As reported by Ctlocalpolitics.net:

...Jim Himes has a new campaign manager, Dana Houle. Houle was a chief of staff to Congressman Paul Hodes (D-NH), and one of the contributing editors at Daily Kos.

While some of the more conservative journalists and bloggers in the area tried to make hay out of this, supposed, '9th-inning' move on Himes' part, the Stamford Advocate, one of the larger dailies in the district, ran the following comment from previous Himes' campaign manager Maura Keaney in a front-page story, today, entitled: "Himes shakes up his staff."

Keaney, who worked as a field organizer in the state for Lamont's 2006 campaign and in a similar capacity for U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said she was proud of her work with Himes and used a sports analogy to describe the change.

"I've been pitching now for eight innings, and I've recruited an experienced closer who has got a fresh arm and a history of winning similar contests who will take us to a win on election night," Keaney said.

"We've always believed this is going to be a really close election. And we've made tremendous progress since I joined the campaign last April, when we had no money and no name recognition."

Under Keaney's management, Himes "...dominated the Aug. 12 primary over fellow Greenwich Democrat Lee Whitnum with 88 percent of the vote," also from the Stamford Advocate article, quoted immediately above.

Himes is running against incumbent GOP'er Chris Shays, the one and only Republican member of Congress from New England.

Having run the media effort for various Democratic candidates in the area in previous years, as well as a previous Democratic challenger in CT-04, I can  say, firsthand, this CD is quite an anomaly. It has a Democratic registration edge, but with a decidedly Yankee Republican-leaning Independent voting bloc. It's also Joe Lieberman's (original) home district. Media-wise, it's mostly in the super-expensive NYC metro market, but there's also coverage from the New Haven- and Hartford-area outlets.