Election Watch: Linda McMahon Senate Run

[Pete]

I get that running a Republican campaign in Connecticut is not easy--I really do. But good Lord, that is an act that screams "desperation." The fact that Obama explicitly endorsed Murphy in TV ads just makes it more pathetic.

Yahoo's article on this still refers to Vince as a "pro wrestling impresario." No matter how hard he tries otherwise, that's what's going to end up on his tombstone.

[william]

It's over, she lost again. Give it up Linda, you will never win a senate seat. Maybe now things in wwe will start getting better.

[LWPD]

Last night the 2012 Senate bid of Linda McMahon ended in defeat. In her concession speech, she was surrounded by the rest of the McMahon Family. In the video below, her son Shane stands lovingly to her right, and a visibly broken Vince can be briefly seen on camera to her left at the 1:57 mark. One way or another, the extent of her efforts will long be remembered.

Linda McMahon Concession Speech 11/6/12


Courtesy of Boston Globe
Same issues for McMahon in 2nd Conn. Senate race
By Susan Haigh

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Republican Linda McMahon promised the Connecticut GOP that she would run a totally different campaign in 2012 after losing her first U.S. Senate race two years ago to Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

The former wrestling executive said she didn’t need to spend $50 million again. Her second campaign would be more grass-roots oriented. She would work to improve her standing among women.

But during the final months of this year’s race, she resembled the McMahon of old.

The wealthy McMahon spent almost the same eye-popping amount — more than $42 million as of last month — for a total of nearly $100 million over the two races. She plastered TV screens with seemingly endless commercials. And exit polling conducted for The Associated Press showed female voters ultimately backed her Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy. Murphy beat McMahon among women 3-to-2.

In the end, with 95 percent of precincts reporting, McMahon had lost with 43 percent of the vote. It was the exact same percentage she had garnered in 2010.

‘‘We've seen this movie before,’’ said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, who predicted in mid-October that McMahon’s popularity — which had improved since 2010 — was fading in the final weeks, just like two years earlier.

‘‘By the end of the campaign, voters liked her less,’’ Schwartz said. ‘‘They trusted her less and perhaps part of that was a backlash to her saturation of television advertising.’’

State GOP Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. on Wednesday credited McMahon with being ‘‘a hardworking, disciplined candidate who had fought the good fight’’ but acknowledged that the state Republican Party now needs to get back to basics.

‘‘There’s no secret that I had reservations about the formula of running a self-funder with no prior political experience. Perhaps the age of big self-funders is over in Connecticut,’’ he told the AP. ‘‘We have a deep bench of talented Republican officeholders who have worked their way up the ranks and have bona fide political skills.’’

McMahon told a crowd of supporters on Tuesday that she had no regrets about her campaign and probably would not have done anything differently, saying, ‘‘It was an incredibly well-run, hard-fought race.’’

Through a spokesman, McMahon declined requests for interviews on Wednesday. A message was also left with her campaign manager, Corry Bliss.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, an avid McMahon supporter, attributed the businesswoman’s loss to national politics. In addition to being up against a strong showing by President Barack Obama, Boughton said McMahon’s standing among women may have suffered because of comments made about rape by two male Republican Senate candidates in other states.

‘‘You just can’t distance yourself far enough from those kinds of comments because of the narrative the Democrats very strategically played,’’ Boughton said.

He said Republicans shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking that any other GOP candidate, such as McMahon’s primary rival, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, could have won on Tuesday.

‘‘I think she’s very much getting an unfair rap. Look, we had somebody that was willing to spend money, run for the United States Senate and provide resources to help drive out the vote, to help drive out Republican votes. Everybody benefitted on that ticket, up and down the line, by the ground work that they did,’’ said the mayor. ‘‘But you’re facing a headwind that is like a blizzard in terms of the votes that the president can generate.’’

Robert Poliner, a former state GOP chairman from Durham, had supported Shays for the party’s nomination. Back in January, he urged his fellow Republicans not to pick a candidate ‘‘with gobs of money’’ but rather someone who would appeal to everybody.

On Wednesday, Poliner gave McMahon credit for spending two years of her life trying to become a U.S. senator and agreed with Boughton that there was no guarantee Shays would have won. But he said he doesn’t believe Shays or McMahon’s 2010 primary rival, former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, would have done any worse than McMahon, despite her $42 million in spending.

‘‘In my mind, I think we probably would have done better’’ because a lot of the issues that Murphy raised, such as McMahon’s tenure as the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, now WWE, would not have been raised.

Even by pitching herself as a job creator, as she did in 2010, McMahon made the WWE a specter that was always present, Poliner said.

‘‘That became a central issue in both campaigns,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t think you can walk away from that fact.’’

[Pete]

Nov 7, 2012 19:48:52 GMT -5 LWPD said:

In the video below, her son Shane stands lovingly to her right,

Kinda lovingly checking his watch a lot, too.

[Pete]

Just wondering out loud here...how many wrestlers past and present could have been given access to health insurance for the $100 million Linda has flushed away on these two campaigns?

[william]

Nov 8, 2012 1:06:03 GMT -5 Pete said:

Just wondering out loud here...how many wrestlers past and present could have been given access to health insurance for the $100 million Linda has flushed away on these two campaigns?

Tons, but that will never happen.

[swarm]

Nov 8, 2012 1:06:03 GMT -5 Pete said:

Just wondering out loud here...how many wrestlers past and present could have been given access to health insurance for the $100 million Linda has flushed away on these two campaigns?

Great question Pete. Have you ever actually tried to answer that question yourself?

What do you think the average annual insurance policy would be for a person who lists "pro wrestler" as their occupation? Now times that by thousands. Every wrestler, ever. Please let me know what you come up with. I bet you can figure out exactly how many bodies 100 million in insurance coverage for unionized "pro wrestlers" would cover. Probably not that many.

Never mind that without the capital he built with his money, these guys wouldn't even have jobs. Never mind their W2's probably much larger than the average Joe. Never mind they get free catering. Shit, if I didn't have to pay for my own food I'd save about 500 bucks a month lol -- does any of that stuff matter or are we ignoring the ultra-positives?

I'm sure you have a well thought out, financial plan to back up your stance on taking more money from the rich. Really looking forward to the results of your research.

Bonus question: How much money spent on women, booze, illegal drugs, steroids and pain killers by wrestlers over a career could have been saved for retirement? Just asking.

[Pete]

Nov 8, 2012 9:37:21 GMT -5 Swarm said:

I'm sure you have a well thought out, financial plan to back up your stance on taking more money from the rich.

Oh, Linda's done a perfectly good job of not doing that on her own (as has Vince, by proxy). Not just with these no-chance campaigns but with the XFL, the WBF, and everything else Vince has tried to do to escape the wrestling bubble and failed at.

I wonder how much rehab would cost for all those wrestlers wasting money on women and drugs. It hasn't stopped Vince from providing that (100% to his credit).

EDIT: It can't be THAT expensive. WWE wrestlers have to pay for their own health insurance (as a requirement), since they're--of course--"independent contractors." Which means that they're free to take a booking for TNA if they're in the Orlando area, or go take a tour of Japan...right?

[swarm]

No, Pete. They signed "contracts" with the WWE. The same way an independent contractor signs a commitment to build houses during a certain season or time. They can't just pick up their equipment and go work for some other city or county until the existing contract is up. And it does cost THAT much. If you honestly care about politics please research your own questions. Do you really care or are you not asking for the real answers and just fishing for emotional and agreeable replies?

[Pete]

Nov 8, 2012 10:31:39 GMT -5 Swarm said:

No, Pete. They signed "contracts" with the WWE. The same way an independent contractor signs a commitment to build houses during a certain season or time. They can't just pick up their equipment and go work for some other city or county until the existing contract is up.

It isn't just about the length of the contract, it's about the fact that the WWE controls what their wrestlers do and how they do it--I don't see how this is a disagreeable fact. That is inherently a sign that the wrestlers are employees, not contractors.

If they were independent contracts, then those 3-year contracts or whatever length you want to choose would indicate that the wrestler would have to work these dates during the week, and that's it. They would in no way be prevented from doing whatever the hell else they want to do on their nights off from the WWE, including taking dates for other companies, making media appearances outside of WWE control, putting their likeness in a non-licensed video game, etc. As long as they show up for the dates negotiated.

On top of that, wrestlers have to say what the writers script for them. They have to do certain spots that the guys booking finishes and match layouts give to them. They can't take time off whenever they feel like it. They have to work the "WWE Style," as guys in charge or formerly in charge like Taz have mentioned. If the company trains you on how they want the job done and the specific procedures to be used, then this is a good indication that you're an employee. If you're like the FCW/NXT guys--people with no definitive end date to the job, then you're an employee.

And that's what the WWE Superstars are. In real life at least, not in WWE-speak.