Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon submitted her resignation Thursday from the state Board of Education after only a year’s service, saying that a new legal opinion by state elections officials restricts political activities by board members too severely for her to remain on the panel.
McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, said that she regrets having to quit the state board but had to do it because of a new legal opinion by a staff attorney from the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
The March 5 opinion, issued in response to a question from board chairman Allan Taylor, said that members of the panel are considered state “department heads” for the purposes of a state statute limiting political contributions and solicitation of such contributions.
“As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, I frequently support, attend and speak at political events that include fundraising activities,” McMahon wrote to Gov. M. Jodi Rell. “Although the opinion does not preclude a board member from running for public office, it does disallow them from engaging in many of the activities that are necessary to be a successful candidate.”
“The recent revelation of this rule has come as a surprise to me as well as to other members of the board,” she wrote. “Therefore, in order to avoid any violation of this rule or even the appearance of a violation, it is with deep regret that I must immediately resign and relinquish my position on the board.”
McMahon’s nomination by Rell was approved by lawmakers in February 2009 after opposition from some at the Capitol who questioned the violent and sexually provocative content produced by WWE.
“I find the sport to be bordering on the barbaric,” state Sen. Joan Hartley, a Waterbury Democrat who cast the only vote in the Senate against McMahon, said at the time.