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Shays, Farrell too close to call

By Michael Dinan
Staff Writer

November 8, 2006

WESTPORT -- With neither side willing to concede defeat or claim victory, aides and supporters of Republican Rep. Christopher Shays and Democratic challenger Diane Farrell huddled around televisions waiting for the last few districts to report their returns.

At the Longshore Inn here, Farrell supporters cheered her on, though she allowed that it appeared Shays "may have won this election."

Four miles away at the Norwalk Inn & Conference Center, Shays' supporters chanted "Go Chris Go!" and "Two more years!"

But despite their upbeat demeanor, they were hoping to hang onto their razor-thin lead. About 2,000 votes separated Shays from Farrell at about 10 p.m., with six districts in Greenwich, one in New Canaan, and four in Darien outstanding.

"You can feel the anticipation," Roy Occhiogrosso, a Farrell campaign spokesman at the Longshore Inn in Westport where the challengers' supporters were encamped last night.

"People feel excited but certainly anxious," he said as a cheer went up for actor Paul Newman, who made a brief appearance. "We're positive but until it's over you just don't know. It was close two years ago. We know it's going to be close again, we're just hoping for a different result."

Shays defeated Farrell, a former Westport selectwoman, two years ago by the slimmest margin of his Congressional career, with a 52-48 win.

Shays was first was elected to Congress in 1987, filling a seat vacated when Republican Stewart McKinney died midterm. For the past two years, facing mounting criticism for his support of the war in Iraq, the legislator has stood by his long record in Washington and pointed to inroads he's made as one who works well with both Democrats and Republicans.

Tagged as a key race as Democrats have threatened to gain control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years 1994, the seat has drawn prominent party leaders and millions of dollars from political groups since last July.

Farrell is attempting to become the first Democrat in nearly four decadesÊsince Donald Irwin of Norwalk, who served terms from 1959 to 1961 and 1965 to 1969, and the only woman since Greenwich's Clare Booth Luce in the 1940s, to represent the state's 4th Congressional District in Washington. The district includes a broad swath of Fairfield County, from coastal Greenwich to Bridgeport, plus a row of inland towns from New Canaan to Oxford.

Carol Martin, 56, of Milford, joined those glued to the television but said she didn't trust early results that showed Farrell down by 12 percentage points with 4 percent reporting.

"If I believed the television I would have believed that (Al) Gore won in 2000," she said. "After that I don't trust much of anything on television."

Calling for standards for establishing troop withdrawal from Iraq, an end to factional fighting there and even splitting the country up, Farrell characterized Shays as an unabashed ally of the Bush administration who has lost touch with his constituents. Tying Shays to his party, Farrell criticized him for the federal deficit and a confusing new prescription drug program for seniors, and said that Republicans have too much power in Washington with control of both Congress and the White House.

Shays responded by attacking her record as Westport's highest elected official and characterizing his opponent as a tax-and-spend liberal. Shays admitted that the nation entered Iraq under false pretenses, but said at first that Farrell was off-base in calling for a troop withdrawal from the war-torn country. Then, this summer, Shays himself called for a timetable for troop withdrawal --Êa statement Farrell criticized as a politically motivated about-face.

The pair also disagreed on how to best to secure money to relieve traffic congestion and other transportation woes in the district, the effectiveness of No Child Left Behind, suitability of the Patriot Act and merits of privatizing Social Security.

But diverging views of war in Iraq emerged as a focal point in the race, and political parties were quick to capitalize on the issue with relentless attacks. In fliers and so-called "robo calls" throughout the district, national Republicans portrayed Farrell as a hopeless liberal who would go easy on terrorism.

In the midst of that, as leaders such as President Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made appearances to support Shays and Farrell, a third candidate emerged. Greenwich Libertarian and hedge fund founder Phil Maymin petitioned his way onto the ballot this summer. Saying taxes should be used only to protect personal property, enforce contracts or provide national security, Maymin called for the government to ban policies such as giving out foreign aid and providing services to undocumented immigrants.

The Moscow native also supported limiting the reach of the government, including recalling troops from Iraq and eliminating the Patriot Act. Reached by phone last night, Maymin said that at least this year voters had a "real choice."

"To be honest, I don't see a real difference between Shays and Farrell," Maymin said.

Altogether, the Democratic and Republican congressional re-election committees spent an estimated $2.5 million on advertising, in addition to the combined $5.7 million that Shays and Farrell have raised, according to the latest financial disclosure.

-- Staff reporter Mark Ginocchio contributed to this report.