In a long fall, GOP candidate in Conn. abandons Senate bid after losing nod to wrestling exec

A long fall: Conn. GOP Senate candidate drops bid

NEW LONDON, Conn. — It was just last fall that former Republican congressman Rob Simmons was in the political driver’s seat, enjoying a double-digit lead in opinion polls over veteran Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd in Connecticut’s U.S. Senate race.

By January, a battered Dodd had dropped out of the race, announcing his retirement.

At the same time, however, former pro-wrestling executive Linda McMahon was ramping up her bid for the state Republican endorsement, spending millions of her personal fortune to blanket the state with television ads and glossy mailers.

On Tuesday, days after failing to receive the GOP endorsement, Simmons acknowledged his campaign was over. While he’s leaving his name on the Republican ballot for the Aug. 10 primary, he announced in a New London hotel lobby that he’s releasing his staff, stopping the news releases and essentially ending his bid for the Senate.

“We understand the mathematical reality of competing against an opponent with unlimited financial resources, who has already invested over $16.5 million in this campaign, by far more than any other Senate candidate in the country,” he said.

McMahon has said she’s willing to spend as much as $50 million on the race, money she earned while working as CEO of her family’s World Wrestling Entertainment.

“It’s an unbelievable amount of dough,” Simmons acknowledged during an radio interview on WXLM-FM in New London, shortly before his formal announcement. “And that, I think, has just twisted people into thinking that the money is going to buy the race. And so, what the heck, let’s shut it down and let’s move forward.”

Scott McLean, a political science professor at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, said much has changed for Simmons since last fall, when it appeared he stood a good chance of defeating a five-term senator.

“I think the wind went out of his sails when Dodd dropped out and (Democratic Attorney General Richard) Blumenthal went in. It changed the nature of the race.”

When Dodd was still in the race, McLean said the contest between Simmons and Dodd fit into a conventional campaign story line, one of a respected former congressman taking on a weakened veteran senator whose popularity had waned.

“But when Dodd’s out, then Linda McMahon becomes the star,” McLean said. “The national Republicans want to paint this upcoming election as a kind of choice between established Washington insiders and populist anger at the irresponsible Washington elites. She fit that role to a T.”

By most accounts, Simmons had been expected to receive the Republican endorsement Friday night, given his years in Congress and the Connecticut House of Representatives, as well as his military service in Vietnam — an issue that’s become a hot one amid revelations that Blumenthal “misspoke” several times when he said he served “in” Vietnam.

Blumenthal actually served stateside as a member of the Marine Reserve during the Vietnam era. He has since apologized for his remarks.

McMahon’s campaign publicly acknowledged providing some of the information for last week’s New York Times article about Blumenthal’s misstatements, a bold move that impressed some Republicans. In the end, the campaign was able to persuade enough delegates Friday night to support McMahon, a politician newcomer, and deliver a body blow to Simmons.

Simmons acknowledged Tuesday he needed the party’s backing to help raise campaign funds and generate grass-roots support.

But McLean said he believes Republican delegates realized Simmons doesn’t have “the sparkle and flash” the party is looking for to challenge Blumenthal, who has been one of the most popular politicians in the state.

McMahon, with her wrestling background, has been able to tap into the anti-Washington sentiment and portray herself as an outsider and a fighter, someone who will stand up to the establishment and battle for what is right.

“I think the calculation that the Republican delegates must have been making is, whether they needed a conventional candidate that would match up with Blumenthal in a conventional way,” McLean said, “or whether they really want to shake up the race by making culture the issue, outside culture versus inside Washington elite culture. The side that wanted McMahon to shake things up, won.”