Category: Paul Ziobro
Wilton Girl Begins Lyme Disease Treatment After Prolonged Process With HMO
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Patience and persistence paid off for a Weston family, whose child plans to begin potentially life-changing treatments Sunday following a five-month long appeal process with their health care provider.
For more than half her life, eight-year-old Rachel Tessler’s health has been deteriorating due to Lyme disease, which has contributed to her current movement disorders and mental decline, her mother, Sharon Tessler, said.
“Her memory of herself has always been as someone who’s sick,” her mother Sharon Tessler said. “She doesn’t really remember what it’s like to be the energetic kid she was and not have these disorders.”
When intravenous antibiotics failed, the Tesslers fought to persuade their HMO, Health Net, to cover an expensive, experimental treatment recommended by several doctors. The Shelton, Conn.-based company agreed Monday to provide at least a six-month trial phase of the treatment, which the Tesslers are “excited about and hoping everything goes smoothly,” Sharon Tessler said.
Because of the experimental nature of the treatment and Rachel’s rare combination of conditions, Health Net wanted to take extra precautions, including consulting several specialized doctors, before signing off on intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment, according to company spokespeople. IVIG is a process that would boost a deficient immune system to help it accept antibiotics better.
“This is the outcome we wanted. Independent physicians working with the Tessler family and coming to a place where everyone was comfortable with the course of treatment and evaluation,” Health Net spokeswoman Alice Ferreira said.
Rachel probably contracted Lyme disease when a deer tick bit her cheek on her 4th birthday, Sharon said, but the main visual symptom of the disease-a red, slowly expanding “bull’s-eye” rash, according to the Center for Disease Control-never materialized. The disease went undiagnosed for two years as Rachel was scuttled to specialists for pains in her knees and feet, an inability to concentrate, insomnia and “awake seizures,” where her body would flail for up to an hour, Sharon said.
“The first time it (an awake seizure) happened, my husband (Brad) and I held her legs down and her toes started to move, and she was going, ‘Make this stop! Make this stop!” Sharon said.
Rachel’s Lyme disease had proliferated without proper treatment for so long that it spread to her spinal fluid and brain, contributing to her movement and cognitive disorders, Sharon said. Once she was positively diagnosed with Lyme disease, doctors tried IV antibiotics but that treatment only had a temporary effect.
Rachel’s pediatric neurologist, Dr. Abba Cargan, first recommended IVIG treatment last November. Cargan declined to comment on her condition or treatment, according to his office.
Initially, Health Net denied coverage for IVIG because they maintained the little girl had no clear diagnosis and Rachel would be at risk to the treatments’ side effects, according to Health Net spokesman Ira Morrison.
Throughout the appeal process, Health Net subjected the Tesslers to several layers of tests, paperwork and hearings to determine whether their daughter was a candidate for IVIG treatment, Sharon Tessler said.
“They (Health Net) put a lot of roadblocks in the way and made it really complicated for us to get this treatment,” Sharon Tessler said.
The HMO first said IVIG was not a treatment for movement disorders despite several articles Rachel’s doctors presented contrary to that assertion, according to Sharon Tessler. During appeals, Health Net said there was not enough evidence from previous studies to assume the treatment would work for Rachel, Tessler said. Her doctors contended that Rachel’s conditions were so rare that there would never be enough subjects to facilitate a study proving that IVIG would be a successful treatment.
In the final denial, Tessler said the HMO refused the treatment because they could not determine why Rachel had this disorder.
“That’s ridiculous because look at what’s going on in the world today,” Tessler said. “There’s viruses, there’s illnesses. We don’t know what’s causing them but that doesn’t mean we don’t treat them.”
On Jan. 24, Sharon Tessler said she “got out all of my frustration and disbelief” about her daughter’s ordeal in a letter that she sent to, among other people, members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation, the state Department of Insurance and the Attorney General’s office. Before her case could reach an outside appeal, Health Net agreed to reevaluate Rachel’s condition.
“All we were asking is for the physicians to take a minute to do some further evaluations and we would abide by this independent decision,” Morrison said.
Dr. Shirley Fisch, assistant professor of clinical neurology and pediatrics at Columbia University, was part of an interdisciplinary panel arranged by Health Net to evaluate Rachel’s conditions. The panel determined last month that Rachel’s immune deficiencies, possibly spurred by the Lyme disease, prevented standard treatment from being effective and IVIG treatment should be tried.
“While there are known risks in this treatment it is generally well tolerated. The possibility that it may work makes its possible side effects much less significant than the ongoing disability caused by her condition,” wrote Dr. Fisch in her report on Rachel’s case.
The New York Presbyterian Hospital panel reviewing the case recommended a six-month trial period of IVIG treatment for Rachel and Health Net authorized coverage of the treatment.
The state Department of Insurance found that Health Net followed proper procedures throughout the appeals process, according to Cliff Flicer, assistant director of consumer affairs for the agency.
“The people at Health Net were consistent in the flow of what the law requires and the progression of claims, such as this,” Flicer said. “They met all the benchmarks that are required for a utilization review process.”
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., whose office appealed to Health Net on Rachel’s behalf, said the provider was right in agreeing to cover the treatment. “The Tesslers were determined and relentless, and I’m pleased that my staff was able to help ensure that Rachel’s health wasn’t jeopardized by red tape,” he said.
Sharon Tessler said, “In the end they (Health Net) haven’t lost anything, the only person that’s lost anything is Rachel because her treatment was delayed for so long.”
Rachel will spend eight hours connected to an intravenous drip for her first monthly session of treatment, and, if doctors find it successful during the six-month trial phase, Health Net said it would expedite the review process to extend the therapy.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Local Officials Take Steps to Respond to Indian Point Incident as Federal Agencies Bide Their Time
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Less than 30 miles from Norwalk's City Hall lies the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which, in the case of an accident or even a terrorist attack, could spew out radioactive materials over hundreds of miles.
As federal agencies pore over the plant's emergency preparedness plans, some local officials are taking their own precautionary measures, and the members of at least one family have taken action to distance themselves from the plant's potential threat.
Concerns about the Buchanan, N.Y., plant were among the reasons Evelyn Cunningham and her family moved to Wilton last summer from Ossining, N.Y., which is less than 10 miles from the plant. Now that she is living more than 30 miles from Indian Point, Cunningham said, she is more concerned with her husband's commute to New York City than with a nuclear accident. Nevertheless, she said, she still thinks the plant should be closed.
"If something happened at Indian Point, everyone would be in danger. There's nothing that could keep everyone safe," Cunningham said.
Connecticut residents have two related concerns about Indian Point: first, that a nuclear accident or terrorist attack could threaten all of Fairfield County; and second, that the absence of an adequate emergency response plan could lead to clogged roads that would endanger the safety of a wide swath of Connecticut and New York.
The plant's spent fuel storage pools-which store radioactive fuel after it is removed from the reactor core-are attractive targets for terrorists, said Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies, a Cambridge, Mass., think tank. The pools store the cesium-137 from the two pressurized water reactors. But if the pools were drained of water, radioactive material would be released into the air that could cover all of Fairfield County, Thompson said.
"These pools are packed so tight with radioactive material [that] if water was lost, the fuel will catch fire, burn and release large amounts of radioactivity," said Thompson, who has over 25 years' experience in assessing risk and security at nuclear sites. "If wind is moving toward Connecticut, it will affect a substantial portion of the state."
If the fuel pools caught fire, the radioactive cesium would settle on land, vegetation and buildings and emit high doses of gamma rays for decades, Thompson said. Residents living hundreds of miles from the plant, depending on weather conditions and the size of the plume, could experience a two percent increase in cancer rates if they did not abandon their homes and render the area "uninhabitable." he said.
A recent New York state report conducted by James Lee Witt Associates, a consulting group headed by the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), concluded that major flaws in Indian Point's emergency response plan could threaten the safety of the 20 million people within a 50-mile radius of the plant.
As for concern about inadequate emergency preparedness plans, some towns have already taken precautionary measures-just in case.
Westport and New Canaan have passed resolutions calling for further scrutiny of the evacuation plans at Indian Point and urging the plant's closure, and a host of communities have looked inward to strengthen their own evacuation plans.
Westport and Weston have distributed and stockpiled potassium iodide pills, which prevent the thyroid gland from absorbing radioactive iodine, "just to prepare for a radiological event that might happen," said Diane Ferrell, First Selectman of Westport.
And Norwalk soon expects to hire a full-time emergency management director and is moving toward installing a dispatch system that both police and fire departments can use, said Councilman Kevin Poruban, chairman of the Norwalk Common Council's Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Many public officials and opponents of the plant are accusing FEMA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of taking too much time to assess Indian Point's plans and thus postponing any improvements to them.
"As state officials, we need federal help," state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said. "We need it in resources. We need the science that federal officials can make available to us. We need it now."
A major concern of lawmakers is that the emergency plans could not handle a spontaneous or "shadow" evacuation by masses of residents who had not been advised to leave.
"I think you need to take a closer look at the challenges created by Indian Point's location in a high-population area and the possible problems created by both shadow and spontaneous evacuations," New York Rep. Sue Kelly said to NRC and FEMA representatives at a February congressional hearing on emergency plans at Indian Point. Kelly's district includes the power plant.
A March 2002 Marist Institute for Public Opinion poll conducted for Riverkeeper, a New York-based environmental group pushing to close the plant, found that 60 percent of residents within 50 miles of Indian Point would attempt to evacuate in the event of a major accident. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, who lives within the 50-mile radius, has said he would attempt to evacuate even if not told to do so.
"I believe that if you are anywhere near that plant, you're leaving," Shays, chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, said at a March 10 hearing in Washington. "And I will tell you this, if I had a child, or my wife and I were in New Canaan, and there was a problem at that plant, I'd be leaving New Canaan faster than you could imagine."
Another major criticism has been that federal agencies fail to distinguish between the implications of an accident and those of a well-coordinated, terrorist attack on the plant. During his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush said diagrams of American nuclear plants were found in Afghanistan.
"I think we're in the Stone Age of planning for security against terrorist attacks on our nuclear facilities," said Blumenthal, who supports closing the plant until emergency planning deficiencies are addressed. "And, in a sense, Indian Point is just a poster child for the lack of planning and safeguarding of these facilities across the country."
FEMA is now waiting for New York state and several of its counties to submit by May 2 parts of their emergency plans, such as letters of agreement with response groups and local schools' evacuation plans, before determining whether there is a "reasonable assurance" of public safety. Otherwise, FEMA and New York have 120 days to correct any major deficiencies or submit a plan to do so before FEMA sends its evaluation to the NRC for another review.
If FEMA rejects the plans and the NRC concurs, as it has always done before, Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc., the New Orleans-based owner of Indian Point, would have 120 days to correct the problems or "there could be actions taken to protect public health and safety," including closing the plant, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said. None of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors has been shut down because of inadequate emergency plans.
Jim Steets, communications director for Entergy, defended the plant's emergency plans. He said the largest possible release from the plant would be narrow, "like a plume out of a chimney," and would diminish to only a trace beyond 10 miles. There would be little, if any, impact on Connecticut, he said.
"We're too far away from the Connecticut line to have any ramifications other than maybe some," Steets said. "It's hard to imagine a scenario that would cause anyone to do anything."
Steets said anti-nuclear groups, in drumming up support to close Indian Point, have circulated misleading information to stir emotions. "You've got a staunch anti-nuclear group that has existed since the plants were built who have used every method at their disposal to scare people, with some success," he said.
Indian Point, which provides 2,000 megawatts of energy-enough to power almost 2 million homes-to Westchester County and New York City, has had incidents in the past that threatened its license. In 1993, the NRC fined the New York Power Authority, which owned the plant at the time, $300,000 for safety violations. In 2000, the plant accidentally released a small amount of radioactive steam, and the NRC gave Indian Point the first-ever "red" designation, one step from being shut down.
Indian Point boasts a laundry list of security measures: razor-wire fencing, surveillance cameras around the full perimeter, FBI background checks for employees, "hand geometry" sensors that scan handprints for admission to certain areas, explosive detectors, metal detectors and X-ray machines-all before anyone could reach the reactors, according to Steets.
The reactor core -- which would emit radioactive material if it were breached and its contents were exposed, for example, to a chemical explosion or fire -- sits low inside a containment building surrounded by four to six feet of cement and six inches of steel to ensure minimal release during a meltdown, Steets said. Even then, backup cooling systems, pumps and power supplies are available and the entire reactor can be shut down "instantaneously" if needed, Steets said.
Steets said the core could withstand a hit from an airplane, much like the one that flew over the plant on route to crashing into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. But structural tests on containment facilities to determine their ability to withstand such impacts have yet to be completed, the Congressional Research Service reports.
In any case, critics of the plant say the spent-fuel pools, which house used radioactive rods, pose a greater threat than the reactor since they are enclosed in less-protected structures. The two pools cool 1,400 tons of spent fuel rods under at least 20 feet of water, which, if drained, could cause a zirconium fire and render up to 37,000 square miles uninhabitable, Riverkeeper executive director Alex Matthiessen said at the March National Security Subcommittee hearing.
Although Indian Point's security measures meet NRC and FEMA requirements, the Witt report said the federal standards need revision to achieve a higher level of public protection.
John Wiltse, director of the state Office of Emergency Management, recommends creating basic regional evacuation plans adaptable for use during natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, or man-made threats, such as terrorist attacks or a nuclear meltdown. "I think that's practical, realistic and achievable," he said in an interview. He said that he could not give a timeframe for setting up a regional plan but that implementing it would require federal dollars to coordinate efforts among federal, state and local emergency planning officials.
Wiltse said Connecticut would create an evacuation plan specifically for a threat at Indian Point only if the federal government mandated it by expanding the emergency planning zone to towns more than 10 miles from the plant-a decision, he said, that "needs to be based not on emotion or fear but on scientific evidence."
The 10 and 50-mile emergency planning zones have different requirements to ensure public safety from radioactive releases based on the immediate risk to the public, according to testimony of Donna J. Miller Hastie, an emergency preparedness specialist, at a congressional hearing last June.
To prevent immediately life-threatening exposure to the radioactive plume, people within the 10-mile zone would be evacuated and possibly also given potassium iodide pills to minimize radioactive exposure, Hastie said. While there are no evacuation plans for the area between 10 and 50 miles from the plant, she said, officials would have to monitor water and food sources to prevent "ingestion exposure" of radioactive products.
The Marist poll last year found that 77 percent of the people surveyed who lived within a 50-mile radius of Indian Point felt there should be an evacuation plan for where they live.
Wiltse said, however, that applying the emergency preparedness requirements for the 10-mile zone to a 50-mile radius would be a massive undertaking and possibly an unnecessary one, considering that during the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, there was no mass evacuation from New York City.
"People are under some impression that it's magic, you click your fingers and people just evacuate and then they're taken care of. It's a little more complex than that," Wiltse said.
"Evacuation itself, if not done correctly and if not done in an appropriate scope, can be more dangerous than what you're evacuating from," he added.
Sgt. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the State Police Division of Homeland Security, said since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Connecticut developed emergency plans providing assistance and evacuation routes for emergencies in New York City. Vance said these plans could be applied to an incident at Indian Point.
"It's a matter of taking those plans, tweaking them and improving on them to make them workable in the event of an emergency at that facility," Vance said.
Weston First Selectman Woody Bliss said the town used last summer's distribution of potassium iodide pills to test its disaster distribution system and to look for ways to improve its emergency plan.
"It's a working process you keep working on, you keep testing it, what-if-ing it and looking for ways to do better," Bliss said.
Wilton has not been focusing on an Indian Point threat, according to First Selectman Paul Hannah, who called it a regional issue and said that the town's response plans are part of the work it does to prepare for terrorist attacks. Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy said the plant is not "a front-burner issue."
Jackie Horkachuck of Norwalk, who put her name an on-line petition to close the plant, said she thinks local precautions are lacking, and that makes her feel uncomfortable even though she lives nearly 30 miles from the plant. "I know we're outside of the 10 miles," she said, "but that's still too darn close to me."
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Newly Passed C.A.R.E. Act Would Encourage Charitable Contributions
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Legislation to grant new tax breaks for charitable contributions, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., passed the Senate Wednesday without a controversial provision backed by the Bush Administration that would have opened more government funding to religious organizations.
The bill would allow tax deductions for charitable contributions by the 86 million taxpayers who do not itemize their tax returns. It would also provide $150 million a year to expand services at community and faith-based organizations.
Some local charities can expect to see an upturn in their donations if the bill passes the House, as expected, and is signed into law, according to David R. Kennedy, president and CEO of United Way of Norwalk & Wilton. Kennedy said he thinks giving tax deductions for charitable donations to residents who don't itemize their taxes would help the local United Way get out of an expected 2 percent decline in contributions decline this year.
"One of the results of that legislation may help people feel better about the contributions they make. In doing that, they may make larger contributions than they usually would," Kennedy said.
Lieberman, who co-authored the bi-partisan bill with Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said he was relieved the bill survived a "torturous" path to the Senate floor but was disappointed that the bill dropped President Bush's plan to allot federal funds to religious organizations on an equal footing with secular non-profit groups.
The Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Act would allow taxpayers who file their taxes using a short form to deduct up to $250 for individuals and $500 for couples for charitable contributions. It also allows individuals to donate from their Individual Retirement Accounts without penalty, and provides tax deductions for donating food and books to charitable groups.
In order to win the support needed for Senate passage, proponents of the legislation were forced to drop most of its "faith-based initiative" components.
"What started out as a faith-based initiative ended up as, more broadly, a charity-based initiative," Lieberman said at a press conference following the 95-5 Senate passage of the legislation.
In comments on the Senate floor Wednesday, Lieberman addressed the changes made to garner strong bi-partisan support for his two-year long effort: "It no longer contains any provisions targeted specifically at carving out a larger, lawful space for faith-based groups in our social service programs, a development I am disappointed about."
Lieberman said one of the best things about the legislation was the restoration of $1.375 billion in Social Services Block Grant funding that had been promised in a 1996 welfare reform law. The addition of this money will bring the annual total for this program to $2.8 billion. The restoration could help Connecticut's 2-1-1 Infoline, a health and human services information hotline, reopen three regional offices that closed because of a shortage of funding, Lieberman said.
Connecticut's social service block grants have decreased about $15 million in total since 1996 and the funding increase in the bill would fully restore that gap, he said.
While the White House generally supports the bill, it objects to the increase in block grant funding.
The religious components of the bill were strongly opposed by civil rights organizations. Although most of the religious support was taken out of the legislation, the bill would still grant federal money to some religious groups that provide social services. According to Santorum, 75 percent of food pantries, 71 percent of food kitchens and 43 percent of shelters have religious affiliations.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
New Study Finds Radio Alcohol Ads Heard More By Children
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – While a study released Wednesday found that children and teenagers are more prone to hear alcohol radio advertisements than adults, the manager of seven Connecticut radio stations said he airs such ads only on broadcasts geared toward listeners 25 and older.
"Radio Daze," a report by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, found that in 2001 and 2002 youths ages 12 to 20 were exposed to 8 percent more beer advertising, 12 percent more advertising for "malternative" and "alcopop" beverages-such as Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice-and 14 percent more advertising for hard liquor than adults. Wine advertisers, however, exposed youths to significantly less radio advertising than adults, showing how advertisers can target an adult audience without overexposing youths, the study found.
"The fact that kids under 21 hear more beer and distilled spirits ads than people 21 and older should concern everyone who cares about our children," CAMY executive director Jim O'Hara said.
John Ryan, general manager of Cox Radio's seven Connecticut stations, said he permits alcohol advertisements only on stations that target adults who are at least 25.
"We would never take liquor, beer or wine advertising on a contemporary hit radio station that would hit people 15 to 18 years of age," Ryan said.
Cox's general sales manager Scott Summerlin said all songs played on the adult contemporary station WEZN-FM Star 99.9 have been tested to appeal to an audience 25 years and older.
In light of the study, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. said he intends to monitor underage drinking trends and alcohol ads targeting youth. Dodd said he might hold a hearing on the issue.
"In the fight against underage drinking, we all have to live up to our responsibility," Dodd said. "These new findings…tell me that the industry advertisers need to do more to prevent the marketing of alcohol product to children. We intend to hold advertisers accountable."
Lobbyists for alcohol manufacturers discounted the study. Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute, a national association for the brewing industry, said illegal underage drinking in America is declining.
"Some organizations … must ignore these facts in order to generate headlines from their studies," Becker said. "The CAMY study uses advertising market data but interprets it in questionable ways."
Becker said that although adolescents are bombarded with alcohol advertisements through radio and television, 83 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds are not "current drinkers." He said parents have more to do with whether their children drink than advertising does.
A 2001 Household Survey on Drug Abuse released last week by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that among youths 12 to 17, an estimated 17.3 percent used alcohol in the previous month.
Frank Coleman, spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council, said that although a greater percentage of underage listeners hear radio advertisements, the actual number of listeners over 21 who hear the advertisements far outweighs those below the drinking age.
"It's blatantly misleading," Coleman said. "They are shameful for misleading people and senators."
The CAMY study also criticized federal oversight of radio alcohol advertisements, saying the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) failed to follow up on its 1999 recommendations to reduce youth exposure.
"We think, for instance, if the FTC takes a look at its recommendations from 1999, they will see that the industry really hasn't followed through on any of the FTC recommendations to limit youth exposure," O'Hara said.
Lee Peeler, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said that several manufacturers, including Coors Brewing Co., heeded the FTC's advice and established a monitoring agreement with the Better Business Bureau.
Earlier CAMY studies found that youths also were overexposed to television and magazine ads for alcohol.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Shays Says Strong Incumbency A Response From Voters
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Eight-term Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, said Thursday he mentally prepares two speeches each election night, aware that voters might have decided to send him packing.
"When I win reelection, I'm excited about it but I don't have any illusions," Shays said in an interview. "Two years from now, I can be on the opposite side."
But 4th district voters have yet to give Shays a scare, returning him to his seat with a comfortable majority in each campaign. Part of this success rate, Shays said, is the voters' approval of his job.
"Incumbents tend to have an advantage particularly if they're doing a good job," said Shays, who plans to seek a 9th full term in 2004. "But if they're not doing a good job, being an incumbent can be a pretty big disadvantage."
Incumbents, however, have other advantages that keep them entrenched in office-mainly, name recognition and non-competitive districts, according to University of Connecticut political science professor Ken Dautrich. Access to money, media coverage and free mailing, he said, keeps incumbents' names and faces fresh in voters' minds come election time.
"More than half the battle with a congressional election is name recognition," Dautrich said in an interview Tuesday. Challengers to an incumbent's seat, he said, usually need a deep-pocketed campaign fund and near perfect campaign management to raise their name recognition to that of their opponent.
Name recognition oftentimes translates to campaign funding, where Shays has enjoyed a consistent advantage. Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that Shays raised and spent more than eight times as much money as his democratic opponent, Stephanie Sanchez of Greenwich, in the 2002 congressional campaign. Shays raised $975,551 over the 2001-02 election cycle, spending all but $60,438. that unspent sum alone was more than half the amount that Sanchez raised in her entire campaign, records show.
The same two candidates ran against each other in the 2000 election, with similar numbers, as Shays spent $1,401,299 in route to winning 58 percent of the vote while Sanchez spent $172,155. That has been the pattern since Shays won a special House election in 1987: he has always won at least 57 percent of the vote and has always outspent his opponent by at least $300,000.
Sanchez said in an interview Wednesday that free mailings for challengers and free television time for both candidates would be a step toward curbing the incumbent's advantage in name recognition. State Democratic Party chairman George Jepsen suggested capping spending and publicly financing campaigns to reduce the advantage.
"What's fair about a 98 or 100 percent reelection rate?" Sanchez said, referring to the 98 percent success rate that the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) has identified for House incumbents. "Where's the democracy-the level playing field-in that?"
Shays said reelecting him time and again represents constituents voicing their approval. "Instead of saying that someone who has been in office for a long time is not doing a good job, what I would say is they are doing a good job or they wouldn't have been elected," he said.
Continuity in Congress also benefits people back in the district. "I have more experience, I have more authority and I have more knowledge of the district," Shays said.
Sanchez, who raised $118,970 for the 2002 campaign, said she fell prey to what he described as Shays' advantage in getting contributions from individuals from political action committees (PACs) trying to gain access to the congressman. Shays received $157,257 in PAC contributions, compared to Sanchez' $8,900, FEC records show.
The CRP found that $62,000 of Shays' PAC contributions came from the finance, insurance and real estate industries and $47,500 from organized labor. He also received $18,825 from ideological and single-issue groups and $10,000 from the transportation industry.
Sanchez said the Shays-sponsored Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, which went into effect Nov. 6, the day after the past elections, would add to the fundraising advantage incumbents have. "The people that want to donate the large amounts, and the special interests that want access to these legislators-they're going to find ways to donate to them," she said.
Shays said the law deals with reducing the influence of corporate contributions and union dues money that distorted campaigns. However, he said, he would advocate publicly financing congressional elections and establishing low television advertisement rates during elections to level the playing field.
Thomas Mann, a senior fellow who studies campaign finance for the Brookings Institution, said the new law would have little or no bearing on an incumbent's advantage. "The effort to improve the competitiveness of elections will require a subsequent reform agenda having to do with free TV time and such other things," he said Wednesday.
Fairfield resident Charlie Gibbons, a Republican, said he and his wife, Jane, a Democrat, find few political issues to agree on but both support Shays as a candidate, contributing $1,750 to his campaign committee since 2000. But despite Shays' easy victories, Gibbons said he thinks incumbents don't have an advantage because they have more to answer to than their challengers.
"A new person coming in can say anything, promise anything, do anything-they don't have to deliver," Gibbons said Wednesday. "They (incumbents) can't hide from tough decisions or just say things that make people happy."
The other main factor keeping lawmakers in their House seats is that most congressional districts lean toward one of the major parties, making it difficult for a candidate in the district's minority party to win an election, Dautrich said.
Connecticut, however, has a higher concentration of independent voters than most states-42 percent compared to a nationwide average of about 30 percent-so the state's congressional districts are harder to characterize as either Republican or Democratic, said Dautrich, who heads UConn's Center for Survey and Research Analysis. Shays knows this and said his "term limit" comes up every two years, when he has to win reelection in a "totally swing district."
"Our founding fathers devised a system where you had to go out into the marketplace and make sure that people wanted you back in office," he said.
Asked what it would take to mount a serious challenge to Shays, Sanchez responded, "If I could raise $1 million, I could afford to get my message out and reach the voters. No matter how idealistic or optimistic I'd like to be, realistically, it's close to impossible."
Jepsen, a former state Senate majority leader, also spoke uncertainly about being able to find a viable Democratic challenger for Shays' seat.
"There's a strong case to be built against Chris Shays, but it would take a well-financed, strong candidate who has spent a lot of time doing it," Jespen said. "No incumbent is unbeatable, but the system is stacked."
When asked the same question, Shays said he knew there were people who could present a stiff challenge, "and I hope they don't run."
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Shays Warns Terror Threats Will Be Real
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, said Wednesday that despite the recent absence of terrorist activities, his constituents should heed warnings of potential terrorist attacks as America begins its war with Iraq.
"(People) need to recognize that the terrorists have suspended their activity in anticipation that there would be a conflict, and the public should know that the warnings about potential terrorist attacks are very real," Shays said after a meeting here with visiting members of the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut.
Referring to U.S. intelligence information, Shays said, "Our information was that they (terrorists) would be told to suspend activity until the war begins."
Shays said President Bush's address on Monday night was a clear, non-aggressive statement outlining why the U.S. needs to take action. He added that the president put careful thought into his decision and will make sure to minimize American casualties.
"I never want to send our troops into battle without our having the advantage," Shays said.
Public comments approving Shays' support of military action in Iraq have come in quietly to his offices over the past two days while the volume of opposition has diminished, Chief of Staff Betsy Hawkings said. About 40 people called in against the war and 10 in favor since Bush issued his ultimatum to on Monday night, a change in the "hundreds" of opposition phone calls in the past couple of months.
"Our phones were very quiet," Hawkings said Wednesday.
She said a Feb. 23 issue forum Shays held in Westport was an attempt to clarify for constituents why he approved a tough approach to removing Saddam Hussein from power.
"The tenor of the mail changed from 'please don't support the use of force' to 'please change your position' because people were made more aware of what Chris' position was," Hawkings said.
Sentiment nationwide saw President Bush's approval ratings jump 5 points to 64 percent following the speech, according to a CBS News poll. Of those surveyed, 77 percent generally agreed with what he said, with 72 percent supporting his 48-hour ultimatum for Hussein to leave Iraq or face war.
Hawkings said that although support in Connecticut's Fourth District for Bush's position typically falls below the national level, the number of negative comments that Shays' offices have received is waning. One e-mail Tuesday simply asked Shays, "What's taking so long?" referring to the delay of military action in Iraq.
A spike in approval for the president and his actions is typical as the country moves closer to war, said Chris Barnes, associate director of the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis.
The "rally-around-the-flag effect" increases patriotic sentiment as military action draws near, Barnes said. "Essentially, they are rallying around the President, in particular, because there is usually a specific threat to the United States or the case has been made as to why specific action is necessary," Barnes said.
Presidential approval ratings tend to remain high as long as success abounds on the battlefields, but can turn south if the country is bogged down in a lengthy war, Barnes said. Because the country is divided over taking military action in Iraq, the public would have less tolerance for a drawn out war, Barnes said.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Conn. Firefighters Lack Federal Money, Resources, Training
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Connecticut firefighters said Wednesday they are frustrated with the lack of money, equipment and training coming from the federal government, especially in light of war with Iraq, which will mean an increased demand for first responders.
About 40 members of the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut, a group of unionized fire departments, expressed their concerns during a breakfast meeting here with five of the seven members of the state's congressional delegation.
"Firefighters as a whole are frustrated that at a time like this, where we can assume an escalated need for action at home, we have yet to see any federal dollars come in," said Michael Palmer, President of Stamford Fire Fighters Local 786.
Lieutenant Michael Michelsen of the Wilton Fire Department said fire departments in the state need to improve communication and coordination among themselves. Doing so, he said, would allow departments to pool their resources.
"We need to get politicians to embrace these concepts of working together and implement them to make this happen," Michelsen said
Bridgeport firefighter Michael Donovan expressed concern about firefighters' receiving compensation if they miss work because of side effects from smallpox shots. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, agreed with his worry and said he would work closely with the firefighters to deal with their concerns.
"It's wise not to take these shots unless there's protection to you and your family, and, frankly, I wouldn't either," Shays said.
Among other issues the lawmakers discussed with the firefighters was the right of firefighters to bargain collectively, their lack of new equipment and training and the need for more federal money for fire departments.
Several lawmakers said they were working to increase the money available for training and equipment that the Federal Emergency Management Agency can give to fire departments under last year's Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement (FIRE) Act.
"We authorized $900 million, (the Bush administration) only put in $750 million, so we've still got some work to do," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said.
Last week, Dodd reintroduced legislation that would provide funds to increase firefighting forces nationwide by 75,000 over the next seven years. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Act of 2003 aims to fill the two-thirds of fire departments nationwide that operate with inadequate staffing, according to Dodd's office.
Shays said that while he supports collective bargaining and the SAFER Act, he wants to reconsider a proposal to compensate firefighters who contract lung disease, heart disease or cancer or suffer heart attacks while on the job. He said he wants to make sure the proposal distinguished firefighters more prone to such illnesses, such as smokers, from others.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said the federal government must devote more of its resources to fire departments that provide the first line of security for Americans.
"There's no liberty without security, and that's what you are all about," Lieberman said.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and Rob Simmons, R-2, also attended the breakfast, which was the Connecticut group's last event during the International Association of Firefighters' national conference.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Local Evacuation Routes OK for Indian Point Attack, Conn. OEM Says
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Fairfield County residents should depend on local evacuation plans developed for hurricanes and floods if radiation released from the Indian Point nuclear plant contaminated the area, John Wiltse, director of the state Office of Emergency Management (OEM), said Thursday.
Wiltse said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) guidelines require state emergency management offices to provide detailed evacuation plans within a 10-mile radius of the nation's103 nuclear reactors.
The closest Connecticut's borders come to the Buchanan, N.Y., site is 22 miles, Wiltse said. The state OEM does not have emergency plans set up specifically for Indian Point even though congressional hearings on Tuesday found that radiation releases could spread as far as 50 miles in the event of an attack on the plant.
"The federal government hasn't made a definitive statement that more-detailed plans are required beyond a 10-mile zone," Wiltse said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) established the 10-mile radius based on worst-case scenario studies in the event of complete incineration of a nuclear plant's core and the resulting release of radioactive materials, Wiltse said. The 10-mile emergency planning zone must maintain warning sirens and regularly conduct evacuation exercises monitored by the NRC and FEMA.
Beyond the 10-mile radius, the Connecticut OEM would protect state residents from the effects of radiation, Wiltse said, by monitoring radiation levels, protecting food systems, informing the public and guiding local officials.
Wiltse said local evacuation plans already in place for other disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, should be used if residents living beyond the 10-mile radius spontaneously decide to evacuate after an attack on Indian Point.
A Marist College Institute for Public Opinion poll conducted last March found that 60 percent of residents within a 10-50 mile radius of Indian Point would attempt to evacuate if the plant were attacked.
Wiltse said that because the world has changed drastically since Sept. 11, 2001, with threats of terrorism becoming common, the 10-mile radius may need to be scrutinized more closely. However, he added, FEMA must consider the limited resources with which emergency management offices work.
"We need to take a look at this logically and rationally, see we have limited resources and then figure out where we need to put them," Wiltse said. "Until then, all residents should be concerned about the world we live in and take basic local precautions."
FEMA is currently determining whether Indian Point's emergency preparedness plans adequately protect the estimated 20 million residents living within a 50-mile radius of the plant. Once FEMA issues its decision on the plans, the NRC must decide whether to keep Indian Point open.
Hubert Miller, the NRC's regional administrator, said Tuesday at a hearing by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management that the NRC has always relied on FEMA certification before deciding whether to grant a license to a nuclear plant.
The New York state-sponsored Witt report, released last month, found that Indian Point's emergency preparedness plans were inadequate to protect the public. James Lee Witt Associates, headed by a former FEMA director, conducted the report.
In light of the Witt report, several members of Congress, including Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4), have called for a shutdown of the plant. In a letter last month, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, asked Gov. George Pataki, R-N.Y., to temporarily close Indian Point until safety issues were addressed.
Connecticut Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman sent letters Thursday to the chairmen of the NRC and FEMA, asking the agencies to take immediate action on safety deficiencies at Indian Point. The letters cite several examples of unresolved safety problems and ask the agencies to solve them quickly to avoid jeopardizing the integrity of the emergency planning and certification process.
"The safety of Connecticut and New York residents should be of paramount importance, and there appears to be unanimous agreement that the existing emergency preparedness plan for Indian Point falls short," the letters said.
Indian Point, owned by Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc., has two pressurized water reactors, which were built in 1974 and 1976. Their operating licenses expire in 2013 and 2015, respectively, according to the Entergy Web site.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Constituent Opposition on Iraq Won’t Faze Shays
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – While Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4) would love to have strong support from his constituents for military action in Iraq, his support of striking preemptively remains steadfast even though some members of the Norwalk Common Council disagree with him, Betsy Hawkings, his chief of staff, said Wednesday.
"Chris has said, 'I would rather tell you the truth, do what I think is right and lose the election than put my finger in the wind, do something I don't agree with and don't think is right just to win reelection,' " Hawkings said.
The Norwalk Common Council was deadlocked at Tuesday's meeting on a resolution opposing preemptive U.S. military action against Iraq. The motion was tabled until next week.
Hawkings said such a resolution, while it expresses legitimate concerns, would not sway Shays' opinion.
"Chris works hard to be responsive to the concerns of his constituents, but that can mean that in a situation like this, they need to hear the truth about a very real threat," Hawkings said.
Shays said that while he is doing all he can to convey his reasons for supporting military action against Iraq, he does sometimes withhold sensitive, classified information, according to Hawkings.
"He thinks it's critical that he do all he can to communicate to his constituents how real the threat is, but at the end of the day there may be information that he has that he can't give out," Hawkings said.
These comments followed a week of community meetings throughout the 4th District, which culminated in a forum on the Iraq issue Sunday in Westport. Both Shays' office and those who attended Sunday's meeting said attendees opposed preemptive military action instead of prolonged United Nations weapons inspections.
Hawkings pointed to the 23 hearings Shays held before Sept. 11 about terrorist threats at home and abroad as chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security as assurance that the congressman has closely monitored the Iraqi threat to America.
Over the course of 41 hearings, some classified, since 1999, the subcommittee has found that Iraq produces illegal weapons and materials and could eventually use them to threaten the United States.
"The mere existence of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of despots, tyrants and terrorists constitutes an imminent threat to our security," Shays said during last October's debates on the Iraqi war resolution. "That threat must be addressed before it manifests itself full-blown in a smallpox epidemic or a mushroom cloud."
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
House Hearing Criticizes Indian Point Evacuation Plans
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – House lawmakers accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at a hearing Tuesday of near-outright abandonment of a report that rejected the emergency preparedness plans of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. If attacked, the plant could emit radiation that would threaten all of Fairfield County.
Other House members said at the hearing that in an age of terrorism, the plant, in Buchanan, N.Y., poses too much of a threat to allow it to continue operating and that no plan could adequately protect the densely populated New York City suburbs - a sentiment that Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4) echoed.
"I am concerned about the security of our nation's nuclear power plants," Shays said Tuesday in an interview. "The fact is these plants present an ideal target for terrorists."
Shays said the New York state-sponsored Witt report, released last month, which evaluated the plant's emergency response plan, found that Indian Point's planning failed to consider the possibility of a terrorist attack and that evacuation procedures to protect local residents from radiation poisoning were insufficient. The report was conducted by the crisis consulting firm James Lee Witt Associates, which is headed by a former FEMA director.
"In light of the significant problems identified by the Witt report, I requested the Nuclear Regulatory Commission close plant operations until the issues raised by the report are fully resolved," Shays said, referring to the agency that decides if a plant can operate.
"It is critical that the standards used to certify emergency evacuation plans for nuclear power plants are strong enough to meet the post-September 11 reality," he added.
The NRC has always relied on a certification from FEMA that an adequate emergency plan is in place before giving permission to continue operating, Hubert Miller, the NRC's regional administrator, said at the hearing.
Last Friday, FEMA issued a preliminary report saying that New York failed to provide it with critical information it needs to conduct a full assessment of the emergency plan. FEMA requested the information by May 2, before it sends a final report to the NRC.
At the hearing, Rep. Sue Kelly, R-N.Y., gave acting-FEMA regional director Joe Picciano, who attended the hearing, 30 days to submit a report addressing three areas: local officials' concerns about the Witt report, the issue of terrorism and its impact on the emergency plan, and the special requirements of high-population areas.
"If there has ever been a time for the federal agency in charge of managing emergencies to step forward and exert common-sense leadership in the name of public safety, it is now," Kelly said. "But instead, FEMA sits on its hands, with its head in the sand, dismissing the major conclusions of an independent report calling the current evacuation plan inadequate."
Other lawmakers testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management questioned the feasibility of evacuating the 20 million people who live within a 50-mile radius of the plant, where people would suffer most from radiation releases. Norwalk lies within a 30-mile radius of the plant.
A poll conducted by Marist College found that 60 percent of residents living within a 10-50 mile radius of Indian Point would attempt to evacuate.
An NRC-commissioned study found that a successful terrorist attack on the plant could do over $500 billion in damage and result in over a quarter-million cancer-related fatalities, according to testimony.
The House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, which Shays chairs, announced last week it would hold a hearing March 10 on FEMA's role in evacuation plans at nuclear facilities, including Indian Point and Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Conn.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
