. Shays, according to the latest campaign finance disclosure reports.
Blasted, margin to margin using a huge font, on the Connecticut Post's page was:
"Shays faces formidable foe in Himes"
Take a war chest almost as massive as U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays', the 10-term Republican who Jim Himes is gunning to unseat in the 4th Congressional District, and factor in voters' belief that the economy is the most pressing issue. Now mix in all those Democratic honchos itching to rid New England of the last Republican House representative and it looks like this upstart challenger has the political winds aligned to stir up one of the tightest, wildest, most watched races this election season.
This is going to be a fun political season, folks.