By Christopher Keating

September 1, 2010

The Congressional race in lower Fairfield County is heating up as U.S. Rep. Jim Himes has been placed on CNN's Top 100 of the "most vulnerable'' races in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Himes, a freshman Democrat, scored an upset victory in 2008 over longtime U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays as numerous Democrats came out in Bridgeport to vote for Barack Obama at the top of the ticket. Obama blew out Republican John McCain in Bridgeport and other communities in the 17-town district that stretches from Greenwich to Oxford.

Obama is not on the ballot this year, and Himes is facing state Sen. Dan Debicella of Shelton, whose father was a Bridgeport police officer. Debicella went on to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Traditionally, the seat in lower Fairfield County has been held by the Republicans. Before Shays held the seat for 21 years, the late Stewart McKinney had it for 17 years. Before McKinney, the local Congressman was a relatively unknown politician from Greenwich named Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. He led the district in the late 1960s before running for the U.S. Senate in 1970 and winning his first of three terms that made him a national figure.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/31/cnn-100-more-dems-added-to-list-of-key-house-races/

While CNN has its own rating system, a separate rating in Washington, D.C. by CQ - Roll Call rates the race as "safe Democratic'' for Himes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/politics3726337