The Hartford Courant/Fox 61 are sponsoring Monday night in Hartford the first U.S. Senate debate between Attorney General Dick “20 Years in Office” Blumenthal and Merrick “For a Change” Alpert.
As Daniela Altimari at The Courant notes, this is a good opportunity for Alpert. The popular Blumenthal is the presumed Democratic nominee because his party has been fantasizing for years that he would run for either Governor or U.S. Senate.
(I don’t think Blumenthal has actually even acknowledged there is another Democrat interested in running since he announced this past January on the very day longtime Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd retired. I wonder if Blumenthal thinks Monday is just an hour of free air time for himself and will get a shock when he arrives to find the second podium …)
Alpert’s people are so eager for this face off that they are offering interested members of the press tickets to ensure we have a good seat should there be limited space for the media.
Why on Earth is Blumenthal doing this? You’d think Dick would have at least waited until Alpert paid for his however many signatures. (No, Merrick won’t get 15% at the May convention.)
This is nothing but downside for Blummie. And given where Alpert is in the polls, he’s going to be doing everything he can to make headlines.
I wonder if this decision was made before they hired a campaign manager….