Chris Shays

Christopher H. " Chris " Shays ( born October 18, 1945 in Stamford, Connecticut ) is an American politician. Between 1987 and 2009 he represented the state of Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Chris Shays attended Darien High School in Connecticut and subsequently to 1968, the Principia College in Elsa (Illinois ) until 1964. Then he studied until 1978 at the New York University. Politically, he was a member of the Republican Party. From 1968 to 1970 he was a member of the Peace Corps. Between 1975 and 1987 he was a member of the House of Connecticut.

After the death of longtime Congressman Stewart McKinney in May 1987 Shays was in the by-elections in the fourth constituency of Connecticut as his successor in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC selected. After ten elections he could implement his mandate in Congress between August 18, 1987, to January 3, 2009. In the 2008 elections, he was defeated by Democrat Jim Himes. He thus left as the last remaining Member of the Republican of New England from the House of Representatives.

During his time in Congress, Shays was temporarily a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Financial Services Committee and the Homeland Security Committee. Within these committees, he was still a member of five sub-committees. In Congress, Shays was considered a moderate Republican who voted with the Demoktraten a few times. He has not supported the indictment in the attempted impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in full. This earned him, among other sharp criticism of the conservative columnist Ann Coulter, who considered then to stand in the next election for the Libertarian Party, so as to remove Shays votes and thus prevent his re-election. Shays also joined for better environmental protection legislation. On the other hand, he has supported from the beginning of the Iraq war and was only noticed in his last term in Congress, some of it off by calling for an early withdrawal of troops. However, his attitude remained inconsistent on this issue. During his time as an MP he has visited 21 times in total Iraq.

Since May 2009, Chris Shays board member of the CIT Group, a financial services group based in New Jersey. He is married with Betsi DeRaismes and lives in Bridgeport.