Name Ray Shamie Role Politician | Died 1999 Party Republican Party | |
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Raymond Shamie (1921–1999) was an American politician from 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 Great Depression, he got a job as a busboy, washing dishes and mopping floors at a Horn & Hardart automat.
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.
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 and Watergate icon 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 strived to maintain a human touch in his politics; his first campaign's political slogan was, "You can call me Ray!"
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.