**UPDATED**
Breaking news: Mike Richter is still considering running in CT-4. - Gabe
**UPDATED**
Over at MLN, Maura has confirmation from Democratic State Party Chair Nancy DiNardo that Richter is considering a run.
Last night, state party chairwoman Nancy Dinardo confirmed the rumors that Richter was considering a CT-4 run in a meeting with Yale College Democrats. Multiple sources throughout the district had mentioned to me that Richter would be meeting with some local party chairs this week, so I called Nancy DiNardo for her comments this afternoon.
During our conversation, Nancy confirmed that she’ll be introducing Richter, who lives in Guilford, to DTC chairs during one of their regular 4th CD district chairs’ meetings on Thursday night.
Nancy met with Mike earlier this year about his possible run and told me, “He would make a great candidate. He’s passionate about the issues and the direction of the country.”
Developing…
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The rumors about Mike Richter mounting a challenge against Chris Shays seem to grow louder by the day. I’m not a hockey fan so the name doesn’t mean anything to me. I looked Richter up on Wikipedia today, and interestingly enough his entry already includes a mention of a rumored run in the 4th district.
Below is an excerpt from the text of his Wikipedia entry:
Michael “Mike” Richter (born September 22, 1966 in Abington, Pennsylvania) is a former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender. One of the most successful American-born goaltenders in history, he is best known for having led the New York Rangers to the Stanley Cup title in 1994 and for repeatedly representing the United States in international play.
He attended and played for Northwood School in Lake Placid, New York. After playing for the United States in the World Junior championships in 1985, he played for the University of Wisconsin from 1985-1987, and the Rangers made him the 28th overall pick in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. He would again represent the US in the World Junior championships, World championships, and the 1988 Calgary Olympics before making his NHL debut in the 1989 playoffs. Though he lost the one game in which he played, he was soon a regular member of the club, posting 12 wins against 5 losses in his rookie season as the Rangers’ backup goaltender. The next two seasons, he would split playing time with the Rangers’ veteran goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck, he was selected to represent the US in the Canada Cup.
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Mike Richter returned to college and has now graduated in 2006 from Yale University. He majored in Ethics, Politics & Economics (EP&E). Richter entered Yale through the Eli Whitney Program.[1] He also volunteers as a coach for the men’s hockey team coaching alongside head Keith Allain. Allain was an assistant coach for Team USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.[2]According to Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report, Richter is considering running for U.S. Congress in 2008 as a Democrat. Among the seats Richter is considering contesting is Connecticut’s 4th congressional district, currently held by Republican Chris Shays. [1]
I’m still not thrilled with the idea of a celebrity candidate, but the buzz around him does seem positive so far. If Richter is going to make a run, I expect we’ll hear a more official word soon.
Thoughts?
Here’s Shays thoughts on Richter but you have to register with The Hour to read them. There’s also their take on the granny sent to jail in Norwalk for a misdemeanor – it’s still tough to sort out what’s going on but if more than one defense atty is upset then there is probably something to it. The prosecutor, DeJoseph, involved can be a little nasty too by many past accounts.
http://www.thehour.com/
Is there anyway to copy-and-paste the Hour article into a post, or is it the kind of website that doesn’t allow that? I’ve got a feeling that many of us won’t be able to access the link because we don’t have a paid subscription.
Here’s the article:
[Removed because the reprinting of the whole article most likely violates the fair use doctrine. - Gabe]
Awesome, thanks much.
Mike Richter is a damn good Democrat, (although a bit too moderate for my complete approval), and the former NHL All-Star is undoubtedly Shays worse nightmare.
Richter will have instant name recognition, broad appeal across the middle, and the ability to raise huge sums of money. Plus he’s going to kick Shays’ ass on personality alone. Yippie-ki-yay!
The only question is whether Shays will be able to hold it together through another tough election cycle, as he was showing real signs of cracking in the last bout. Maybe it’s time to retire?
Er, “instant name recognition”??? Mike who? Sorry TrueBlue, as much as it pains me to say it, hockey just ‘aint that big a sport.
He could be a great guy and a good candidate. I don’t know because know almost nothing about the guy. Neither do 99% of the voters. The Democrats also have a number of other potentially good candidates. (My preference would be Duff, because I like his beer.)
I think what they need is a good old-fashioned primary to shake out the toughest candidate to go up against Shays.
Agree with Grumpy. I don’t think anybody really knows who he is. But I assume that he does have $$ to throw at it. If so, that’s his best asset and probably the reason he’s being taken seroiusly, if he is. I would think he’d need 3-4 million of his own, plus whatever he can raise on top.
PS TrueBlue – Why do you say he’s too moderate? Do we have any basis for judging his position at this point? Not challenging – just curious. I didn’t know there was any information out there on where he stands.
Sorry, Grumpy, let me change that to instant “buzz”. And Lexington, Richter will have no problem raising $$$. I’d be surprised if he had to spend any of his own.
Lexington, he’s volunteered as an assistant coach at Yale, (while finishing his degree), and he’s pretty well known around New Haven. Trust me, he’s much more moderate than I’d like to have as a representative from Hartford, or New Haven. But if Dems want to win in Fairfield County, people like me are just going to need to compromise.
Here, from the Yale Daily News are a pair of profiles:
“Richter Changes Goals”
“Richter Talks About Life, On and Off the Ice”
I’m just glad that CT Dems will have a first rate candidate to run against Shays. (who I still think is a closet racist.) It didn’t seem as if anyone else really wanted the job.
>>I’m just glad that CT Dems will have a first rate candidate to run against Shays. (who I still think is a closet racist.)
What!!??
Gimme a break.
Neither you nor anyone can else can cite any example to back that up. That was a just a cheap shot and for no reason at all other than to take a cheap shot.
Chump politics at it’s best.
ACR–
I met Shays at Yale in the spring of 2005. I identified myself as a Democrat, thanked him for his role in the baseball hearings, and I also asked him to lead a moderate coalition of Republicans away from Tom Delay and his Texas agenda. Instead of half-agreeing with me, he defended Delay! Then he tried to change the subject by saying that my Party had Al Sharpton in it.
Why would Shays bring up Sharpton out of the blue? Frankly, I think Shays was trying to connect with me, white guy to white guy. It was weird, and I’m still trying to make sense of it.
Richter’s qualifications, agenda, or anything would be….?
Better than Shays, who will never bring home the I-95 bacon in a Dem controlled Congress!
I hardly think that was racist. We point to Delay as the worst of their worst. Quite frankly, Al Sharpton is just as bad, at the other extreme. It’s the same as hating white people if you criticize Delay, or being anti-semitic if you voted against Lieberman. Is Chris Shays a little nuts? Yeah. But he’s no racist.
But will Whalers fans vote for Richter? Not that it matters, since there weren’t any in Fairfield County…
I’d like to see Chris Shays do this: :
Can Richter hold his own on the stump or in a debate?
>>Frankly, I think Shays was trying to connect with me, white guy to white guy. It was weird, and I’m still trying to make sense of it.
Funny, I think it’s YOU that’s reading something into in the fact that Sharpton’s Black, as opposed to a fairly contrary minded Democrat.
That said, I wouldn’t point out to a Dem that they even had anyone as colorful and witty as Sharpton for fear that one day your party will wake up and properly exploit such a personality to your advantage and our detriment.
But maybe that’s just me.
Come to think of it – Forget I said anything and go back to sleep.
Can Richter hold his own on the stump or in a debate?
Well, Richter was on the 1998 US Olympic Hockey team (the olympics were in Nagano, Japan). This was the team that was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the Czech Republic. A few US players then went and trashed their hotel rooms, making the US players look horrible in the press. It was apparently only a few players, so I don’t know if Richter was involved. It appears as if no player wanted to rat on any others: I couldn’t find names of any of the players who were found to have trashed the hotel rooms (although I didn’t do a thorough search).
I don’t follow hockey, but remember this incident because it was the first year that NHL players were allowed to play in the olympics, and then they proceeded to trash the hotel rooms after losing. The US and Canada (with Wayne Gretzky) also failed to win any metals (although the metal winning teams had lots of NHL players).
Richter was also in the 1988 olympics in Calgary (he had not yet started in the NHL). The US did not win a metal in these games either, whcih were the last winter games to feature the Soviet Union, which usually dominated hockey with its pseudo-professional players against the amateurs in other countries.
gmr–
Nice attempt at a smear job. The Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s of this world would be proud of you.
What you conveniently forgot was that in the 2002 Winter Olympics, Richter Richter helped win the Silver Medal ,with an incredible goals against average of only 2.25! To get there Richter twice held the mighty Russians to only two goals against U.S. First, in a 2-2 tie, and then in the semifinals, when Mike had 28 saves in a 3-2 win.
Richter played a critical role in U.S. Hockey’s second Olympic medal in my lifetime. Sure, 2002 wasn’t the “Miracle on Ice” of 1980. But it was pretty darn close, with Richter playing a hero’s role.
Ideologically, I might not completely agree with Mike Richter, but everyone, both Left and Right, should have a genuine regard for his accomplishments on the ice. There’s a reason why the Rangers retired Richter’s jersey for only the third time in the history of the franchise…
I am sure he’ll get the Whaler voting bloc. And Shay’s reaction was perfect…..
Nobody mentioned that Richter does not currently reside in the 4th.
LOL–I guess that kinda puts the Richter groundswell of support along the same lines as the Whalers return to Hartford.
>>Nobody mentioned that Richter does not currently reside in the 4th
He only has to reside in the STATE.
Further, one doesn’t even need to be registered voter and could in fact be barred from voting at all and still legally run.
State & local offices are different and often have more restrictions.
Won’t keep the issue from coming up however.
There were those that tried to make a big deal out of Sam Gejdenson living in Branford and later those in favor of a Hamas supporter in CT’s 1st never missed a chance to mention the residency issue as it regarded a Fairfield County Cuban.
Those same people will hang their hat on the same Constitution that enables the above whenever it suits them however.
Richter is considering running in other states, too!!!!
>>Better than Shays, who will never bring home the I-95 bacon in a Dem controlled Congress!
Spoken like a true Democrat.
MOST Republicans aren’t all that interested in SPENDING every last dime we can squeeze out of the taxpayers.
There is another excellent candidate who is strongly considering taking on (taking down!) Chris “Both Ways” Shays. He’s Jim Himes, the chairman of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. Jim has been quietly canvassing Dems in the district and state and building support for a run.
Who’s Jim Himes? First, he’s a REAL Democrat who strongly backed Ned Lamont from the very beginning and led the Greenwich delegation to the state convention last spring that supported Ned with 18 of its 21 votes. He has revitalized the Democratic Party in Greenwich. He has experience in both finance and the non-profit sector. He’s a twelve-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, a Rhodes Scholar, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard. He currently serves on Greenwich’s Board of Estimates and Taxation (BET), and just ended a term as head of the town’s housing authority. He serves as a director of a major Manhattan-based non-profit promoting affordable housing.
A former Division-I varsity athlete, Jim will never shrink from a fight with Shays. IMHO, Jim, if he goes forward, will be Shays’s most formidable opponent, and also, IMHO, he’ll clobber Shays in ’08.
>>Who’s Jim Himes? First, he’s a REAL Democrat
Sounds like a real limousine liberal.
BTW – to take the name of someone as august as the States very Founder is a little much. The Rev. Hooker very much believed in both Christianity and self-reliance and would certainly not today be a Democrat.
Don’t worry about Richter currently not living the 4th CD. That’s only a problem when it’s a Republican. Kind of like when a wealthy businessman tries to buy an election.
Huh, Rell, our registered Republican guv, is a liberal – at least on taxation and education – and she rides around in a limo – at taxpayer expense too!
Geeze, at least Richter can pretend to be a working stiff…
Himes certainly fits in well among the country club set.
Thomas Hooker believed in tolerance of differing religious beliefs and engendered an atmosphere of tolerance in Connecticut that did not prevail in Massachusetts. Rev. Hooker would be appalled by the intollerant religious attitudes of the Far Right in the country today. Indeed, the leaders of the Congregationalist Church, the descendents of Hooker and those early New England settlers, have been highly critical of Republican policies.
>> Indeed, the leaders of the Congregationalist Church, the descendents of Hooker and those early New England settlers, have been highly critical of Republican policies
Yes, and they send cash to Hamas as well as support the likes of Sarah Brady to the tune of 50K for a 1 hour speech. (How many people does 50K feed, or clothe, or to read and write?)
Please don’t confuse the UCC with the Congregational Church itself. The fact is more Congregational Churches are dropping out of the UCC every year and in fact the total membership of UCC aligned churches has decreased by roughly 1 million.
Prior to his being ordained himself, Hooker was a member of my own ancestor’s congregation in both England as well as where they first fled, in Holland.
You might find this site enlightening: http://www.ucctruths.com/
I’ve met Mike Richter, and he is a very bright, articulate guy. (Clean, too, passes the Biden test!)
And he’s a progressive. My Left Nutmeg posted this quote from him from September 25, 2001:
This beautiful combination of hockey and politics talk has me on top of the world. I hope Richter does run. After his retirement, when he volunteered with Yale’s hockey team, I remember being very impressed with how straight his head was screwed on (This is coming from another goalie). But unless he wants to run in New York (and NOT Long Island), the 4th is the best fit for him.
-A Whalers fan who would like to work his campaign
Hmmm. Does anyone here seriously not want Bin Laden dead, or not wish we had killed him in the wake of 9/11? I’m a progressive, disgusted by the war in Iraq. But you’ve got to be kidding me.