Outside Linda McMahon's West Hartford campaign headquarters. -- Contributed Photo.
Linda McMahon got a surprise visit from some uninvited guests around lunchtime today at her West Harford campaign headquarters.
Members of the Connecticut Working Families Party, the Service Employees International Union and Connecticut Citizen Action Group staged a protest over comments the Republican Senate candidate made in a recent interview with the New Haven Independent on financial reform legislation.
Connecticut Working Families, a champion of liberal causes that often cross-endorses Democratic candidates for office, put this out in an e-mail blast to reporters.
“Linda McMahon spoke out against financial reform and specifically against a Consumer Financial Protections Agency that could protect consumers from predatory financial products and services like pay day loans and sub-prime mortgages.”
In a dig at her background as former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, the protesters made a wrestling-style belt for McMahon and crowned her ““Champion of Wall Street.”
McMahon wasn’t present for the protest, according to a campaign aide, who disputed the picketers’ characterization of the Senate hopeful as a shill for Wall Street.
This from campaign spokesman Ed Patru:
“Linda absolutely supports financial reform and she thinks we ought to be
able to all agree that reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is important
since they played such a significant role in the housing crisis. Like
most Americans, Linda rejects the idea that we should institutionalize
“too big to fail” and create a permanent bailout culture in Washington.
Some of the best solutions we’ve arrived at historically were a product
of Republicans and Democrats working together, and Linda believes this
problems really requires a bipartisan solution.
As for the protesters, I think we were pretty polite hosts — we brought
them coffee and donuts even though they never once protested Sen. Dodd’s
decision to carve out bonuses for AIG executives, and they don’t seem to
mind that Goldman Sachs invested $4.5 million into the campaigns of
their political allies.”