Oxford, Conn. – Connecticut’s three moderate Republicans are a rare breed in a party dominated by conservatives.
But this tumultuous election season, they’re struggling for survival in fierce races that could decide who controls Congress.
Reps. Christopher Shays, Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons are under fire for their pro-Iraq- war views, support for President Bush’s agenda and a festering GOP sex scandal on Capitol Hill that threatens to drag the party down in next month’s elections.
“They’re calling Connecticut ground zero,” said Shays, whose splits with the GOP on issues such as campaign-finance reform have made him a national figure – and a pariah in some party circles.
On a recent Friday, amid billowing smoke from the gas grill at a volunteer firehouse steak dinner, Shays was blunt about his prospects in an election in which Democratic hopes for seizing the House are high.
“I’ve been doing this job for 19 years, and it would be pretty sudden on election night, you know, you’re fired,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s pretty dramatic. And I found out I’d have to clean out my office on Dec. 1. It’s brutal.”
Shays is no stranger to living on the edge. He barely survived a challenge two years ago.
“I think it’s my election to win,” he said, “but you never know.”
Both parties are waging aggressive campaigns, flooding the airwaves with ads and dispatching several of the country’s most prominent politicians, including Bush; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., for fundraisers and campaign appearances.
Democrats eager to recapture the House after a dozen years need to gain 15 seats.
Simmons narrowly won his seat six years ago in the most Democratic of the three districts in play, a working-class district that encompasses the eastern half of the state and boasts casinos and Submarine Base New London in Groton.
Anti-war challenger Joe Courtney brands Simmons a Bush cheerleader. Simmons answers with classic GOP lines, accusing Courtney of being weak on defense and eager to raise taxes.
On the other end of the state, in a district of farmland, cities and immigrants, Johnson is a 12-term incumbent and a leading House voice on health care who usually runs up comfortable re- election margins. Democratic state Sen. Chris Murphy, 33, has assailed her support of the war and her role crafting the Medicare prescription drug program.
