Pro Politics with Zac McCrary Congressman Chris Shays on Five Decades in Politics & The Vanishing House Moderate
Chris Shays cuts an iconic, if disappearing, profile across the American political scene. One of the last by-God moderate House Republicans from the Northeast, he represented Connecticut in the US House for more than 20 years...a congressional career spanning the Reagan Revolution through the 2008 Democrative wave ushering in President Obama. In this discussion, he talks the Republican Connecticut of his youth, his time in Fiji serving in the Peace Corps, his decade serving in the state legislature, the time he was sentenced to several days in prison to protest political corruption, and lessons & memories from 20 years in the House.
IN THIS EPISODE…
Congressman Shays recalls the Republican DNA of the Connecticut of his youth…
What political moment made his father upgrade their TV...
His time serving in Fiji in the Peace Corps…
Memorable door-to-door experiences from his first legislative campaign in 1974…
He rubs party leaders the wrong way on his very first day in the CT State House…
The amazing story of how a fight to root out judicial corruption in Connecticut lands him in jail for several days…
Coming from behind to win a special election to Congress in 1987…
The big difference he noticed between lobbyists in state government vs Congress…
The one other member of Congress he wanted most to meet upon his election…
The changes within the House GOP Conference pre and post Newt Gingrich ascension…
Congressman Shays' contribution to the ’94 GOP takeover wave - both intentional and otherwise...
Behind the scenes of the failed GOP coup against New Gingrich in 1997…
The time moderate Chris Says was most in the doghouse with his party’s leadership…
What it felt like to feel his district shift left in the 2000s…
Congressman Shays talks the breakdown of bipartisanship in Congress…
How deeply did he consider switching parties?
What went into his decision to endorse both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden over Donald Trump?
A memorable meeting when Donald Trump met with Congressman Shays about building a Connecticut casino…
Regrets about his 2012 Senate primary against self-funding Linda McMahon…
The unconventional book idea he may pursue…
AND….Dick Armey, the assault weapons ban, the best office in the Capitol, Black Rock, Roy Blunt, Bridgeport, George W. Bush, Mr. Clean, Bill Clinton, the Commission on Wartime Contracting, Common Cause, Tom Davis, Darien, Tom Delay, Mrs. Donahue, Dwight Eisenhower, Russ Feingold, Gerald Ford, Newt Gingrich, grievance committees, Jim Himes, Pete Hoekstra, Henry Hyde, Hertz, inverted bell curves, it hits the fan, Jehovah’s Witnesses, John Kasich, Joe Kennedy, Ned Lamont, Steve Largent, John Lewis, Joe Lieberman, the Longworth building, Carolyn Maloney, Marla Maples, John McCain, Marty Meehan, Bob Michel, NBC, the NRCC, the New York Times, Christine Niedermeier, Richard Nixon, Jim Nussle, Bill Paxon, the Peace Corps, Nancy Pelosi, penny loafers, Colin Powell, Stamford, Leon Uris, the WWF…& more!