Former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays Battling Big Money Against Greenwich’s Linda McMahon

After winning 18 elections over the past 38 years, Republican Chris Shays is locked in a fight against the most financially formidable opponent of his long political career.

With little money in his cash-strapped campaign, Shays has no plans to broadcast any television commercials against an ongoing advertising blitz by Greenwich multimillionaire Linda McMahon. The lack of commercials would normally be seen as a huge disadvantage, but Shays rejects the notion that it will be a fatal blow against the wrestling entrepreneur who spent $50 million of her own money in her unsuccessful 2010 race for the U. S. Senate.

“Don’t make an assumption because I’m not going to have TV ads, that we’re not going to win,’’ Shays said. “We’re taking our money, whatever we have, and we’re going to spend it to talk to 150,000 people. That’s how you win a primary.”

Based on the latest statistics released Friday, Shays has nearly $327,000 in cash on hand after raising $1.4 million for the campaign. By contrast, McMahon has contributed or loaned millions to her campaign that she earned from her days operating Stamford-based WWE, but she will not release the overall totals until Monday.

With slightly more than four weeks left before the August 14 primary for the U.S. Senate, Shays is crisscrossing the state at breakneck speed to reach voters in a way that television commercials could have done. On Thursday, he arrived at the Westport train station to greet commuters starting around 5 a.m. On Friday, it was the Norwalk station at the same hour.

Despite serving in Congress for 21 years and making many national television appearances on political shows from “Larry King Live’’ to “Fox News Sunday’’ with Chris Wallace, Shays is not well known in some areas outside his home base of Fairfield County. A Quinnipiac University poll last month showed that 44 percent of those surveyed statewide did not know enough about Shays to form an opinion. That lack of name recognition jumped to 58 percent in three counties in eastern Connecticut, said pollster Douglas Schwartz. By comparison, 16 percent statewide did not know enough about McMahon, including a high of 21 percent in eastern Connecticut.

“Chris Shays, although he’s well known in Fairfield County, is a mystery to everybody else,’’ said Matthew J. Hennessy, a longtime Democratic strategist who operates Tremont Public Advisors in Hartford.

Based on experience, knowledge of the issues, and service in a long career, Hennessy said, Shays would be a better U.S. Senator than McMahon. But he said that does not matter in a primary when Republicans nationally embrace outsiders, business executives, and candidates who express disdain for the gridlock in Washington, D.C. McMahon fits the mold of a self-funded candidate with no ties to Washington and the antithesis of a career politician. Shays was hurt, Hennessy said, by moving to Maryland after losing his re-election race in 2008 and then getting a late start in the Senate race as McMahon was continuing her non-stop campaign that has lasted for three years.

“I think [Shays] will get more votes than most people think because he is the protest vote in the Republican Party against Linda McMahon and the WWE,’’ Hennessy said. “But it’s not going to be enough to win. There’s going to be a part of the Republican Party that has serious, serious reservations about how Linda McMahon made her money. Republicans don’t usually make protest votes. Democrats usually do that.’’

The latest Quinnipiac poll showed McMahon ahead of Shays by 29 percentage points – a wide lead that mimics her 2-to-1 advantage among Republican delegates who chose her as the endorsed candidate at the party’s convention. Her TV and direct-mail blitz in the 2010 and 2012 races have sharply boosted the name recognition for the Greenwich resident who has never held public office.

With the final televised debate set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Shays will have one last, major chance to spread the word to a statewide audience from the West Hartford studios of NBC 30.

Shays notes that he has been written off in the past, including during a five-way Republican primary in the summer of 1987 that eventually led to his upset win in a special election over a highly favored Democratic state representative.

“First off, to give it some perspective, in the 1987 race, The Washington Post said I wasn’t a factor because I was running against two millionaires,’’ Shays said of the Republican primary. “One week before the primary and five weeks before the general election, I was 30 points behind the frontrunner, [Democrat] Christine Niedermeier. … So, I’ve been here before. I’ve won 18 elections, always as a Republican, not as an independent. I view [McMahon’s] support as paper thin, and I believe in a primary, the key is who comes out to vote. It becomes more a factor of whose voters are more motivated to vote.’’

With many residents away on vacation or at the beach during the dog days of August, getting out the vote is crucial. That’s where volunteers and paid staffers come in. In a show of force, McMahon planned “Super Saturday’’ with more than 600 volunteers intending to knock on 10,000 doors and make 10,000 telephone calls from the campaign’s eight field offices that stretch around the state from Farmington to East Lyme to Waterbury. The campaign planned to cap off the day Saturday with a barbecue at the newest field office that is virtually in Shays’s backyard in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport, about a mile from his home.

McMahon’s chief spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, said that Shays’s address had nothing to do with the selection of the field office, which was based on geographic reasons in Fairfield County and the availability of space for an office.

“We don’t make plans in our field strategy based on where Chris Shays lives,’’ Murtaugh said. “Our real opponent is Chris Murphy. I don’t know if anyone here knew where Chris Shays lives. I know he has a house in Maryland.”

McMahon’s campaign has a major goal of knocking on 500,000 doors and making 1 million telephone calls before the campaign is over. If that is accomplished, it would be one of the largest ground games in Connecticut history.

“We believe this will be a difference-maker in the race,’’ Murtaugh said. “Super Saturday is a way for us to highlight it.’’

Murtaugh scoffed at the $327,000 in cash on hand that Shays had as of June 30 – the ending date for the latest filings. “That’s barely enough to keep the lights on,’’ he said.

Regarding the money, Shays said, “Now, if I had $3 million, yes, I would be having some money on TV ads. Would I like to raise more money? Yes, absolutely. I have had lots of people say, ‘you win the primary, I will support you.’ And I look at them and say it would be helpful if you supported me before the primary because frankly, after the primary, I will have as much money as I can possibly hope to have. I will have a Scott Brown race because people will see, around the country, that this is a race that Republicans can win.’’

Shays sees himself as a potential successor to Brown’s stunning, come-from-behind upset in the 2010 special election when the relatively unknown Republican won the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts that had been previously held by Democratic stalwart Ted Kennedy.

In the ground game, Shays is spending his money on telephone calls, direct mail, and tele-town hall meetings. He drove clear across the state Thursday for an editorial board meeting with The Norwich Bulletin newspaper and then headed all the way back to his hometown for an editorial board meeting with The Connecticut Post. He is trying to secure endorsements from newspapers at a time when McMahon has publicly announced that she is not meeting with any editorial boards.

With only one debate remaining before the primary, Shays says there has not been enough discussion of the issues during the campaign – particularly foreign policy. He discussed his 24 trips to Iraq and Afghanistan on Friday at the state American Legion convention in Rocky Hill, where McMahon also spoke.
Out of 12,792 votes that he cast in 21 years in Congress, Shays says there are only about 10 that he would cast differently. One of those was the controversial “card-check’’ legislation that was supported by labor unions regarding whether union organizing efforts should be conducted by secret ballot.

“I do believe that workers have a right to organize under collective bargaining. That forces an election,’’ Shays said. “I said the petition route would be satisfactory. I really think that was a mistake. I got caught up in it because the NLRB was not doing its job.’’

In their most recent debate and in press interviews, Shays has spent much of his time attacking McMahon. He says he thought that McMahon would have better answers and a more polished style this year after her 2010 race with Democrat Dick Blumenthal.

“When you probe beyond the surface and really try to understand, you’ll understand that she really doesn’t get it,’’ Shays said. “What’s shocking is she’s had three years. I honestly thought she’d be pretty sharp. I’m not saying she’s not a smart person. I just don’t think her heart’s in it. … She’s not qualified to be the next Senator. Clearly. If you had enough debates, you would see it.’’

He has also blasted her for collecting signatures to qualify for the independent line on the ballot in November. McMahon says she is trying to be on two lines on the ballot simultaneously in the same way that Democratic frontrunner Chris Murphy will likely be on two lines in November. But Shays says McMahon is collecting the signatures in order to run in the general election if she loses the August primary.

“She’s spent $60 million so far because this is a continuation [of the 2010 race],’’ Shays said. “She lost for good reason. Voters don’t want Linda McMahon for their Senator any more than they want Hugh Hefner for their senator. They’re both job creators, but what jobs have they created?’’

Murtaugh, the spokesman for McMahon, said he would not address various comments by Shays, including charges that McMahon is not qualified to be a senator or that she should have had better answers after three years on the campaign trail.

“When you’re 30 points down, the only thing you can do is throw rocks and that’s what he’s doing,’’ Murtaugh said. “We’re not going to address every insult.’’

Regarding what Shays might do in the next four weeks, Murtaugh said, “I can only imagine he will get wound up even tighter.’’

Despite the long odds against him – with low poll ratings, little money, and a lack of support among convention delegates and party leaders – Shays said he simply could not allow McMahon to cruise to victory. He says that others were scared off by McMahon’s millions and stayed out of the battle.

“I knew when I got in the race that it would be difficult,’’ Shays said. “Some could have gotten in the race but chose not to. I want my party back. Republicans think that, because it’s very difficult to win in Connecticut, that we should go with a self-funder. … I never saw Linda McMahon show any interest in the Republican Party until 2010. We haven’t won the seat in 30 years. She lost it by 138,000 votes against someone who was a wounded candidate in a year when Republicans had a 40 miles per hour wind at their back.’’

He added, “I don’t think she’s qualified. I couldn’t imagine sitting on the sidelines and letting this happen again.’’