McMahon hedges

GREENWICH — Moments after casting her ballot at North Street School, Republican Senate contender Linda McMahon was asked today whether T-shirts declaring “I support Obama & McMahon” send a mix message to the party that nominated her.

McMahon’s field staff are sporting the T-shirts in urban centers that are traditional Democratic strongholds. They are strikingly similar to shirts worn by the Service Employees International Union.

The McMahon campaign is also utilizing door hangers, telling voters it’s perfectly acceptable to split their ticket and echoing the script of a unprecedented television commercial featuring supporters of President Obama who are backing the wrestling mogul.

“We’ve had a very aggressive get-out-the-vote effort,” McMahon told a scrum of reporters outside the school. ” I wanted to make sure that those people who wanted to vote for me knew and understood that they could split their ticket and so we wanted to make sure that that was a clear message.”

Despite contributing $75,000 to Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, McMahon also nabbed the Independent Party line on the ballot.

McMahon wanted her name to appear twice on the ballot to counteract what her campaign felt was a built-in advantage for Democrat Chris Murphy, who was cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party.

McMahon has said she supports Romney, but she also knows that Obama won Connecticut by 22 points in 2008 and is expected to win by double digits this time.

Neil Vigdor