Ray Shamie
Raymond Shamie (1921–1999) was an American politician from the state of Massachusetts.
Raymond "Ray" Shamie was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father died in a traffic accident while he was in high school, and in 1937, during the Depression, he got a job as a busboy, washing dishes and mopping floors at a Horn & Hardart automat.[1]
Shamie was twice a Massachusetts Republican nominee for the United States Senate, and served as the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party from 1987 to 1991.
Ray Shamie was the inventor of the innovative "Metal Bellows", a flexible shaft coupling that is used in aerospace and many other fields, for which he held the patent. [2]
In 1982, Shamie, a millionaire businessman and metalwork entrepreneur (primarily from the invention of Metal Bellows), challenged longtime incumbent Senator Ted Kennedy. In a Democratic-leaning election cycle, Shamie lost in a landslide, receiving 38 percent of the vote against Kennedy's 61 percent. In 1984, he announced that he would challenge Senator Paul Tsongas for re-election; however, Tsongas, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma, did not run for re-election. Shamie won the Republican primary for the now-open seat, beating former U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson. In the general election, he faced off against Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor John Kerry. Shamie lost the Senate race to Kerry, 55–45.
Shamie was known for a sense of class and dignity that gained him the respect of both sides of the political aisle. In 1984, David Brudnoy wrote in the National Review of the “appeal, decency, and attractiveness” of Shamie. Shamie strived to maintain a human touch in his politics; his first campaign’s political slogan was, “You can call me Ray!”[3]
After his second bid for the Senate, he became the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. He served in that capacity until 1991. He is credited with helping Republican William Weld win the governorship in 1990.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edward Brooke |
Republican nominee for United States Senator from Massachusetts (Class 2) 1984 |
Succeeded by Jim Rappaport |
| Preceded by Andrew Natsios |
Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party 1987-1990 |
Succeeded by Leon Lombardi |
- ↑ Jacoby, Jeff (24 May 1999). "Ray Shamie's last campaign". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ↑ http://www.google.com/patents/US3191285
- ↑ The Beacon Hill Institute, Biography of Ray Shamie, Vol. 3, #4, Summer 1999