Greenwich Times - Dems Reach Out to Voters

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Greenwich Times - Dems Reach Out to Voters

With less than a month remaining until a primary that many Democrats didn't expect, congressional hopefuls Jim Himes and Lee Whitnum are ramping up their efforts to connect with voters across the Fourth District.

Himes, 42, kicked off a 17-day, 17-town barnstorming tour of the district this weekend with town hall-style appearances in Darien and New Canaan.

The party's endorsee said his campaign hasn't really shifted gears since Whitnum, a fellow Greenwich resident, petitioned her way onto the primary ballot last month.

"By in large, we're sticking to our strategy of winning the general election. (But) we're certainly going to take the primary seriously," said Himes, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker turned nonprofit housing executive.

Whitnum, 48, who qualified for the primary by collecting signatures from 2,459 or 2 percent of the registered party members in the district, said she is targeting rank-and-file Democrats over the establishment that has embraced Himes.

"I'm representing the Democrats in the district who don't attend meetings," said Whitnum, a substitute teacher and former software engineer.

The two candidates have occasionally crossed paths on the campaign trail. On Thursday, both attended a Bridgeport rally with former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards. The winner of the Aug. 12 primary will take on U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., in November.

Shays, first elected in 1987, was the lone Republican House member in
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New England to survive the 2006 election. His district, which includes most of Fairfield County and a sliver of New Haven County, is being targeted once again by Democrats looking to seize upon his support of the Iraq war.

In his town hall meetings, Himes, who is married with two children, said Iraq will be a key talking point. He said he favors the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops to convey the need for Iraqis to resolve unsettled issues of oil sharing between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds and governance of the country.

"We must indicate to them that we're no longer going to baby-sit their country for them," Himes said. "Obviously, the three major communities in the country need an agreement on how the revenues from the old will be shared by those communities."

Himes, a former chairman of the Democratic Town Committee. said he will emphasize the need for a smart energy policy, universal health care system and education improvements during his town hall meetings.

"These meetings are hopefully as much about listening as speaking," said Himes, a Rhodes Scholar who was educated at Harvard University. ...

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