Election Watch: Linda McMahon Senate Run

[LWPD]

For the second time in three years, Linda McMahon has won a Republican Primary in a bid for a Connecticut Senate seat. This time she will face Democrat candidate Chris Murphy in the General Election in November. Polls show Murphy with a slight edge, but Linda is expected to have a much larger war chest going into the crunch.



Courtesy of Politico
Linda McMahon crushes Chris Shays in Senate primary
By Kate Nocera

World Wrestling Entertainment magnate Linda McMahon will have her second chance in the political ring in November after demolishing her moderate Republican challenger, former Rep. Chris Shays, in the Connecticut Senate primary.

With 94 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday night, McMahon was routing Shays, 73 percent to 27 percent, The Associated Press reported.

McMahon will take on Rep. Chris Murphy, who beat former State Secretary Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary. The two will now battle it out for the Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman. With 92.5 percent of precincts reporting, Murphy was beating Bysiewicz 67.5 percent to 32.5 percent.

This is McMahon’s second face-off in a general election. She failed to ride the Republican wave of 2010, losing to Richard Blumenthal by 12 percentage points despite spending $50 million of her own fortune.

But her primary victory Tuesday was no surprise: She had been ahead of Shays in the polls for months. The McMahon campaign engaged in an intense get-out-the-vote effort Tuesday and arranged rides for supporters to attend a victory party in Stamford, the Hartford Courant reported.

“We can start by giving all the career politicians who got us into this mess a pink slip,” McMahon said in a victory statement Tuesday night. “We can’t keep sending people like Chris Murphy, who made the mess in Washington, back to clean it up. He’s had his chance. And after six years, what do we have? More spending, more debt and higher unemployment.”

The New York Times reported that Shays said he would support McMahon in the general election and told reporters her financial resources ultimately “trumped the experience we bring to the table.”

McMahon had the backing of the Connecticut GOP, beating the former 21-year congressman at the state Republican convention. Shays regularly attacked her spending on the trail and said he knew taking her on was an uphill battle. He argued he had the experience to know how to fix Washington, while McMahon touted her business credentials and painted Shays as an out-of-touch longtime Washington insider.

He conceded to McMahon around 9 p.m, the Hartford Courant reported. He was vastly outspent by McMahon; according to the latest information available from the Center for Responsive Politics, she had spent more than $11 million to his $1.2 million.

McMahon’s millions are sure to make the race competitive even though Connecticut is a state that usually turns blue in a presidential year. And she’s revamped her campaign this time around, talking less about her time as a CEO of a wrestling company and focusing more on her personal story. And it’s already close: A June Quinnipiac poll had Murphy edging McMahon 46 percent to 43 percent.

“The coalition of regular, hard-working middle-class folks who made this resounding victory possible tonight will guarantee that Linda McMahon will not buy the election this fall,” said Murphy in a statement. “That’s the contrast in this election.”

But while her name recognition remains high throughout the state, so do her unfavorable numbers: A recent Public Policy Polling survey showed 48 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of McMahon versus 42 percent who had a favorable impression.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee immediately attacked McMahon after the race was called.

“Linda McMahon is a greedy CEO who made millions marketing sex and violence to little kids, all at the expense of the health and safety of her own employees,” said Executive Director Guy Cecil. “Everything about McMahon’s record, principles and agenda prove that she is wrong for Connecticut. There isn’t enough money in the world to convince Connecticut voters otherwise.”

[LWPD]

Campaigning has gone heavily negative on both sides in the Connecticut Senate race. Below is a look at an ad that is being ran by the Chris Murphy campaign, along with a fact check by the independent CT News.

Political Ad: Linda McMahon: Always For Her, Never For Us!


Courtesy of CT News Junkie
Murphy’s Latest Ad Makes Questionable Claims
By Christine Stuart

U.S.Rep. Chris Murphy is swinging back against Republican Linda McMahon in his latest television commercial, but the claims he makes against for the former CEO of the WWE are questionable.

The ad opens with this statement: “As CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon had a plan. Shift profits overseas to avoid U.S. taxes.”

The citation flashed at the bottom of the page is the WWE’s 2009 10-K form, which is required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It gives a comprehensive summary of a public company’s performance.

The Murphy campaign said the reference is to $4.1 million in unremitted earnings to the United States. According to the 2009 10-K, those unremitted earnings were reinvested overseas. The WWE is a worldwide company and its operations overseas grew by 27 percent in 2009.

“In 2009, we held 74 live events internationally, reaching approximately 600,000 fans at an average ticket price of $66.08. These events were spread over several successful international tours throughout Europe, Latin America and Australia,” the report says. “Any additional U.S. taxes payable on the remaining foreign earnings, if remitted, would be substantially offset by credits for foreign taxes already paid.”

Murphy’s campaign maintains that that means it shifted profits overseas in order to avoid paying taxes.

“Like any global company, WWE has working capital outside the United States for standard business operations such as payroll and marketing expenses,” Brian Flynn, senior vice president of marketing and communications for the WWE, said. “In 2009, WWE allocated only 3.5 percent of its $127 million in international revenue to accounts to cover such expenditures. Further, in 2009 WWE paid an effective U.S. tax rate of 37 percent, which was in line with the U.S. statutory rate, and almost 30 percent higher than the average effective tax rate for U.S. companies, which was 29 percent.”

The McMahons’ 2010 and 2011 taxes show that she and her husband, Vince, who is now in charge of the company, kept no money in what would be considered a “tax haven” country such as the Cayman Islands.

“Perhaps Congressman Murphy should take a few courses in international business where he would learn all about how international companies earn profits internationally and pay their taxes to the countries in which they are doing business,” Corry Bliss, McMahon’s campaign manager, said. “I suppose we shouldn’t expect Chris Murphy to understand these issues though, since he has never really had a job in the private sector.”

The next claim in the ad says McMahon denies “employees healthcare and disability . . . to increase her profit.”

The Murphy campaign said Friday that the statement refers to wrestlers who perform in the ring. But the ad neglects to mention that the wrestlers are independent contractors, rather than employees of the WWE.

“All 700 full-time WWE corporate employees have health insurance. All WWE performers also have health insurance,” Flynn said Monday.

“As part of their contract with WWE, talent are required to have health insurance. That said, WWE pays for all medical treatment related to any in-ring related injuries and associated rehabilitation costs required to assist a performer with his or her recovery,” Flynn explained.

The average salary for a full-time Superstar is $250,000 a year, and none of the performers make less than $100,000, “enabling them to afford standard health insurance, especially since WWE covers costs for any in-ring related injuries,” Flynn added.

The Murphy campaign cites the number of wrestlers who have prematurely died when they were working for the WWE. It also cites a deceased wrestler’s contract which shows that the talent is contractually required to purchase health insurance and must work for the WWE exclusively during the length of their contract.

The WWE’s wellness fact sheet says since 1982, five wrestlers have died while under contract with the WWE.

“According to coroner reports, one individual died by accident, one by suicide and three by heart disease. Other deceased wrestlers referred to in various reports were either not affiliated with WWE at all or performed for other wrestling organizations after their contract with WWE expired,” the statement on the WWE’s website says.

The next claim in the Murphy ad is that McMahon’s plan cuts taxes for the wealthy. McMahon’s published plan says she would lobby in Washington to cut taxes on earned income for the middle class. Her plan does nothing to the upper income brackets regarding earned income. It taxes capital gains and dividends tax at 15 percent, which is the current rate.

If the Bush-era tax cuts are permitted to expire, the tax rate on capital gains and dividends would more than double, reverting to 39.6 percent. Using the McMahon’s 2010 tax filings, this would cost her an extra $7 million in taxes, according to the Murphy campaign. Most of the McMahons’ income in 2010 and 2011 came from capital gains and dividends. Her plan would not change her current tax rate.

McMahon has said she doesn’t believe the Bush-era tax cuts should end for anyone, including the middle class or the wealthiest individuals.

The ad then says McMahon’s plan makes “cuts to Medicare and education.”

This does not appear to be true. Based on McMahon’s website. McMahon would pay for her middle class tax cuts with a 1 percent reduction in spending. The reduction would not include any cuts to Medicare or defense spending.

The ad’s statement about McMahon’s plan cutting Medicare and education also appear to ignore statements to the contrary by Bliss, McMahon’s campaign manager. According to the Murphy campaign, the accuracy of the ad’s comment on cutting Medicare depends upon whether you believe McMahon herself, or Bliss.

Ben Marter, Murphy’s spokesman, points out that McMahon has said repeatedly she’s considering cuts to Medicare. After U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan became the vice presidential nominee, Bliss said McMahon will not support cuts to Medicare.

Todd Abrajano, McMahon’s spokesman, said whether McMahon said it or the campaign said it, she’s not going to cut Medicare and that’s the bottomline.

But McMahon told the New Haven Register she wouldn’t rule out Ryan’s approach to Medicare, which contradicts what her campaign said.

As for the rest of the spending reductions in McMahon‘s plan, she has never said she would cut education funding. She also refuses to say exactly where she would cut the budget, even though she has said she wouldn’t touch defense spending and Bliss has said she wouldn’t touch Medicare.

Murphy’s latest ad was released following several from McMahon criticizing his attendance record. Records show that Murphy has attended 97 percent of his votes as a member of Congress, but the McMahon ads cite poor attendance at hearings during which no votes take place.

Former Republican Congressman Rob Simmons suggested last week that McMahon’s lack of experience in public office may be coloring her rhetoric. He said that lawmakers who sit on multiple committees and subcommittees often have scheduling conflicts, forcing them to either choose one and skip the other, or try to split his or her time between the groups.

Further, congress members often send staff to cover meetings that they can’t attend, and it’s worth noting that Congress was not in session during the October 2008 meetings on the financial crisis referenced in McMahon’s attack ads.

Nevertheless, the message in McMahon’s ads seems to be resonating, with the latest Rasmussen poll showing McMahon with a slight lead over Murphy.

[LWPD]

Polls indicate Linda McMahon is running neck and neck with challenger Chris Murphy. Several show her leading slightly, with significantly more money to spend moving into the home stretch. WWE recently announced a campaign to 'scrub' the public domain of any non-TV-PG wrestling content that it is affiliated with (heavily Attitude Era content). This is a noteworthy example of just how far the company is willing to go to protect its corporate reputation from political agendas. Should Linda win the Senate seat, the type of content WWE airs over the next six years (the length of her tenure) will probably edge much closer to the G side of TV-PG than PG-14.



Courtesy of Wall Street Journal
Connecticut Senate Race Tightens
Former Wrestling Executive McMahon Has GOP Hoping for a Pickup in a Democratic-Leaning State
By Joseph de Avila

BRISTOL, Conn.—Linda McMahon lost by 12 percentage points when she ran for the Senate two years ago on her credentials as co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., the wrestling-show empire.

This year, she has retooled her image and rekindled hopes among Republicans that they can pick up a Senate seat in Democratic-leaning Connecticut.

Focusing on the economy and on outreach to women, Ms. McMahon has turned her race against Rep. Christopher Murphy into a potential upset.

Pollsters say Ms. McMahon's gains are the result of a rebranding effort that began after now-Sen. Richard Blumenthal soundly defeated her in 2010 after Democrats attacked the wrestling league as being violent and misogynistic. "She has been working on her image in the past two years, and it shows," said Douglas Schwartz, poll director of the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Connecticut voters like her better today than two years ago."

Ms. McMahon led Mr. Murphy 49% to 46% among likely voters in a Quinnipiac poll released Aug. 28. But a separate survey by the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling, released the same day, found Mr. Murphy ahead 48% to 44%, among registered voters. The two are running to succeed retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Democrats and their independent allies hold 53 Senate seats, compared with 47 held by Republicans. But Democrats have to defend the most seats this year, including those in GOP-leaning states such as Nebraska, North Dakota and Montana.

Ms. McMahon's campaign in Connecticut, along with improved GOP prospects of winning a Democratic-held seat in Wisconsin, are among recent developments that have added to Republican hopes for claiming a Senate majority. Still, they come as the GOP's chances for easy wins in several other states have diminished, including in Missouri, where Republican Todd Akin has been embroiled in controversy after saying that women's bodies somehow avoid pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."

After losing in 2010, Ms. McMahon began working harder to woo independents and women. She has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars through her family foundation and emphasized her early financial troubles, such as a 1976 bankruptcy filing.

She has also held more than 100 events across the state called "Conversations with Linda," aimed primarily at women, where she has talked about her early struggles and her emphasis on creating jobs.

Democrats say Ms. McMahon, 63 years old, is pursuing an image makeover to distract from her record running the WWE, based in Stamford in the state's southwest. "The image CEO Linda McMahon is selling isn't real," says a new television ad from the Murphy campaign, released Wednesday. The spot says Ms. McMahon laid off workers "while taking millions in tax credits," and that she denied workers health care and disability benefits.

In response, a radio ad from the McMahon campaign says her company laid off workers in the 2009 recession but "now employs more people than ever before" and offers "excellent benefits," including health insurance.

After spending $50 million in 2010, Mrs. McMahon has spent about $11.8 million so far this year. That is still more than the $3.1 million spent by Mr. Murphy, according to the latest figures from the Federal Election Commission.

Ms. McMahon also has taken steps to keep Mr. Murphy, 39 years old, off balance. On Monday, her campaign filed a submission with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Mr. Murphy, charging that he violated House rules by accepting the "prohibited gift" of a home-equity loan from a financial institution he had represented as an attorney in the past.

Mr. Murphy denied the accusation, and his campaign said the submission was a "shameless political ploy."

A central element of Ms. McMahon's campaign is a call to cut tax rates and to eliminate capital-gains taxes for the middle class, as well as to repeal the alternative minimum tax.

Mr. Murphy opposes his opponent's tax-cut proposals, saying they would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. He has been pushing for stronger "Buy American" laws that he says would benefit U.S. manufacturers.

Mr. Murphy, elected to Congress in 2006, acknowledges that he doesn't have the same financial resources as Ms. McMahon and that he lacks her name recognition.

"My story doesn't need as much money as Linda McMahon's.…Ultimately, Linda McMahon needs all the money she has to try to wash away her miserable record of selling sex and violence to kids," said Mr. Murphy.

Ms. McMahon rejects that characterization of her former business. "We just have such an incredibly strong message that we are continuing to deliver all over the state," she said.

One factor that could help Mr. Murphy: President Barack Obama holds a more than nine-point lead in Connecticut over Republican nominee Mitt Romney in poll results compiled by RealClearPolitics, suggesting a strong Democratic turnout is likely.

[LWPD]

Murphy went after Linda over a past bankruptcy filed decades ago, prompting the McMahons to suddenly attempt to make restitution...with inflation adjustments tacked on for good measure.

Courtesy of Greenwich Time
McMahon: I'll make good on my debts
By Neil Vigdor

After a fresh round of criticism that she and her husband had walked away from their creditors in their 1976 bankruptcy, Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon announced Thursday night she would seek to track down and reimburse any individual creditor.

McMahon and her husband, Vince, had racked up about $1 million in debts to a range of creditors -- the IRS, banks, construction companies and a host of small businesses. Throughout her Senate race, McMahon has used a narrative of how she and her husband had overcome their financial woes to build the hugely successful World Wrestling Entertainment empire as a tale of personal fortitude.

But newly found bankruptcy court documents this week ratcheted up pressure on McMahon, who said she had not seen the list of creditors since the time of the bankruptcy filing 36 years ago.

In a statement, McMahon said, "Over the past two days, Vince and I have begun attempts to locate and reach out to all individuals on the creditor list. It is our intention to reimburse all private individual creditors that can be located. We feel it is the right thing to do to pay them in full, including an adjustment for inflation at four times the initial amount as shown on the list of creditors."

One of those creditors is the family of Pamela Behn.

Her family owned Blue Lanam Farm in Colchester, where the McMahons boarded and bred Appaloosa horses, known for their leopard-spotted coats, according to Behn.

The couple, Behn said, exuded wealth. Or so she thought.

The year was 1976.

Records from the McMahons' bankruptcy show Behn's family hasn't gotten paid $33,171 owed by the couple.

"I find it difficult to believe that people can write off debts and sleep well at night," Behn, 68, told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers earlier Thursday, before McMahon's announcement. "That's not the way I was raised."

Behn, who now lives in Utah and whose family's farm has since been shuttered, is one of the few people who are privy to the circumstances surrounding that chapter of the McMahons' Horatio Alger tale.

She is creditor No. 27 on bankruptcy settlement papers for the McMahons that were obtained this week from the National Archives in Waltham, Mass., just outside Boston. There were 29 creditors total, filling four pages.

A number of the individuals to whom the couple owed money are dead. For the others, time has dulled the details of the bankruptcy case, one only known in general terms to anyone who has ever watched a television commercial for or received a mailer from McMahon, co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, now the WWE.

But another who remembers the debt is 96-year-old ad man Gerard Langeler, a former Woodbridge resident who now lives in New Hampshire. He was owed $4,100 for advertising work, according to the bankruptcy list of creditors. "It didn't end well," he told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers earlier this week.

McMahon's campaign had said Wednesday that half of the couple's debts were satisfied as part of the $1 million bankruptcy settlement, which resulted in foreclosure of their home in West Hartford.

While the new records offered some details about the McMahons' bankrupcty, the IOUs fail to give a complete picture of the state of their finances and business dealings.

For example, several of their creditors have direct ties to organized labor.

The Connecticut Laborers Health & Welfare Fund, Connecticut Laborers Pension Fund and New England Training Trust Fund filed a joint claim against the McMahons for $14,000 as part of the bankruptcy that was never paid.

Neither was a claim for $3,231 filed by the Connecticut State Building Trades Hospitalization & Insurance Fund. The Connecticut Bricklayers Supplemental Health Fund failed to recover $389. The Connecticut Laborers and Bricklayers are both part of the Connecticut AFL-CIO.

It is unclear whether the union members worked as subcontractors for a Bristol construction company to which the couple owed $67,000 or worked directly for the McMahons, who have said publicly that they made a bad business decision to get involved in the construction business at the time.

The McMahons owed $4,600 to a boxing promotion company run by Bob Arum, a rival to Don King, who set up prize fights for the likes of Muhammad Ali.

Their creditors also included Sears Roebuck ($1,100), Southern New England Telephone Co. ($5,700) and the now-defunct May Department Stores Co. ($147).

Behn gave up long ago on recouping the $33,000 from the horse-breeding operation.

"If she wanted to clear her conscience, I'd be happy to have her clear up her debt with me," Behn said. "I won't hold my breath until I receive the money."

[LWPD]

Live, Monday, October 15th, 7 PM EST. The gloves will come off in what is sure to be a very heated debate. Both theday.com and WTNH.com will offer a free stream for those who may be interested.

Courtesy of TheDay.com
The Day announces details of McMahon, Murphy debate Oct. 15
By Paul Choiniere

U.S. Senate candidates Linda McMahon, (R), and Chris Murphy, (D), will engage in a one-hour debate at 7 p.m. Oct. 15 at The Garde Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public and will be telecast live on WTNH sister station MYTV9 and streamed on both theday.com and WTNH.com. The candidates are competing for the seat now held by retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Doors will be open at 5:45 p.m. with general seating available to the public on a first-to-arrive basis. Doors will be closed if the theater reaches capacity, so arrive early. No will be allowed access into the seating area of the theater after 6:50 p.m.

Asking questions will be Mark Davis, chief political correspondent for WTNH, and Paul Choiniere, editorial page editor of The Day. Serving as moderator will be WTNH Anchor Darren Kramer. The first half-hour of the debate will focus on jobs and the economy.

Those attending will not be allowed to carry campaign signs or other political paraphernalia into the auditorium and cannot wear shirts, hats, buttons or other items advocating for either candidate or for any political issue or candidate. Audience members will be required to remain quiet and respectful during the debate.

Readers who have suggested questions for the candidates can email Paul Choiniere at [e-mail].

Seating will be set aside for members of the news media. Reporters will have the chance to talk with the candidates and or their staff in the Garde Arts Center's Oasis Room immediately after the event.

The Garde, WTNH, The Day and the Robinson & Cole law firm of New London, are sponsoring the debate.

[Pete]

Anyone care to explain how we went from Linda's campaign manager saying that there was no information on which creditors were still owed from the bankruptcy and how the "documents simply do not exist," to Linda promising to pay back everyone? Clairvoyance?

[LWPD]

Linda McMahon, an 'independent minded woman' whose political fortunes just may depend on gaining the women's vote. These competing ads offer as much entertainment spin as WWE programming.




Courtesy of NY Times
For Woman in Senate Race, Uphill Fight for Female Votes
By Peter Applebome

HARTFORD — If Linda E. McMahon is elected to the United States Senate from Connecticut, her victory will be due in large part to women like Dorothy Martin-Neville.
Dr. Martin-Neville said she voted for Richard Blumenthal in Ms. McMahon’s unsuccessful Senate race two years ago. She is a registered Democrat who says she will vote for President Obama, would rather see Democrats keep control of the Senate and has a brother who worked for Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts. But after meeting Ms. McMahon, the Republican nominee, at several of the approximately 200 all-female get-togethers Ms. McMahon has held across the state, she said she became an enthusiastic supporter.

“I believe we need more women in politics,” said Dr. Martin-Neville, a psychotherapist and motivational speaker. “There are women in Washington who are working to create the common good, and we need more of them. I believe in Linda’s approach to work across party lines and work for people, not the parties.”

In her 2010 race, the exit poll conducted by Edison Research showed that Ms. McMahon, the former professional wrestling executive, lost the women’s vote by 19 percentage points, dooming a candidacy in which she spent $50 million of her own money. This time, she has focused relentlessly on female voters in a year when Democrats have tried to make the women’s vote a trump card nationally.

A Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday showed her tied with Representative Christopher S. Murphy, her Democratic opponent, and while she still does better among men, the poll showed Mr. Murphy with only a six-point advantage among women as they seek the Senate seat being vacated by Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent.

And on the eve of their first debate Sunday, one of four this month, their entirely different approaches to courting women voters are at the heart of an election that has become a window onto the ways gender issues, explicitly and implicitly, can play out.

Ms. McMahon has based her appeal on her record as a successful businesswoman and on a strikingly personal attempt to bond with women voters and, no doubt, to overcome the negative connotations many took last time from the wrestling company that created her fortune.

She frequently refers to her Women for Linda network and has hosted gatherings of 35 or 40 women in living rooms across the state. Last month, she drew 519 supporters at a Women for Linda rally in Norwalk featuring former Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut and Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. She has run advertisements featuring a softer, kinder, more grandmotherly presence than the tough C.E.O. whose wrestling-industry background turned off women in 2010.

They feature her reminiscing about how she met her husband in church, how she found out she was pregnant the day before graduating from college and how she overcame hard times, including a bankruptcy.

“I’m a mom,” she says in one campaign video as a piano plays gently in the background. “I’ve been a working mom, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom. I’m a grandmother. And I believe that I bring to the table many skills, many attributes that others who are in this race don’t have.”

Mr. Murphy, who has the support of women’s groups like Naral and the National Organization for Women, is hammering at traditional Democratic support for abortion rights and access to contraception.

He has focused on Ms. McMahon’s support for the Blunt amendment, which would have allowed employers to refuse to cover contraception and other medical costs, and her commitment to overturning the Affordable Care Act. His speeches are full of dire warnings about the stakes for women on issues like federal financing for Planned Parenthood, control of the Supreme Court and protecting Roe v. Wade if a McMahon victory tips control of the Senate to the Republicans.

Mr. Murphy frequently notes the violent, sometimes misogynistic content of her wrestling empire and her party’s opposition to abortion.

“She says that women shouldn’t pay attention to her positions on the issues; they should just pay attention to her gender,” Mr. Murphy said at an appearance last week. “That’s insulting.”

He added, “She’s trying to pull one over on the people of this state.”

Of course, the race has been about more than gender. Ms. McMahon has pummeled Mr. Murphy on his failings in personal finance, including a 2007 foreclosure action for missing mortgage payments and a 2003 lawsuit for nonpayment of rent. And Democrats have jumped on a statement by Ms. McMahon that she would like to see provisions that they say could phase out Social Security.

But women’s issues have seldom been far from the surface. Ms. McMahon, showing an ability to withstand issues that have hurt Republicans elsewhere, said it was absurd for Mr. Murphy to attack her on women’s issues.

“Murphy calls me antiwomen, but, Chris, take a look,” she says in a recent television ad. “I am a woman, a pro-choice woman.” It concludes, “I’m Linda McMahon, an independent-minded woman, and I approve this message.”

Her Web site, like much of her campaign material, is dominated by pictures of her with women: in a living room, at a luncheon meeting, on a factory floor. It features a female-friendly Pinterest site.

Asked during her primary race to name a senator whom she most admires or hopes to emulate, Ms. McMahon picked the nation’s most prominent female Democrat.

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent her life barreling through glass ceilings, only to be viciously attacked by her opponents,” she said in an e-mail. “But she has persevered and gone on to accomplish great things and serve our country admirably. We need more strong women in government.”

To many Democrats, Ms. McMahon’s improved showing with women is more a product of shrewd marketing and seemingly limitless spending — more of her own money than anyone has spent to win a Senate seat — than anything meaningful.

“This is a recrafting, a rebranding, a digitally enhanced makeover, but she’s the same person,” said Victoria Fennell, a Democratic Town Committee member from Hartford. “When the dust settles, it will be the issues that matter, and he’s the one with the right policies for women.”

On women’s issues, as on others, Ms. McMahon often tends to avoid specifics. Some of her supporters say her history in business trumps social issues like abortion or contraception.

“Social issues shouldn’t even be part of the debate,” said Jayme Stevenson, the first selectman of Darien and a McMahon supporter. “We need to create jobs.”

Still, Ms. McMahon’s ability to attract women, particularly women in business, has been a main reason polls show her tied in a race for a seat that had been assumed to be safely Democratic.

“She’s very genuine, and she’s a role model for businesswomen across the state,” said Maureen Boylan, who owns a corporate-events planning business. “I think she represents the values of working women in Connecticut.”

[LWPD]

C-span.org has archived the first Connecticut Senate Debate between Linda McMahon and Chris Murphy at the link below. A real bruiser from start to finish:

Connecticut Senate Debate 10/7/12



Courtesy of Politico
Chamber survey: McMahon leads Murphy
By Maggie Haberman

A survey commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is making its presence felt in downballot contests this cycle, shows Republican Linda McMahon leading Democrat Chris Murphy by 3 points in the Senate contest in Connecticut.

The poll, by National Research Inc., comes on the heels of a Quinnipiac University survey showing a 1-point race in one that Republicans are increasingly looking toward as a potential pickup opportunity in a Senate landscape that has changed in recent months in their efforts to win back the majority.

The Chamber poll of 600 likely voters, taken Oct. 1 through Oct. 2, shows McMahon at 42 percent and Murphy at 39 percent. Another 14 percent of voters are undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 points.

Both candidates have under-water favorables — 43 to 44 percent for McMahon, 38 to 40 percent for Murphy.

Chamber senior political strategist Scott Reed said, "McMahon has a proven record and a plan to cut taxes, remove regulatory barriers and create jobs moving forward. We think this is a hot race because it's focused on the economy and voters are concerned" about that issue.

He argued that the more voters hear about Murphy's support for "the 2010 health care bill which included job kiling regulation and taxes" the better McMahon will do, saying, "We continue to think this is a winnable race for the business community."

McMahon has been slamming Murphy over ethics after stories about him getting a home equity loan from a bank he had been a lawyer for once upon a time. At the same time, McMahon also has faced, as she did in 2010, scrutiny over her family business — World Wrestling Entertainment, the enterprise that created her family fortune and which she is using to fuel her Senate run.

In 2010, McMahon appeared in Quinnipiac surveys to come close to Richard Blumenthal, only to be badly beaten on Election Day. Whether things turn out differently this cycle remains to be seen. So far, her spending and tightening polls have prompted Democrats to spend more there than they'd planned.

[Pete]

"I think Linda McMahon might have done better at Monday night's Senate debate with Chris Murphy if she had simply taken out a cigarette lighter and set hundred-dollar bills on fire.

At least that's how I have seen McMahon's performance in the last three debates of the race; there goes a lot more of the McMahon fortune down the drain."

www.theday.com/article/20121016/NWS05/310169924/-1/nws

[marktaggart]

Linda McMahon runs her campaign like Vince runs the WWE. her campaign printed up fliers supporting Obama for prez and Linda for senate. In other words, courting Democrat and left leaning independents and expecting the loyal right to vote for her anyway. This is the EXACT same strategy the WWE uses when they fall all over themselves to make some celebrity guest the focal point of a show at the expense of the wrestlers in an effort to draw in the casual non-fan audience and simply expect the wrestling diehards to watch anyway. It never works for the WWE, and it SURE won't work in this polarizing election. There's no way the dems will support her, and she's turned off the Republican voters. 50 millions dollars down the toilet.

It boggles the mind that a family that seems to act so stupid these days could have created something so special and successful as the WWF of the 80s and 90s.