{"id":575500,"date":"2010-05-22T01:49:17","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T05:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.78504"},"modified":"2010-05-22T01:56:25","modified_gmt":"2010-05-22T05:56:25","slug":"linda-mcmahon-the-outsider-beats-rob-simmons-the-former-congressman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/575500","title":{"rendered":"Linda McMahon, the outsider, beats Rob Simmons, the former congressman"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Linda McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who has never held public office before, has seized the Republican convention’s U.S. Senate endorsement from Rob Simmons, the party establishment’s one-time favorite.<\/p>\n

But Simmons more than met the threshold for a primary at Friday’s convention and said he has no intention of dropping his bid. <\/p>\n

“I believe that the best thing I can do to help the Republican party to victory in November is to give them another choice,” he said during a brief address to reporters after McMahon was pronounced the winner. “And that’s why intend to stay in this race.”<\/p>\n

Friday’s results marked a stunning turn of events for Simmons, who entered the race in the winter of 2009 as the favorite against politically ailing U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. Throughout most of last year, Simmons, a former congressman and state representative from Stonington with enduring ties to the state’s GOP establishment, was the clear front-runner.<\/p>\n

But McMahon’s immense wealth — and her willingness to spend it on the campaign — won her support. Since entering the race in September, she has crisscrossed the state, visiting town committees and cultivating the goodwill of delegates. Those efforts were supplemented by a television ad campaign, a relentless stream of mailers to voters and a large and well-paid campaign staff. She has spent $16 million so far, and has said she will spend up to $34 million more.<\/p>\n

McMahon was also helped by the fact that she’s a newcomer to politics in a year when outsiders are winning races from Kentucky to Massachusetts. In fact, she acknowledged early in the campaign that she did not even vote in the 2006 general election and the 2008 Republican primary.<\/p>\n

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“This is the start,” McMahon said in her acceptance speech. “We are rebuilding and re-energizing the Republican Party. We’re going to send a Republican to Washington D.C. for the first time in decades…It was a good, strong, solid hard-sought campaign.”<\/p>\n

McMahon’s money “certainly [was] a factor,” former congresswoman Nancy Johnson said moments after McMahon was declared the convention winner. “I don’t think it’s the overriding factor…if she weren’t as good a candidate as she is, the money wouldn’t be as effective.”<\/p>\n

Johnson, a 12-term incumbent who was bounced out of Congress in 2006, supported Simmons. She said he did surprisingly well, given that the race pitted “an outsider with a lot of money versus an insider with not much money.”<\/p>\n

McMahon’s theme — “It’s time for something different” — resonated with David Wilson, a delegate from Litchfield.   “I am tired of the same old political climate,” he said “They get elected and they go to Washington and they’re there for their purposes and not their constituents… Linda is not part of that political machine.”<\/p>\n

The final tally showed McMahon with 737 delegates; Simmons, 632; Schiff, 44 and Forras, 7. <\/p>\n

The four Republicans were vying for the right to take on Democratic nominee Richard Blumenthal to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Sen. Christopher Dodd. After more than an hour of voting on the first ballot, the result was inconclusive and delegates had a chance to shift their votes between candidates.<\/p>\n

Those who switched their votes had to announce their names to the convention. “This is the fun part,” said one party official. “This is where you get to be Judas in front of everybody.” <\/p>\n

Once it became apparent that Schiff had gotten only about halfway to the 15 percent threshold required for a primary, the Simmons forces started trying to persuade Schiff delegates to switch to their candidate. They argued that Simmons was more conservative than McMahon, and closer to Schiff’s way of thinking.<\/p>\n

The battle between Simmons and McMahon was notable for its acrimony. Simmons made character an issue, consistently questioning the sexually graphic and violent content promoted by the WWE, as well as the use of steroids within the industry.<\/p>\n

McMahon, meanwhile, focused on her outsider credentials.<\/p>\n

“Linda has not spent her life in politics,” said Torrington Mayor Ryan Bingham, who seconded McMahon’s nomination. “If the people of Connecticut want a career politician, they’d just send Chris Dodd back for a sixth term.” <\/p>\n

Throughout most of the campaign, Simmons had repeatedly stated his intention of dropping out of the race if he did not win the backing of convention delegates.<\/p>\n

But on Friday, after the results were tallied, he changed his mind.<\/p>\n

New revelations that Blumenthal misrepresented his military record brought a wave of energy and additional endorsements to the Simmons campaign.  “We just saw that earlier this week a candidate who has not been a tough race for some years, an untested and unvetted candidate, can be brought to task by an experienced candidate. I believe there is a lot of time left in this campaign and I have sufficient funds to make a compelling case to voters before the primary – and that is what is what is expected by my family, my friends, my neighbors and my supporters, all of whom have asked me to stay in this race.”<\/p>\n

Simmons, a Vietnam War veteran with two Bronze Stars, highlighted his military record throughout the campaign. A video shown to delegates before the roll call vote featured several photos of him in uniform.<\/p>\n

“My father believes in this country and the people who make her great,” Jane Simmons, Rob Simmons’ daughter said in her speech seconded her father’s nomination. “He is optimistic that our best days can still be ahead. He is what is needed in a Senator from Connecticut. He has the breadth and depth of experience to confront the critical issues. And he has the determination and courage to do what is right.”<\/p>\n

Schiff intends to collect signatures to secure a place on the primary ballot. He said he was stunned by the outcome of the convention. “I’m surprised how out of touch the delegates are,” he said. “I’m a very unique candidate and this country is in a lot of trouble,” he said outside the ballroom where votes were being cast. “The reality is they’ll nominate somebody and I’ll beat that person in the primary. I’m clearly not going to win here.”<\/p>\n

While the convention appeared to be deeply divided over who should be the party’s nominee, Republicans were united in their dislike of Democrats. Each time a photograph of Blumenthal or Dodd appeared on the large video screen at the front of the ballroom, the room exploded in raucous “boos.”<\/p>\n

When McMahon mentioned Blumenthal’s name during a brief acceptance speech, delegates again broke into more boos. “I venture to say we’re going to lay the smack down on him come November,” said McMahon, surrounded by her husband Vince, her daughter and son-in-law and her mother. “We’ve got a tough fight. Let’s work together.”<\/p>\n

Courant staff writers Jon Lender and Jenna Carlesso contributed to this story.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who has never held public office before, has seized the Republican convention’s U.S. Senate endorsement from Rob Simmons, the party establishment’s one-time favorite. But Simmons more than met the threshold for a primary at Friday’s convention and said he has no intention of dropping his bid.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4000,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}