New Canaan Advertiser - Himes Visits New Canaan

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New Canaan Advertiser - Himes Visits New Canaan

Despite the cloudless skies and warm temperatures, a few dozen New Canaanites made their way to New Canaan High School Sunday to meet Democratic candidate for Congress Jim Himes, who spoke about energy, transportation, and what he can do as a freshman congressman in Washington.

New Canaan was the second stop in Mr. Himes' "Listening and Leading Tour" which he kicked off in Darien Saturday.

The Greenwich resident is running for the Fourth District seat that has been held by U.S. Representative Christopher Shays since 1987. He will face Greenwich Democrat Lee Whitnum in a party primary on August 12.

Mr. Himes chose to enter this race, he said, "because those things that we wrap up into this big package that we call the American dream," including the fundamental values of justice and equity, are at risk.

Citing the $9.5 trillion national debt, energy crisis and war in Iraq, Mr. Himes said it is time to "reject the notion that things are simple, that we'll be greeted as liberators in Baghdad, and that the Iraqi war will be paid for with Iraqi petroleum, that we can cut taxes, then raise revenues; ideas that are simplistically appealing but that have gotten us into the situation that we are in."

"We understand that we need to come together as Americans and make some tough choices," he added.

Three pertinent issues that he plans to fight for, he said, include a universal health care system, the reformation of No Child Left Behind, and an improved energy policy. (See related story)

A graduate of Harvard University who studied at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, he said: "I am one of the lucky ones that got to live the American dream. I had huge doors open to me, for me, and that's because of a couple of things. It's because my mom had a job that came with health care ... It's because I was part of a community of people in a small town that cared, that gave me summer jobs... and it's because I got to go to a good public school. I got a good public education."

While a self-touted "free-market guy," Mr. Himes said the one problem with America's economic system is that it "doesn't offer enough opportunities to enough people."

Asked by Democratic Town Committee Chairman Kira Brandman what he offers undecided Democrat and unaffiliated voters, Mr. Himes said he will stand for policies that he and his constituents believe in regardless of his party.

Calling Shays a "lifelong politician" - whom, he added, should be honored for choosing to serve his country for as long as he did - Mr. Himes said that he has "an up-close and personal sense of the issues that the citizens of this district experience."

In addition to his role as a father of two school-age girls, he cited his experience in both the professional business world and in the nonprofit sector.

Ms. Whitnum, who called Mr. Himes an "out-of-touch Wall Street guy" at a June 19 press conference announcing her successful petition for a Democratic primary, challenged Wednesday the validity of his real-life experience.

"His life experience is not the experience of the average American," she told the Advertiser. "He's never been unemployed, he's never collected unemployment. This guy has no idea how to represent the people, he should be representing the country club. I can't wait until he gets to Bridgeport and people ask real questions, like ‘There's no work.'"

Mr. Himes spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs before becoming vice president of Enterprise Community Partners, which bills itself as "the nation's leading producer of affordable housing."

He is the former chairman of the Greenwich Housing Authority Board and is a member of the Board of Estimate and Taxation.

Director of Emergency Preparedness Jim Cole asked Mr. Himes whether, as a junior congressman, he would have the same opportunities to "bring home the bacon" as Rep. Shays, now in his 11th term.

Using Connecticut Democratic congressmen Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney as examples, Mr. Himes said that he "will be able to walk into Nancy Pelosi's office and say, ‘... We have some big needs and here's the list.' If Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy are any examples, that will be a much bigger list than what Chris Shays will be able to do."

"Chris has worked on a bipartisan basis, in the majority and the minority, to pass campaign finance reform, create the Department of Homeland Security, and reform our intelligence community," Sean Phillips, Communications Director for Rep. Shays said Wednesday in a statement to the Advertiser. "He has worked to establish the 9/11 commission, enact its recommendations, increase the minimum wage, and develop bipartisan legislation to increase our energy independence. He has secured millions of dollars in appropriations for transportation, economic development and public safety in the 4th Congressional District. He's a co-author of the first bipartisan legislation to provide universal access to health insurance, and authored the law that applied to Congress the same fair labor and civil rights laws Congress passes for the rest of the country. He's effective because he's an independent thinker who works across party lines to do what's right."

Regarding accountability of the executive branch - something Democratic Registrar of Voters George Cody said has suffered in recent years, particularly in the office of the vice president - Mr. Himes said the founding fathers had "the right idea" by having Congress act as a counterweight to the executive branch.

Pointing out that Rep. Shays was - and still is - a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform while the Republican Party controlled Congress, Mr. Himes said that counterweight has failed to exercise its authority in recent years.

"While the Republicans controlled Congress, there was no oversight of the Bush administration," he said. "Congress stopped its obligation to say to the president, ‘You have overstepped your authority, you have made these mistakes, you must abide by the law.' They simply did not do that in any one of dozens of instances."

As a result, he said, the country is run by "an out of control executive and a non-terribly competent executive that hasn't been subject to oversight in a long time."

This has so far led to "billions of dollars" of lost funds and weaponry in Iraq, "a situation where we had clowns running FEMA when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and we became an embarrassment to the world as a result," and a shoving aside of the rule of law such that "a very conservative Supreme Court" had to stand up and do the job that was assigned to Congress.

Rep. Shays, he said, has been "at best complicit in the policies that have brought us to where we are today," and his economic policies have "largely mirrored" those of the Bush administration.

Mr. Phillips responded to this claim Wednesday with the following statement: "As Chairman of the National Security Subcommittee, Chris held 39 oversight hearings on our country's involvement in Iraq. Due in part to Chris' oversight, we got a change in military leadership and a change in strategy in Iraq. Even Congressman Chris Van Hollen, the Chairman of the DCCC pointed out, his subcommittee was the only [panel] in the House asking some serious questions about the administration's conduct of the war."

Calling the Federal Aviation Administration's airspace redesign plan, which New Canaan and neighboring towns are in the process of fighting, "a Band-Aid that will erode our quality of life," Mr. Himes said the solution is to bring the "current 1950s/60s infrastructure into this century" with GPS navigation and a system that would allow planes to fly closer together.

"We're going to do it someday," he said, suggesting it would be more logical to invest for the long-term.

Mr. Himes said he is "committed" to sitting on the Transportation Committee as a congressman.

He attributed much of the region's transportation woes to the lack of a rail bridge across the Hudson River south of Poughkeepsie. While other regions move 15 to 25 percent of its cargo by rail, he said, Fairfield County only moves between three and five percent by rail - causing the majority of such transportation to be done by 18-wheelers that clog the roadways.

One solution, he said, would be the proposed New York cross-harbor rail tunnel, which would link northeastern New Jersey to Long Island, costing an estimated $4.8 to $7.4 billion. "It should have happened years ago."

"Remember," he added, "the Transportation Bill comes up in 2009."

"These are tough, complicated issues," he said, and while "for eight years our leadership has told us things are simple," one thing that defines us as Americans is that "we do tough, great and improbable things."

Earlier this week, Mr. Himes visited Wilton, Oxford and Greenwich. He is scheduled to visit the rest of the district through July 28, stopping in Norwalk July 22, Ridgefield July 26 and Stamford July 28.

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