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NARR 1: This race is a rematch from two years ago when Shays ran against Farrell and won: 52 percent to 48. This time, polls show the race is a dead heat. Shays is in the fight of his political life for one reason: the Iraq war and his support for it, according to his campaign manager, Michael Sohn.
ACT 1: People have told us time and time again don't discuss the war in Iraq. Don't talk about it, run away from it, hide from it, don't discuss it. Chris is not the type of person to do that. He took it head on. He went to Iraq 14 times. He went there to see exactly what was going on…And so was he going to go commit to 14 trips and then come back to his district and hide and not talk about the war? No way.
NARR 2: Shays is a moderate Republican, and strongly backed the war. But he also said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign. Where he's taken heat is from his shifting views - opposing a timetable for troop withdrawal, for instance, and then arguing the opposite, that a timetable was necessary. Challenger Diane Farrell says that she's voted for Shays in the past. But she's blasted his stance on the war.
AMBI 1: [political ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf7bAP_wjE8]
For three and a half years Chris Shays has been wrong on Iraq. He's been one of George Bush's strongest supporters and has given him a blank check to run an open ended war. We've lost over 2600 troops and spent over $300 billion dollars while families here struggle to pay for gas, college tuition and health care.
NARR 3: But Michael Sohn says tactics like that plays into party politics.
ACT 2: We have great support across party lines and it's who Chris is and it's what Chris is about. Chris doesn't feed into the anger and the hate that is sort of under the surface in this country that our opponent loves to feed off of and gets her support from because she
feeds into that anger.
AMBI 2: Drink pouring
NARR 4: At the Southport Brewing Company, a popular restaurant and bar
> in Fairfield, many of the customers discussed politics and the war on the night before the election. And some of those conversations got a little heated, like this one between a bartender and a waitress.
AMBI 3: Waitress: I don't know. I've never supported the war. I 100% believe in our troops, I believe, want to get them all home safe, and that they're over there for what they believe but I don't necessarily support the reasons we went to war in the first place, sorry I'll be right back.
Bartender: So we should buy them cookies and say sorry [shit] happens?
Waitress: I didn't say that.
NARR 5: Here, the night before the election, most people were still undecided. In this district, 42% of registered voters identify themselves as unaffiliated. These are the voters that the Shays campaign needs to pick up in order to win. Alice Melina is one of those undecided Independents. She's not sure she'll vote for Shays because of his stance on the war.
ACT 3: Shays has been around for a long time. He's very well respected but we're not really happy with of the direction he's going with the government right now. There's many things that he's supporting that I think many of us as Independents are not supporting. And for his opponent I don't think we know much about her.
NARR 6: Doug Prescott, a retired Democrat in his 60's says he plans to
vote for Ferrell.
ACT 4: She's a Democrat. I have no interest in either. Both parties are totally corrupt, the whole system's totally corrupt, but I like my crooks better than their crooks so that's why I'm voting for Diane Ferrell. I have no love for her.
NARR 7: Sixty-three year old teacher John Hoover, says he'll vote for Ferrell
because of her stance on the war.
ACT 5: I'm voting more against Shays record, particularly on the war. He's made numerous trips to Iraq and as far as I'm concerned he's too close to the Republican Party line of disillusionment and deceit on the war and has not been realistic about it.
NARR 8: And some voters, like Andrew Shaw, are disgusted with both candidates.
ACT 6: All the candidates have completely turned me off - the comments are all the same, anti this, anti that, this one's on this side, this one's on that side, and the biggest complain this year has been the constant mailers in my mailbox, 5 or 10 pieces a day, every day of the
week, and as of today, the day before the election, I think I've probably received 8 to 10 phone calls reminding me to vote for each and every one of the candidates.
NARR 9: A few blocks up the road, at one of Shays' campaign offices, a group of volunteers is making phone calls, reminding registered Republicans and Independents to vote.
AMBI 4: Good evening ma'am my name is John, I'm with the Chris Shays campaign, how are you tonight?
NARR 10: The Republican National Committee recruited volunteers from across the country - here in Fairfield, only four out of the twenty eight are actually Connecticut residents. In an effort to make a difference in this tight race, they spent this past weekend knocking on ten thousand doors and making twenty thousand phone calls. Matt Grant, Columbia Radio News.