The Last, The Very Last

Joe Courtney wins and Chris Shays is now the last Republican in New England. The good thing about pickups in places like Connecticut is that though these races were super-tight this time around, once in Democratic hands these become pretty safe seats that a competent Democrats should be able to hold on to for a long time.

Meanwhile, it'll be interested to see how Shays responds to his newfound isolation. If he could somehow be persuaded to play the "Fox New Democrat" role in reverse, spend tons of time bitching about how GOP conservatism is killing the party in his region of the country -- naturally the Most Important Region Ever -- and offering bipartisan cover to some Democratic initiatives, that could, in many ways, be more valuable than the seat itself.

Comments

Ideally, of course, he would criticize them so much that they rode him out of the party in a primary, forcing him to run as an independent, and screwing them mightily.

Posted by dj moonbat | November 15, 2006 10:44 AM

The prospect of post-defeat wingnut welfare keeps these guys in line; becoming an apostate could make for a much less comfortable retirement.

Posted by jimBOB | November 15, 2006 10:54 AM

Wow! He is, in fact, the last House GOPer in New England. Big props to the New Hampshire Dems too, for cleaning house. There are still some Republicans in the Senate (NH and Maine).

Posted by Neil the Ethical Werewolf | November 15, 2006 11:14 AM

Things are changing, but I don't even think Chris Shays is the last republican in connecticut, much less New England.

Posted by DRR | November 15, 2006 11:45 AM

t I don't even think Chris Shays is the last republican in connecticut, much less New England.

And yet, he is.

Posted by lemuel pitkin | November 15, 2006 12:18 PM

If he could somehow be persuaded to play the "Fox New Democrat" role in reverse, spend tons of time bitching about how GOP conservatism is killing the party in his region of the country -- naturally the Most Important Region Ever -- and offering bipartisan cover to some Democratic initiatives, that could, in many ways, be more valuable than the seat itself.

Seems like the incentives will be running in that direction, anyway. He's not a wingnut; I think he went along with the majority because it was profitable. Now it's the Democrats who have something to offer him...

Posted by Tom Hilton | November 15, 2006 12:19 PM

Well, he was elected in 1987, so he dates back to before Republicans were in the majority. And his recent remarks about how Mark Foley wasn't as bad as Ted Kennedy show that his visceral antipathy toward Democrats is greater than one might expect from such a moderate.

Posted by James Kabala | November 15, 2006 1:08 PM

I'd have to agree with him that what Ted Kennedy did was a lot worse than what Foley did.

Posted by Pithlord | November 15, 2006 1:39 PM

'I'd have to agree with him that what Ted Kennedy did was a lot worse than what Foley did.'

It's not so much that he is or isn't right as that he responds to criticism of Republicans by going back to criticizing Ted Kennedy. That fails the 'in touch with reality' test.

Posted by MattF | November 15, 2006 1:46 PM

The Last, The Very Last

Is that an "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" reference?

Posted by J-Dub | November 15, 2006 1:58 PM

I think the Democrats purposefully left Shays in office just to piss off Republicans. If so, they've done a wonderful job.

Posted by Al | November 15, 2006 2:45 PM

Last House Republican; we should be so lucky that he would be the last Republican in New England. . .

Posted by Richard | November 15, 2006 2:50 PM

If he could somehow be persuaded to play the "Fox New Democrat" role in reverse, spend tons of time bitching about how GOP conservatism is killing the party in his region of the country -- naturally the Most Important Region Ever -- and offering bipartisan cover to some Democratic initiatives, that could, in many ways, be more valuable than the seat itself.

It indeed would be, if people would listen to what he says and if any media outlet would carry him playing such a role in the first place. Remember, we are still dealing with a media that considers St. John McCain to be a "Maverick" (will someone please sue the media for this so that way the ghosts of the famous Maverick family members of days of yore can return to their eternal rests without being slandered by comparing them with the likes of McCain?) and a populace that thinks the media is liberal for having a "Crazy Maverick" like McCain as their favorite Republican spokescritter ... rather than having a more "mainstream" Republican on. And that consider it to be liberal bias that the media shields the populace from real liberals but instead has centrists (not real centrists, but rather wankers) like Joe Biden speak for the Dems.

So I would not be confident that media outlets would let Shays be a mirror image of a "Fox News Democrat" and even if they did, if people wouldn't dismiss it all as "liberal bias". Y'all know and I know the media sure ain't liberal, but many people, in spite of the evidence, manage to still think it is ... so that is an issue: the GOP's worked these refs so damned well, there is no getting through the other side.

Posted by DAS | November 15, 2006 3:10 PM

Shays' district is more a part of the New York metropolitan area than of New England.

Posted by Peter | November 15, 2006 4:09 PM

J-Dub- almost certainly yes. See the end of the article here, http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11678, for another example of Matt referring to the poem "The Butterfly".

Posted by Joel W | November 15, 2006 4:14 PM

As Richard pointed out, Shays is the last House Republican from New England. The governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut, re-elected last week, are Republicans, as are Senators John Sununu of New Hampshire and Olymopia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine. But the larger point remains: this is deep blue country (in Rhode Island, we could say "navy blue").

Posted by Bob | November 15, 2006 4:44 PM

The good thing about pickups in places like Connecticut is that though these races were super-tight this time around, once in Democratic hands these become pretty safe seats that a competent Democrats should be able to hold on to for a long time.

Frex: Chuck Schumer's landslide re-election in 2004 to a seat which had gone Republican in seven straight elections before Schumer won it in 1998.

Posted by Thlayli | November 15, 2006 5:17 PM

... but Simmons was elected in 2000 in a district where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 60,000. I know nothing about the guy Simmons originally defeated; I've only lived in CT a couple of years. I'm guessing he must have been pretty bad for Simmons to get elected to begin with.

In general, I am not terribly sanguine about Courtney's long-term prospects. Many people think Simmons "saved" the district's sub base (which was originally slated to be axed), and about half of the voters in the district now resent Courtney for ousting the guy who saved the sub base. This means that Courtney has essentially negative goodwill from half his constituents. Simmons has said he might run again in 2008, and if the national climate for Republicans is more friendly by then, I think he has a good shot at re-taking the seat.

Posted by annelina | November 16, 2006 9:03 AM