Innovator
09-14-2011, 09:20 AM
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Round-2-McMahon-to-declare-U-S-Senate-candidacy-2169290.php
By this time next week, Republican Linda McMahon will formally be in the hunt for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring incumbent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in 2012, reprising a candidacy for the same office undertaken last year by the wealthy matriarch of professional wrestling.
McMahon, 62, is scheduled to announce her entry into the race next Tuesday, multiple sources confirmed to Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
McMahon's handlers still haven't settled on the venue, though a person familiar with her plans said a manufacturing plant was a leading candidate to host what will be a jobs-oriented speech by the 2010 Republican Senate nominee and Greenwich resident.
Chris LaCivita, a spokesman for McMahon, who fell 11 points short to Democrat Richard Blumenthal last year despite a $50 million personal investment in the race, declined to comment Tuesday.
A number of political operatives characterized the timing of the announcement, which they said was moved up, as a pre-emptive strike by McMahon against her likely GOP primary foe, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th.
Shays declared his candidacy in August but can't start campaigning until the end of the month, when his stint as co-chairman of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting concludes.
That will give him seven months to curry favor within the GOP ahead of its May 2012 state party convention, something former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd, was unable to do in 2010. Simmons went on to lose to McMahon in the August primary as well.
"I'm going to fully participate in the convention, with the intention of winning it," Shays said. "But I appreciate the fact that, win or lose the convention, that ultimately there's going to be a primary. I am going to keep my eye on the ultimate contest. There's no point in winning the convention and losing the primary."
Shays strongly intimated that he won't be tacking to the right either.
"I'm going not going to try to win the primary to lose the general election," said Shays, who lost his seat of 21 years in 2008 to Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes.
Republicans are already scrambling to pick sides in what is shaping up to be a nationally watched primary tilt.
Do they choose the former chief executive of Stamford-based WWE and self-made millionaire in McMahon, who ran on a platform of job creation but was dogged by questions about wrestlers using steroids and ultimately struggled to make inroads among female voters? Or do they go with the self-proclaimed centrist and establishment candidate in Shays, who was assailed for his support of the Iraq war and had his trust betrayed when his former campaign manager embezzled $250,000 from his coffers in his last run?
Republican Tom Foley, who fell short in last year's gubernatorial contest against Dannel P. Malloy, is throwing his support to his fellow Greenwich Republican McMahon.
"She ran a very credible campaign," Foley said. "She was totally committed in her time and resources she was willing to put in. She had a statewide ID and she had a respectable showing."
Foley couldn't make a similar case for Shays, who was the last GOP incumbent in the House when he was defeated in 2008.
"Chris, he doesn't have statewide name ID," Foley said. "Can he raise the money particularly if Linda is his opponent?"
Former Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, a longtime Shays ally from Stamford, sees things much differently.
"My concern is that Linda spent a lot of money in the last campaign and didn't win," Fedele said. "My sense right now would be, based on his background and what he's done, that Chris Shays could win this race."
Cross-over appeal and electability trump resources for Fedele, who lost the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary to Foley.
"I like Linda. She's a friend. (But) we have to look beyond the primary," Fedele said.
The only declared candidate on the Republican side so far is Hartford lawyer Brian K. Hill, a former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps officer who lives in Windsor.
The Democratic field consists of U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, state Rep. William Tong of Stamford, Sylvester Salcedo of Orange and Lee Whitnum of Greenwich.
Chris DePino, a former state GOP chairman-turned-lobbyist, welcomed McMahon's entry into the race.
"Getting McMahon in the race is the singular best thing that could happen to the Republican Party right now," he said.
Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, whose late father once held the same congressional seat as Shays, is undecided.
"Clearly I think she is probably going to be a better candidate than she was the first time, just through experience," McKinney said of McMahon.
But, he added, "Two years ago in the nominating process, I think Republicans thought an enormous amount of money was going to bring a significant advantage. We've learned it does -- it's an absolute necessity in politics -- but it's not the only factor and it's not the most important factor."
Former Yale University political science professor Donald Green, who now teaches at Columbia University, said McMahon must improve on her cost-to-vote ratio.
"I think one of the lessons in the year in which she ran, whether it was Connecticut or California, very, very well-funded candidates went down in flames," Green said.
Read more: http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Round-2-McMahon-to-declare-U-S-Senate-candidacy-2169290.php#ixzz1Xvt1M2Mx
By this time next week, Republican Linda McMahon will formally be in the hunt for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring incumbent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in 2012, reprising a candidacy for the same office undertaken last year by the wealthy matriarch of professional wrestling.
McMahon, 62, is scheduled to announce her entry into the race next Tuesday, multiple sources confirmed to Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
McMahon's handlers still haven't settled on the venue, though a person familiar with her plans said a manufacturing plant was a leading candidate to host what will be a jobs-oriented speech by the 2010 Republican Senate nominee and Greenwich resident.
Chris LaCivita, a spokesman for McMahon, who fell 11 points short to Democrat Richard Blumenthal last year despite a $50 million personal investment in the race, declined to comment Tuesday.
A number of political operatives characterized the timing of the announcement, which they said was moved up, as a pre-emptive strike by McMahon against her likely GOP primary foe, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th.
Shays declared his candidacy in August but can't start campaigning until the end of the month, when his stint as co-chairman of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting concludes.
That will give him seven months to curry favor within the GOP ahead of its May 2012 state party convention, something former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd, was unable to do in 2010. Simmons went on to lose to McMahon in the August primary as well.
"I'm going to fully participate in the convention, with the intention of winning it," Shays said. "But I appreciate the fact that, win or lose the convention, that ultimately there's going to be a primary. I am going to keep my eye on the ultimate contest. There's no point in winning the convention and losing the primary."
Shays strongly intimated that he won't be tacking to the right either.
"I'm going not going to try to win the primary to lose the general election," said Shays, who lost his seat of 21 years in 2008 to Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes.
Republicans are already scrambling to pick sides in what is shaping up to be a nationally watched primary tilt.
Do they choose the former chief executive of Stamford-based WWE and self-made millionaire in McMahon, who ran on a platform of job creation but was dogged by questions about wrestlers using steroids and ultimately struggled to make inroads among female voters? Or do they go with the self-proclaimed centrist and establishment candidate in Shays, who was assailed for his support of the Iraq war and had his trust betrayed when his former campaign manager embezzled $250,000 from his coffers in his last run?
Republican Tom Foley, who fell short in last year's gubernatorial contest against Dannel P. Malloy, is throwing his support to his fellow Greenwich Republican McMahon.
"She ran a very credible campaign," Foley said. "She was totally committed in her time and resources she was willing to put in. She had a statewide ID and she had a respectable showing."
Foley couldn't make a similar case for Shays, who was the last GOP incumbent in the House when he was defeated in 2008.
"Chris, he doesn't have statewide name ID," Foley said. "Can he raise the money particularly if Linda is his opponent?"
Former Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, a longtime Shays ally from Stamford, sees things much differently.
"My concern is that Linda spent a lot of money in the last campaign and didn't win," Fedele said. "My sense right now would be, based on his background and what he's done, that Chris Shays could win this race."
Cross-over appeal and electability trump resources for Fedele, who lost the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary to Foley.
"I like Linda. She's a friend. (But) we have to look beyond the primary," Fedele said.
The only declared candidate on the Republican side so far is Hartford lawyer Brian K. Hill, a former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps officer who lives in Windsor.
The Democratic field consists of U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, state Rep. William Tong of Stamford, Sylvester Salcedo of Orange and Lee Whitnum of Greenwich.
Chris DePino, a former state GOP chairman-turned-lobbyist, welcomed McMahon's entry into the race.
"Getting McMahon in the race is the singular best thing that could happen to the Republican Party right now," he said.
Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, whose late father once held the same congressional seat as Shays, is undecided.
"Clearly I think she is probably going to be a better candidate than she was the first time, just through experience," McKinney said of McMahon.
But, he added, "Two years ago in the nominating process, I think Republicans thought an enormous amount of money was going to bring a significant advantage. We've learned it does -- it's an absolute necessity in politics -- but it's not the only factor and it's not the most important factor."
Former Yale University political science professor Donald Green, who now teaches at Columbia University, said McMahon must improve on her cost-to-vote ratio.
"I think one of the lessons in the year in which she ran, whether it was Connecticut or California, very, very well-funded candidates went down in flames," Green said.
Read more: http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Round-2-McMahon-to-declare-U-S-Senate-candidacy-2169290.php#ixzz1Xvt1M2Mx