Free Republic

In the last election cycle, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon spent $50 million of her own fortune in an unsuccessful quest to fill Connecticut's vacant U.S. Senate seat, losing badly to her Democratic opponent, Richard Blumenthal. With the lessons of being a novice candidate behind her, McMahon is back for Round 2, poised to enter the 2012 race to succeed retiring four-term Sen. Joe Lieberman. A source close to McMahon’s future campaign confirmed to RealClearPolitics that the Republican hopeful will make her candidacy official in the next two weeks. (News of her plans was first reported by The...

In case there was any doubt, Linda McMahon’s political career may not be over.   The former wrestling executive turned Connecticut GOP Senate candidate has scheduled a personal meeting with National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) on Capitol Hill. The date and purpose of the meeting, however, is unclear.   “I don’t know what her message is going to be, but I sort of suspect she isn’t finished,” Cornyn said in a recent Roll Call interview when asked about McMahon, who garnered 43 percent of the vote in Connecticut’s recent Senate contest against Democratic Sen.-elect Richard Blumenthal.  ...

When a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate sinks $50 million into a losing campaign, it's natural for the less-monied runners-up for the GOP nomination to wonder if they would have performed better. Neither uttered the specific words "I told you so," but in separate interviews former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons and economist/radio host Peter Schiff maintained they were better candidates than wrestling executive Linda McMahon. "There are a number of issue areas where I simply would not be subject to the kind of attacks that (Democratic foe Richard Blumenthal) leveled against Mrs. McMahon," said Simmons, who had criticized McMahon's background running...

LOS ANGELES - Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Linda McMahon had a lot in common. All sharp, successful businesswomen who made millions as executives in the private sector, they identified 2010 as an apt historical moment for a Republican candidate with no political experience to break into politics. In pursuit of higher office, each committed considerable resources - more than $200 million combined - to challenge seemingly vulnerable Democrats. Each risk taker came up far short of her goal. Whitman, the 54-year-old former chief executive of eBay, burned through more than $140 million of her own money in a colossal...

They roared as “Triple H” — U.S. Senate hopeful Linda McMahon’s son-in-law — pounded his opponent in the ring. They cheered as her husband Vince urged them to wear their World Wrestling Entertainment T-shirts to the polls on Tuesday. They whooped and hollered for the busty “Divas” who stomped their rival hussies. Then the diehards of World Wrestling nation filed out of the arena—some of them, at least, promising to vote for the candidate herself on Tuesday. The wrasslin’ and unstated politickin’ took center stage Saturday, just three days before Election Day, at the Hartford XL Center. Saturday’s World Wrestling...

The Connecticut Secretary of State's office told poll workers to watch for WWE gear, and they had the ability to tell people to take it off or turn it inside out at a polling place. Vince at WWE gets ticked off and goes to court. The Conn. Sec. of State says "she never said" people could not wear WWE gear and they COULD wear the stuff. She may have not said it, but her official spokesperson DID. She's trying to weasel out of it. The court agrees with WWE. McMahon announces today they will be handing out FREE WWE gear...

GREENWICH, CONN. IT has been said that American politics and professional wres tling share a paucity of honest emotions. But Linda McMahon, who as CEO built World Wrestling Entertainment into a billion-dollar company, might think comparing wrestling to politics insults wrestling. As she seeks the Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd, she says the honesty deficit concerns not emotions but facts. Her Democratic opponent, Richard Blumenthal, who served six years in the Legislature, has been Connecticut's attorney general for 20 years, so he knows how to parse sentences. Yet his penchant for (to be polite) tactical imprecision goes beyond...

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal again holds a double-digit lead over Republican opponent Linda McMahon in Connecticut’s U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Connecticut shows the longtime Democratic state official with 56% support, his best showing since early June. McMahon claims 43%of the vote. One percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and another one percent (1%) are undecided. Less than two weeks ago after the candidates’ second televised debate, Blumenthal posted a much narrower 51% to 46% lead. But the new findings shift this race from Leans Democrat to Solid Democrat in the...

Dick Blumenthal has tried to cast himself as a white knight in the Countrywide Mortgage scandal that forced Chris Dodd into retirement after the exposure of his sweetheart mortgage deals under the “Friends of Angelo” program at Countrywide. Blumenthal points to his $8.6 billion settlement with Bank of America over the mortgage giant’s remaining loans, one that supposedly “won’t cost taxpayers a dime,” as an example of his beneficial work for Connecticut voters and his ability to get tough with fraudsters. Linda McMahon takes aim at this argument with her new ad released yesterday titled “Taking Care,” which alleges that...

No low is too low for a guy who falsely claimed to have served in combat during the Vietnam war… (Politico)- A source this morning forwards on an e-mail this morning from inside Attorney General Dick Blumenthal’s campaign for Senate, in which his aides discuss tarring Linda McMahon in cooperation with Planned Parenthood. The e-mail’s subject line is: “Worst of WWE + women photos.” “Hey all — Grossman is looking for mysoginistic photos of women and WWE. Planned Parenthood wants to hit LM hard on it,” press staffer Marcy Stech e-mailed seven other aides to the campaign and the State...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Local election officials in Connecticut are being told they can ask people wearing World Wrestling Entertainment garb to cover that up while voting. A spokesman for the secretary of the state's office says that's because Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon is so closely associated with WWE, which she left to run for office.

Blue-state Connecticut has undergone a jolting metamorphosis over the past three years, with potential ramifications for the Senate contest between Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal. Many residents have become a lot more like red-state Texans than blue-state New Englanders. Now, they're enthusiastic supporters of the death penalty and are fond of handguns and shotguns. It's all due to a horrific home invasion in 2007 in the affluent town of Cheshire, a New Haven suburb. Chilling details of the "Cheshire Murders," as they're known, have played out in a New Haven courtroom this fall during the first of two trials. Now,...

Each of the polls use a random sampling of 500 Likely Voters (unless otherwise stated) and has a +/- 5% margin of error (M.o.E). Poll that don’t add up to 100 are due to rounding. Commentary on the following results will be posted in a follow-up post. Delaware Senate: 50%- (D)Chris Coons, 42%- (R)Christine O’Donnell, 5%- Undecided, 3%- Some other candidate Pennsylvania Senate: 49%- (R)Pat Toomey, 42%- (D)Joe Sestak, 9%- Undecided Connecticut Senate: 50%- (D)Richard Blumenthal, 47%- (R)Linda McMahon, 3%- Undecided California Senate: 49%- (R)Carly Fiorina, 48%- (D)Barbara Boxer, 3%- Undecided California Governor: 52%- (D)Jerry Brown, 47%- (R)Meg Whitman, 1%-...

Last night’s third and last debate between Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal last night at the Gard Theater in New London. As the hour went, it became a verbal wrestling match. Ms. McMahon took Mr. Blumenthal on for his claims that voters both know and trust him. Mr. Blumenthal cited a list of dead wrestlers in the WWE. Overall it looked like Mr. Blumenthal was just simply was not organized to handle the questions. On the other hand, Ms. McMahon from the start of the debate was very organized and ready to debate Mr. Blumenthal and very much came prepared...

One of The Daily Caller’s ace reporters, Chris Moody, wrote this on Monday in his preview of the midterm elections: “At this point, no honest political observer can say they know for certain that victory is in the bag for either party.” Moody’s right. No one can know for sure which way the House and Senate will go. Seasoned political prognosticators – the Charlie Cooks, Stu Rothenbergs, and Larry Sabatos of the world – like to be measured in their approach. They don’t like to predict the House or Senate will flip only to be proven wrong. But I have...

The subheading on this one should be “Shhhhhhhhhhhh”. Feisty crowd, feisty McMahon and a Blumenthal who pretty much put me to sleep. But there were some classic moments, as you’ll see. I’ll have another post later but here’s a quick recap. Right out of the gate Blumenthal was asked one more time about how jobs were created. A little more lucid this time but government is still the answer. McMahon’s retort, and I’m paraphrasing … nice to know you’ve been working on your answer Mr Blumenthal. But I think the best was saved for last. As you’ll hear Blumenthal lights...

There is an old adage that goes something like this: It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re stupid than to open your mouth and prove them right. Thankfully for America not all Democrats are paying that adage much heed, and just in time for the election. Last week Linda McMahon, the GOP candidate for US Senate from Connecticut did the voters of her state a great service. She asked Richard Blumenthal, her Democrat opponent, a simple question: “How do you create a job?” His answer, if you can call it that, was a minute and...

During yesterday’s MSNBC “Morning Joe Show”, during a panel discussion,both Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski slammed USA Senate candidate from Connecticut Linda McMahon for how she with her husband Vince McMahon would promote the WWE wrestling matches, both live and on tv using violence against women. Even the video presents the brief questioning by Christine Amanpour about when Mrs. McMahon’s husband Vince told her to “get on all fours and bark like a dog”. Mrs. McMahon responds about the issue of parental responsibilities and the 1st Amendment to the USA Constitution. Ms. Brzezinski brings up with Mr. Scarborough about the...

Dick Blumenthal - Mr. Teen USA 2010

Producing an effective campaign ad usually takes lots of time and creativity, but sometimes a political opponent will do the heavy lifting for you. That was the case this week in Connecticut's US Senate race between Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal. The latest ad from the McMahon camp shows a clip of last Thursday's debate in which Mr. Blumenthal pitifully tries to answer the very simple question, "How do you create a job?"