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The Phil Zone Libertarian Congressional Candidate Phil Maymin on Why Chris Shays beat Diane Farrell By Phil Maymin November 16 2006 The biggest shock of the fourth district Congressional race, in retrospect, was that Democrat Diane Farrell lost. If all you had known after the election was that Democrats had won the House, you would have assumed this district was a key contributor. It should have been obvious. She was running against Christopher Shays, an incumbent Republican who strongly supported the unpopular war in Iraq. She lined up endorsements from celebrities, politicians, newspapers and unions. Plus, Connecticut is traditionally a Democratic state. Surely she should have coasted to victory along with the other Democrats. But Farrell lost. Why? The second biggest shock, to me, and again in hindsight (given the Democratic takeover of the House), was the low percentage of votes I received. Although I ran as a third-party candidate, my campaign was one of the strongest ones this year: I was ranked second on the national Libertarian Party’s candidate tracker, out of about 600 Libertarians running for office nationwide. I participated in seven debates with Shays and Farrell, and appeared in at least two other forums against one or both of them. I was the subject of hundreds of newspaper articles, dozens of radio shows, and even had two live national television appearances on MSNBC, once with Tucker Carlson and once on a Sunday news show with David Shuster. Despite our vastly smaller budget, we ran television ads, radio ads, newspaper ads and train-station ads. We had lawn signs and bumper stickers everywhere. We were written about in blogs, on forums, and in chat rooms. People loved the message of liberty and freedom, and it was clear that I won every debate against my opponents. Yet I received only about 3,000 votes. Why? It’s not as if the positions on the issues espoused by Shays are popular. On the contrary, most Americans support a firm deadline for withdrawing from Iraq. Not Shays. Most support getting out within a year. Not Shays. Most support smaller taxes, or even replacing all federal taxes with a retail sales tax, with prepaid rebates to those below the poverty level. Not Shays. Farrell basically held the same positions as Shays on every issue. Part of the reason is that she ran as a Democrat with a capital D and Shays is barely a Republican with a lower-case R. They agree on virtually everything. Her answers at debates often sounded wishy-washy because, from her point of view, it’s not her job to come up with plans. She is a member of a huge political party with many senior members who can devise boatloads of plans. Her job was to be The Democrat From Our District. She wasn’t running as Diane Farrell, who happened to be a Democrat, but as a Democrat who happened to be named Diane Farrell. The result was that people didn’t get to know her. They understood that a vote for her was a vote for a Democrat, but which Democrat? Yes, Farrell would vote the party line, as new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would direct, but who is Nancy Pelosi? Is she the kind of person we want representing us? Pelosi didn’t have any debates with me or Shays. She didn’t hold any town meetings. It’s hard to vote for a faceless politician. Shays’ won because of familiarity and a false sense of obligation. After 19 years, people know who he is. They’ve seen the same lawn signs trotted out every couple of years, like a forgetful groundhog. If they’ve had problems with the government, they’ve contacted his office, and his staff did their job in trying to help. That’s part of the problem with big government. It means you need a favor from your elected Representative more often, and even if they are unable to help, the fact that they tried makes you feel obligated. And how can you possibly repay that debt? Funny you should ask. There’s an election coming up soon. So why didn’t people vote for me? I wasn’t faceless. In fact, my face was featured in my ads more prominently than either of my opponents featured their own face in theirs. One of my ads, which got national attention, was a close-up of me getting a massage and explaining to the masseuse that I was a Libertarian, not a librarian, and not Joe Lieberman, and that a Libertarian believed in smaller government, fewer taxes, and more freedom. I would get out of Iraq. I approved that massage. So I was at least clear, even if I wasn’t familiar. People knew what they would get with me: freedom. And the resounding response from the electorate was: no thanks. People fear freedom. When you vote for a dictator, he is your dictator, and despite his faults, you feel you have some control. With freedom, who knows what will happen? People prefer the faulty familiar to the unknown. They got to know Farrell qua Democrat but not Farrell qua Farrell. They got to know me, but freedom is scary. But with Shays, even though he can make bad decisions, even if he makes worse decisions that Farrell or the Democrats, and far worse than the free market, at least he was familiar. From freedom’s point of view, it doesn’t make any difference whether Diane Farrell or Chris Shays is in Washington. It’s just a different label. That helps explain why voters kept Shays in power during the Democratic takeover of the House: He was the best Democrat for the job. pmaymin@gmail.com Copyright © 2006, Fairfield County Weekly |