Former President “Teflon” Bill Clinton, nicknamed such because despite personal and political baggage he remains a popular figure, was in New Haven Sunday to stump for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal, Connecticut’s long-time attorney general.
But perhaps Clinton has more in common with Blumenthal’s Republican opponent, Linda McMahon, who, according to today’s Quinnipiac University poll, has knocked his 41-point lead in January down to just 3 points.
That is a stunning achievement and if you are in any way involved in the McMahon campaign, you’ve got to be feeling pretty proud of your hard work at this point and thinking the $22 million she has invested so far in this first-time bid for office is paying off.
And she’s risen in the polls despite the fact:
1. McMahon resides, unlike the majority of the voters she hopes to represent in Congress, in a gated Greenwich neighborhood, owns a boat named “Sexy Bitch” and wants to extend tax cuts for the wealthy, herself included.
2. The family’s company, World Wrestling Entertainment in Stamford, was investigated by Congress just a few years ago as part of a probe into steroid use in professional wrestling.
3. Questions have been raised over whether McMahon herself interfered in a federal investigation of the company in the late 1980s.
5. Those independent contractors include WWE’s talent, some of whom have died at a very young age, including during this very campaign, raising questions about the toll the business McMahon’s using to fund her campaign has taken on the performers.
6. WWE’s programming over the years has, critics argue, been degrading to women and the mentally handicapped.
7. McMahon talks about her skills creating jobs, but WWE laid off 10 percent of its workers and much of the company’s merchandise is manufactured in China.
8. McMahon’s resume of public service is limited, as is her apparent knowledge of some high profile controversies within the state she wants to represent, such as immigration issues in New Haven and the proposal to build a giant natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound.
And just for the heck of it, one of McMahon’s key economic advisers partied with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. If she were a Democrat I guarantee that Republicans would not let that go unnoticed by voters.
Whew! That’s a lot of bad publicity. None of it perhaps rises to Monica Lewinsky levels of scandal, but still…
And yet those Quinnipiac numbers don’t lie – from 41 points to 3 points.
Sure a greater percentage – 43 percent – of the likely voters polled have a negative opinion of McMahon than earlier this month, when that number stood at 41 percent. But let me repeat, from 41 points to 3 points.
It’s obvious much of McMahon’s rise has to do with her ability to fund a positive message about herself and changes in how people get their news.
In these days when fewer and fewer folks obtain their information from newspapers, the impact of any one story is lessened.
The Waterbury Republican-American criticizes her and her company for producing products in China? The New London Day breaks some new story about steroids in wrestling? Whether you care or not, if you don’t read those newspapers or visit their web sites, you might never learn of those issues to form an opinion.
Former Republican Congressman Rob Simmons’ campaign during the GOP primary for Senate was constantly frustrated by the fact a news source in one corner of the state would publish a story critical of McMahon but it would not get picked up by other news sources.
But no matter where they live, McMahon has made sure voters have been exposed to advertising touting her skills as an executive and her ability to create jobs and criticizing Blumenthal as a dissembling career politician.
I called up Ben Davol, a former Republican operative-turned-independent voter, New London Day columnist and political commentator who admires what the Tea Party is doing to get citizens involved in their government. What does he make of Teflon Linda?
“I from the beginning have always felt that the idea of going after her WWE experience was a huge mistake,” Davol said. “The Simmons campaign did that for a year and where did it get Rob? Back clipping hedges at his house. The Blumenthal campaign has picked up what the Simmons’ campaign did and tried to use it … The reason she has $50 million to spend on her campaign is because WWE is an incredibly popular entertainment source for people. Whatever’s been talked about – steroids or wrestlers dying – that does not impact peoples’ day-to-day lives. It simply does not. I’ve never understood going after that … I’m sure the McMahon folks, the first thing they thought of when she was running was the whole ‘WWE issue’. They were prepared for this from the beginning. Everybody’s fallen into the trap.”
Davol said he believes McMahon has gotten a free ride from her Democratic and Republican opponents over her lack of experience and the lack of specifics she offers on issues impacting Connecticut and the nation.
“You look at the last mailing – it’s all very ‘surface’,” he said.
But if that is the case, I asked, what does that say about Connecticut voters and the fact they are close to electing her Connecticut’s next U.S. Senator?
“She’s an attractive candidate. Well spoken. She’s a very likable person. A very good story. Not to mention the fact she’s a pretty good marketer. Voters are going ‘Sure. Why not? Sounds good to me!’ Voters are not going to get deep into a lot of specific issues unless presented to them to think about,” Davol said.
But there is also the fact that voters are angry, a point that is reinforced by today’s Quinnipiac poll.
So if you’re still with me let’s wrap-up this blog post where I began – Clinton’s visit on Sunday.
During his half-hour speech, the former President told the crowd of Democrats that Republican candidates nationwide want to make the mid-terms “a referendum on people’s anger, our disappointment, our apathy, with a good dose of amnesia thrown in. If this is a referendum, we’ve got a lot of trouble here.”
As of today, it looks like it’s a referendum in Connecticut and Linda McMahon is giving Dick Blumenthal a lot of trouble.
MOM and all of you out there,
The truth is that people in the great state of Connecticut want CHANGE ! They don’t want career politicians in the Senate (Blumenhal)nor in the Governors race (Malloy is being caught too).
What is very very interesting is that this followed both career politicians visits by the Number 1 Career Politician who barely spent a day in Congress before giving anointment oil B.O. Barack Obama (not body odor for those who thought that lol)
By the time we get to Election Day, voters will have 50 million reasons to put LINDA in office and Dicky will realize that the ballgame is over.
Actually, Brian, You have been really gunshy like a tenderfoot infantryman.
Isn’t it you, Brian, that stated you worked for Hearst?
We have an underworld snake river book buying a UNITED STATES CONGRESSIONAL SEAT. A very serious and significant precedent.
Where is your sense of duty, to your neighbors, your country, your profession Brian?
This is the best Hearst has to offer?
Your letting down your neighbors, your country and your profession Brian. Either get on that horse and ride, or take it to the study and write a book no one will read.
Now consider this yours and Hearst’s kick in the butt to get motivated. Put some effort and back into it.
You want people to read your product than damn it show some craftmanship. Get the truth out there.
Isn’t there anyone at Hearst with some courage?
Moms Overseeing Matters
Rick and Paul,
You guys almost never agree with my observations but you continue to read and post here anyway. I appreciate it. That’s the point of these blogs – to get people thinking and talking and sharing their opinions.
Brian, I think perhaps your distortion of the appellation, “Teflon,” may be a new low for you, journalistically speaking. First of all, an apology is due to Linda McMahon, her family, staff and associates for your slur, linking her to Bill Clinton’s sleazy sexual attacks of several women, lying under oath, and impeachment. For, secondly, the appellation, “Teflon” was attached to “slick willy” for the many times he slipped through sticky circumstances that could have, and many say should have, terminated Clinton’s presidency, and led to serious jail time. For you people who don’t remember Clinton’s administration, there’s a reason “slick willy” and “Teflon” go together.
For twelve months, Linda McMahon’s campaign has been squeaky clean. Linda has criss crossed the state, meeting face to face with people who want answers to tough questions and they like her clear, concise and knowledgeable answers.
It is not the millions of dollars she has spent, it is the positive, proven ideas she presents that has the people flocking to her. Among the unaffiliated/undecided voters, Linda has taken a decisive 5 point lead. And they, the media types and the bought and paid for politicos, said she’s a novice, inexperienced, never elected, a woman, said she can’t win.
Today, AG Blumenthal has launched another attack on another business to bolster Senate candidate Blumenthal. When will Blumenthal be held to account by the MSM for using his AG office to benefit his campaign? When will the FEC investigate the “investigator” for defrauding the taxpayers?
Incidentally, you may have missed an article in the Cape Cod Times a few weeks ago about Scott Brown.
The liberal elites in Massachusetts apparently still believe that one of their two senate seats “belongs” to the Kennedy family. A movement is now underway to draft Ted Kennedy’s widow into running against Scott Brown in the next cycle. Of course, Ted’s son Patrick is too laughable to even be considered, as is Ted’s other son who made millions of dollars as a novice lobbyist, while his father was alive and (as some suspect) was of great assistance with his son’s lobbying efforts.
Come to think of it, why Blumenthal? Why didn’t you and Rick Green convince Chris Dodd’s wife to run? It seems she is only 45 years of age. Didn’t you want to preserve the “Dodd seat?”
If Linda McMahon were indeed made of teflon, she would be leading Richard Blumenthal by a margin of 90% to 10% at this point.
The only thing keeping Blumenthal in this race is the constant attacks leveled against Linda McMahon by people like yourself and Rick Green, who purport to be even-handed journalists.
Nonetheless, despite the constant attacks on McMahon and despite the fact that she is not made of teflon (I have actually met her and have shaken her hand, it seemed flesh and bone to me), she continues to move forward with momentum.
The whole thing reminds me very much of Scott Brown. Martha Coakley was hand-selected by the liberal elite purported intellectuals in Massachusetts (you know, people like you and Rick Green) to “take stewardship” of “Ted Kennedy’s seat.” Coakley had a very wide lead over Brown, until Brown caught up over time and then ultimately defeated her.
What won the day? I know. I was there and worked on Brown’s campaign. The Independents were infuriated with the claim that their senate seat “belonged” to the Kennedy family, or their designee, Coakley.
The seat up for grabs now belongs to the people of Connecticut. It does not belong to Christopher Dodd. It does not belong to Dodd’s hand-selected successor, Richard Blumenthal.
Once again, Brian Lockhart, the journalist who I chastised for harping on Linda during her appearance on Face the State on the content of the WWE, is making me eat my words.
I applaud you for recognizing the success of the McMahon campaign thus far. She’s running a GREAT campaign – and the opposition clearly doesn’t like it. Who can blame them – she’s wiping the floor with a guy who had a 30%+ lead in May and was considered a shoo-in for the seat.