The Shays Ahead.

Former U.S. Representative Christopher Shays begins his 21st political campaign this week. His bid for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate will be met with an onslaught of reminders that make the veteran of 34 years in public office seem a relic from another age.

Shays will need to confront the same issues Greenwich Republican Linda McMahon deftly employed to dismantle rival Rob Simmons, once a Shays colleague in Congress, in their 2010 Senate contest.  McMahon reduced Simmons to s risible traveling sideshow by winning the party endorsement that earlier that spring had seemed to be his.  Party regulars, activists, and officeholders liked McMahon and responded to her dismantling of Simmons’ record on spending and other hot-button Republican issues.

Shays can expect McMahon supporters to confront Shays in the politest ways with roll call grenades from his years in Congress.  Shays knows that campaigning is another word for repetition.  He’s going to have to explain his votes for deficit spending and years of fiscal policies that party loyalists view with disdain.  Party troops are more inclined to associate Shays with the troubles on their minds, not the solutions.

There will be other irritants of the sort that were effective in McMahon’s defeat of Simmons.  Republican regulars still cavil at the notion of a party leader supporting “card check,” a method of union organizing that they see as trampling the rights of workers and posing a threat to a dynamic economy.  Shays’ support for “cap-and-trade” (or the national energy tax, as the 2010 McMahon campaign called it) can still roil the grassroots.

Whatever message Parson Shays settles on, he’ll have the devil’s own time spreading it.  He starts with a persistent $300,000 deficit from his unsuccessful 2008 re-election campaign.  The national party apparatus that helps incumbent congressman raise money from far flung venues will not be available to him as he begins his quest.  With Republicans across the country eyeing a host of Senate targets, Shays will face fierce competition for contributions among fresher prospects.