Connecticut Local Politics

I sat down earlier to write a post about Jim Himes’ Earth Day Op-Ed in the Connecticut Post and realized that spazeboy had beaten me to it, written exactly what I was thinking, and did it better than I could! So rather than blatantly rip him off, I invited him on… Here is spazeboy’s […]

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Jim Himes, challenging incumbent Congressman Chris Shays in the fourth district, continued his strong fundraising, raising over $420,000 this quarter (more than $1.3 million for the cycle). He ended the quarter with more than $1 million on hand. More than 25% of the contributions were $25 or less. According to the Himes […]

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I did notice the Courant’s big article about Jim Himes and his challenge to Chris Shays over the weekend. The big story there is Himes’s fundraising, which has been outpacing Shays so far.
But what is Jim Himes actually facing come November? Where is he going to need to do well? And why is […]

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Chris Shays filed his Q4 report today and here are the details:
Total Q4 Contributions: $311,805.91 ($246,055.91 from individuals; $65,750.00 from PACs)
Total Cycle-To-Date: $1,159,836.55
Q4 Burn: $105,932.33
Cash on Hand: $797,413.50
Although Jim Himes’ report is not yet online, the numbers have already been released:
The Jim Himes campaign announced that it’s raised a total of $944,000 in its […]

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The Jim Himes campaign announced that it’s raised a total of $944,000 in its first nine months of fundraising, $325,000 of which was in the 4th quarter and sets a record for any challenger to Chris Shays in the off-election year. It’s interesting to compare this to the figures raised by former CT-04 challenger Diane […]

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The Himes campaign has launched a new website devoted to Chris Shays’ idea of “oversight” (or lack thereof) from his perch on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee:
Chris Shays serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But instead of using his position to actually conduct oversight of private security contractors in Iraq […]

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Not really, but it wouldn’t hurt.
Via MyDD (and please click through, because I borrowed the table from them):

Committee
September Receipts
September Disbursements
September Cash-on-Hand
September Debts & Obligations
Net-Net

DCCC
$8,574,146.27
$2,395,904.87
$28,334,264.70
$2,982,499.61
$25,351,765.09

NRCC
$2,601,743.33
$2,595,275.28
$1,598,505.61
$3,850,000.00
($2,251,494.39)

.
Unless something drastically changes, the NRCC simply won’t have the numbers to do anything more in Connecticut than defend the 4th; they will not have the resources for offense, only defense.
For challengers […]

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I don’t have confirmation from the campaign yet, but the Norwalk Hour is reporting that Jim Himes raised 250K last quarter. No idea how much cash he has on hand. We’ll update this post as soon as we know for sure.
Updated
And now we do have confirmation.
From the press release:
Stamford, CT – […]

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Gabe and I are both fielding teams for this event. My team are the Caffeine Fiends. Gabe’s team doesn’t have a name yet but he wanted me to pass along that: “everyone who doesn’t suck is welcome to be on it.” If you’d like to be on either one of our […]

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This is my second post about DCCC Chairman Van Hollen’s campaigning with Jim Himes. Read part one here.
Our first stop was Ryan Park in Norwalk, a small park not to far from the SONO train station. Jim Himes and Congressman Van Hollen each made remarks and took questions from reporters. […]

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The Democratic Congressional Committee is excited about Jim Himes, no one more so than DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen. I was able to catch his final two campaign stops with Himes: an appearance in Norwalk’s Ryan park and the second of two fund raisers. Both Van Hollen and the DCCC staff were […]

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Our own CGG speaks about the campaign of Jim Himes and some of our legislative coverage this year at a “local bloggers” panel. Thanks to Spazeboy for the video!

20070803-CGGonHimesUploaded by spazeboy
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It can be viewed here.
H/T to Capitol Watch which had this to say.

But many times, fat bottom lines turn out to be less impressive when the actual reports are filed. Some candidates spend heavily to raise their money, leaving nothing in the bank. (Cash on hand is the only number that matters.) Or, in the […]

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1st District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

John Larson (D)*
$148,176
$216,676

2nd District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Joe Courtney (D)*
$305,000
$550,000

Sean Sullivan (R)
$30,810
$14,034

3rd District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Rosa DeLauro (D)*
$139,905
$93,081

4th District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Chris Shays (R)*
$280,286
$367,945

Jim Himes (D)
$352,866
$336,678

5th District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Chris Murphy (D)*
$357,000
$780,000

David Cappiello (R)
$198,332
$182,858

* = incumbent
What’s interesting here is that all Democrats are clearly outraising their Republican rivals. Chris Shays is still […]

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Chris Shays is moving ever leftward on Iraq. Now, he’s specified a date:
Rep. Christopher Shays has called on Congress to approve withdrawing virtually all American troops from Iraq by December 2008, a blow to Bush administration efforts to fight the mounting support in Congress for a sharp change in strategy.
“I believe we need a timeline. […]

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