In her 2010 race for the U.S. Senate, many women voted for Democrat Richard Blumenthal over McMahon, the wrestling entrepreneur from Greenwich.

In the current election cycle, McMahon has held a large number of meetings specifically with women. There are literally no men at many of [...]]]> Linda McMahon has had a political problem with some women.

In her 2010 race for the U.S. Senate, many women voted for Democrat Richard Blumenthal over McMahon, the wrestling entrepreneur from Greenwich.

In the current election cycle, McMahon has held a large number of meetings specifically with women. There are literally no men at many of the meetings.

In a recent interview with Capitol Watch, McMahon said she will continue that strategy throughout the summer and into the fall if she wins the August 14 primary against former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays of Bridgeport.

“I’m meeting with small groups – a lot of women’s groups,” McMahon said. “We have these conversations or coffees with Linda. We’ve done over 100, I guess, so far. We’re doing, sometimes, two a day. They’re very, very effective. You get up close and personal, and you really get to meet and sit down and talk to different women’s groups. We’ve been using a lot of social media to get that word out.’’

Concerning the future, she said, “We’ll continue all through the summer. Some of the groups are 70 to 75. Some of them are a dozen. … I’m on the road every day. Most of the time I get home around 10:30 or 11 at night. … I’ve toured over 125 small businesses. That really allows me to listen to the issues that small businesses have.’’

After spending $50 million of her own money in 2010, McMahon became a household name in Connecticut as her brochures filled up the mailboxes of many households. So, what is the difference the 2010 and 2012 races?

“From my standpoint, I clearly now have name recognition in the race,’’ McMahon said. “I really had to build that in the first race. Richard Blumenthal was clearly an icon in the state, who had over 20 years of political capital that he had built up around the state. The Democratic opponent, if it turns out to be Chris Murphy, has district recognition, but he has not run a statewide race. If he is the candidate, he has to sort of overcome that. Susan Bysiewicz was secretary of state. She does have statewide recognition. So, she doesn’t have to overcome that hurdle. I believe a lot more people have gotten to know me since the last race.’’

The debate, presented by the WNPR public affairs program “Where We Live,” will be held in Davidson Hall at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. It is scheduled to begin at [...]]]> Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Chris Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz will face on-another Thursday at their first formal debate since the Democratic state convention.

The debate, presented by the WNPR public affairs program “Where We Live,” will be held in Davidson Hall at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. It is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 10:45 a.m. and the public is invited to attend.

Questions will be asked by two politicians: Democratic former gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont, who is a political science professor at CCSU, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel, the CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance. “Where We Live” host John Dankosky will serve as the debate’s moderator.

Murphy and Bysiewicz are scheduled to appear at a candidate’s forum in Westport Wednesday night but the CCSU debate marks the first time that the two Democrats will face off against one another in a formal debate without the other Democratic candidates: state Rep. William Tong, who dropped his bid earlier this month; Matthew Oakes and Lee Whitnum.

Murphy, a congressman who represents the 5th District, won the endorsement of delegates at a party convention last month but Bysiewicz met the threshold to participate in a primary, which will be held on Aug. 14.

The two are vying for the Senate seat currently held by Joseph Lieberman, who is not seeking reelection.

Bysiewicz, a Democrat running for the open seat, is holding an event at the Belvedere Cafe and Restaurant on Broad Street.

“There’s a big [...]]]> Former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, whose grandparents came to the U.S. from Poland in the 1920s, will mine those ethnic ties at a fundraiser in New Britain Thursday night.

Bysiewicz, a Democrat running for the open seat, is holding an event at the Belvedere Cafe and Restaurant on Broad Street.

“There’s a big pocket of Polish-Americans in New Britain and they want to help her out,” campaign manager Jonathan Ducote said. “They were kind enough to open the Belvedere, which is a big part of New Britain’s revitalization.”

Bysiewicz isn’t the only Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Connecticut with Polish roots: Chris Murphy, the party-endorsed candidate, is also Polish-American. His mother’s maiden name is Lewczyk.

Newton defeated the 76-year-old incumbent, Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, and state Rep. Andres Ayala. The two elected officials from Bridgeport qualified for a potentially contentious primary that would be [...]]]> Former state Sen. Ernie Newton, a convicted felon who served time in prison on corruption charges, won the Democratic endorsement for his old state Senate seat on Monday night.

Newton defeated the 76-year-old incumbent, Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, and state Rep. Andres Ayala. The two elected officials from Bridgeport qualified for a potentially contentious primary that would be held on August 14. Gomes had been in ill health around Christmas 2011, but he recovered and voted on virtually all bills in the final, grueling days at the end of the legislative session in May.

In February 2010, four years after he was sentenced on corruption charges, Newton was released from federal prison and transferred to the Chase Center halfway house in Waterbury in the same way that former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim was transferred from prison to a halfway house in Hartford.

Newton’s release marked the latest chapter in a long-running scandal that culminated in his sentencing for accepting a $5,000 bribe, evading taxes, and pilfering campaign contributions to pay for car repairs, personal cellphone calls and other expenses.

Senior U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas criticized Newton at the 2006 sentencing for saying during his resignation speech that he was “the Moses of my people” and for shaking down constituents in his hometown of Bridgeport in return for state funding.

“I don’t think there’s any reference in the Bible … that as God led his people for 40 years in the desert that he ever took money from them,” Nevas said toward the end of the sentencing hearing.

Saying that he had personal insight into Newton’s case from his own career, Nevas mentioned the three terms that he served as a state legislator from Westport before he became a prosecutor and then a federal judge.

“Those were six of the best years of my life,” said Nevas. “It is inconceivable to me that anyone who serves in the General Assembly could make a business out of it, and that’s what you did. … You sold your office.”

Newton, a Democrat who served for 17 years in the legislature before resigning in 2005, stood before the judge in the crowded courtroom on his sentencing day and said multiple times that he was sorry. When Newton was finished, Nevas asked him whether he believed in his prior statements that he was being prosecuted because he is African American.

“This is not about black or white,” Newton responded. “It’s about right or wrong, and I was wrong. Justice has no color. … This is not about race, but it’s about right and wrong. And I’m sorry.”

Before issuing the sentence, Nevas said he was pleased that Newton had retracted his statements about his prosecution’s being racially motivated.

“That was a despicable thing to say,” Nevas told Newton. “It was offensive, and you should have known better.”
  

“I’m having such a wonderful time, not running for reelection, focusing on my final months as a senator and my family that I’m going to try [...]]]> Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a freshman Democrat, endorsed Chris Murphy this morning, but Joseph Lieberman, the state’s senior senator, reiterated his intention not to get involved in 2012 Senate race.

“I’m having such a wonderful time, not running for reelection, focusing on my final months as a senator and my family that I’m going to try very hard to stay out of all other campaigns.” Lieberman said this afternoon, during a brief stop at a Simsbury restaurant to meet with voters.

And that includes the race to succeed him. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, served with former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, one of the Republicans seeking the seat. Lieberman has also met with Linda McMahon, the former CEO of WWE who received the endorsement of delegates at the state GOP convention Friday night.

“I don’t intend to endorse,” Lieberman said.

In fact, Lieberman, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1988, said he is looking forward to stepping away from the rigors of the campaign trail. Along with several other members of the state’s congressional delegation, including Murphy and Blumenthal, he attended an event spotlighting efforts to win Wild and Scenic Designation for the Farmington River.

“I was thinking…[at] the event on the lower Farmington River, I hope in October of this year, to be in a kayak on the Farmington River,” he said and laughed.

Shays placed second Friday night behind McMahon, who won the Republican state convention’s endorsement by a two-to-one margin.

Shays has won 18 elections in a career in the state legislature and at the federal level, [...]]]> Former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays filed papers Monday to officially force a primary for the U.S. Senate against Greenwich wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon.

Shays placed second Friday night behind McMahon, who won the Republican state convention’s endorsement by a two-to-one margin.

Shays has won 18 elections in a career in the state legislature and at the federal level, where he served for 21 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before losing in 2008 to Democrat Jim Himes. Shays had held off Democrats numerous times, but he was swept out of office as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama generated a huge voter turnout in Bridgeport in 2008.

“I congratulate Linda McMahon for winning the convention, but this is really a round robin in the sense that we both qualified,” Shays told reporters in the Capitol press room in Hartford. “From now on, it’s winner-take-all. … Folks in Connecticut want good Yankee common sense. They’re not into ideology. Hopefully, they will hear a lot of good common sense from me.”

He added, “Some in the McMahon camp have said it would be nice if I didn’t run. … I made a promise back in December that win or lose the convention, I would go get signatures [to force a primary]. But we don’t need to get signatures. … That’s called democracy. It doesn’t divide a party. It strengthens us.”

Shays is now attempting a political comeback against McMahon, who has now won two consecutive Republican convention endorsements. She lost in 2010 in the race against Democrat Richard Blumenthal by 12 points after spending $50 million of her own money on the effort.

McMahon has repeatedly mentioned that there is very little difference in the voting records between Chris Shays and U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, who is running in the Democratic primary against former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. Shays, though, rejected the comparisons that have already been outlined in a brochure by McMahon. He said that McMahon could be compared to Murphy in the same way.

McMahon “supported Nancy Pelosi in 2006 by giving her thousands of dollars to make her speaker, and she supported her in 2008 to keep her speaker,” said Shays, referring to the San Francisco Democrat. “That’s a great little sound bite. I hope you use it. But in the end, it’s not going to determine how people vote. She says she wants to repeal Obamacare, but she helped elect a speaker who wrote Obamacare.”

“Chris Murphy and Chris Shays have the same first name,” Shays said of himself. “That’s the only thing we have in common.”

McMahon herself had said that the Republicans would be strongly unified against Murphy if Shays had dropped out of the race.

“Linda McMahon won the endorsement of Connecticut Republicans by a 2 to 1 margin because people are tired of the professional politicians in Washington and are ready for a proven job creator with a detailed plan to turn our economy around and get people back to work,” said campaign spokeswoman Erin Isaac. “Friday night sent a clear message that it is time to unite the party around Linda McMahon so we can focus on beating Chris Murphy in November.”

On the Democratic side, the primary will be on the same day as the Republicans – August 14.

Regarding the millions that McMahon has poured into her campaign, Shays said, “You never have enough money – unless you’re Linda McMahon. And then you have too much. But I’ll have what I need.”

Shays appeared Monday afternoon on the radio show of former Gov. John G. Rowland in the studio of WTIC-AM in Farmington. They both served together in the U.S. Congress in the late 1980s as Republicans representing Connecticut. Shays said he doubted that there would be a primary this year in the Fourth Congressional District, where he had previously served for more than two decades. 

“My departure was much more stark than yours,” Rowland told Shays.

“But you had a great career,” Shays responded, noting Rowland’s days as a state legislator, member of Congress, and 10 years as governor.

Speaking of his upbringing, Shays said, “My dad said, ‘I quit college. You’re going to college.’ ”

Shays said that both Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law must both be repealed. He also wants to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, although critics say that so many loopholes means that virtually no corporations actually pay 35 percent.

Regarding his loss to Democrat Jim Himes in 2008, Shays said he would not blame the huge voter turnout in the cities. He said, ”I lost because I didn’t get my vote out. The bottom line is if I got my vote out in Darien and New Canaan and elsewhere, we would have won. I would not have lost.”

Shays qualified for the August primary, which his supporters said was an accomplishment because he got into the race late.

Noting that he has won 18 elections in [...]]]> HARTFORD – On the state Republican convention floor on Friday night, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays said he would support Republicans in November – win or lose.

Shays qualified for the August primary, which his supporters said was an accomplishment because he got into the race late.

Noting that he has won 18 elections in his state and federal career, Shays said, “I know how to win elections.”

When asked about party unity in a divided party, Shays said, “I think party unity requires me to run a primary.”

Shays said that Linda McMahon had gotten smoked by Democrat Richard Blumenthal in the high-profile, big-money U.S. Senate race in 2010.

“She lost by 138,000 votes – 12 percent – in a Republican year,” Shays told reporters on the convention floor. “It was the only state that didn’t win a statewide election or a federal election in the country, and she brought down the rest of the ticket.”

One of the problems, according to Shays supporter John McKinney, was that Republicans had made commitments to McMahon even before Shays got into the race. Shays said that he believes the delegate commitments were up to the convention, and that some of the McMahon supporters will now work for him in the primary.

“If you want someone who can win, and you don’t want Chris Murphy, I think I’m your guy,” Shays said.

Shays said that McMahon will run the same kind of campaign in 2012 as in 2010.

“It means spend whatever it takes, flood your mailboxes, flood your emails … but in the end, that’s not what it takes to win,” he said.

As delegate vote switches were being made at about 11 p.m. Friday, the unofficial tally showed that McMahon had 60 percent of the vote, compared to 32 percent for Shays.

The current Senate Republican leader in Hartford, McKinney has been close with Shays as a moderate Republican from Fairfield County. Shays first won the Congressional seat in the Fourth District in August 1987, replacing McKinney’s father, Stewart, who had died earlier that year.