Register Citizen Endorsement: The Case For Linda McMahon

Torrington Register Citizen
Editorial
Friday, July 30, 2010

We are proud to endorse Linda McMahon in Connecticut’s Aug. 10 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, and here’s why:

Chris Dodd represented us in this seat for decades. Sucked in by the increasing power of his position over the years, he alternately looked out for those who helped him hold onto that power (the interests that funded his campaigns and helped him with his mortgage) and sharply partisan interests.

Despite the populist milieu he likes to conjure with press conferences about the latest consumer issue in his role as attorney general, Richard Blumenthal is an intensely partisan animal. He is the Democratic establishment’s establishment candidate. And he will proudly take up the Dodd mantle.

Linda McMahon is best positioned to stop Blumenthal from winning an election that he and the establishment act as though they are entitled to.

Her Republican opponent, Peter Schiff, is as disengaged as one can get from the real world that most Connecticut voters face. We keep hearing how brilliant he is, and OK, great, we’re sure that he is, and that his message about economic policy needs to be heard in Washington. But if he’s so smart, how come he can’t learn some interpersonal skills, or that to represent Connecticut voters, you have to actually meet some of them and get to know what their day-to-day problems are?

The other Republican on the ballot Aug. 10 is former Congressman Rob Simmons, who was endorsed on Thursday by the Hartford Courant despite having “suspended” his campaign just after the Republican convention without taking his name off the ballot, and then quietly, sort of, announcing that he was back in the race.

We like Rob Simmons, too. He’d make a good senator, or a good governor. But his behavior in this campaign has been bizarre and a disservice to the supporters and voters who were counting on him for leadership in accepting the challenge to run for U.S. Senate.

Remove three irrelevant factors — Linda McMahon’s gender, her personal wealth, and the nature of the business that she built from scratch — and the sneering doubts that party insiders and the press raise about her would go away.

Peter Schiff’s comment about McMahon being “off washing her hair” at a debate the other night was despicably sexist.

We should all be so lucky as to have fulfilled the American dream the way McMahon has in terms of earning what she has from nothing.

And let’s face it, World Wrestling Entertainment, whether we like it or watch it or not, is every bit a piece of modern Americana as NASCAR or American Idol.

Linda McMahon has real-world business experience, and knows what the government needs to do and not do to help create jobs for Connecticut residents.

We can easily picture Linda McMahon standing up to the power brokers in the Senate, in either party, and to the special interests, because she doesn’t need them to get into office or stay there.

Linda McMahon is a refreshing entry into the world of Connecticut politics.

We are glad she stepped up to the plate to run for the U.S. Senate, and we would urge voters in the Aug. 10 Republican primary to support her.

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Play Kevin Rennie’s Interview On WTIC’s Ray Dunaway Show

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

Daily Ructions

Bundling Blumenthal

Daily Ructions Blog
By Kevin Rennie
Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Democratic candidate for the United States Senate, says he went to Vancouver this month to talk to some lawyers about the problems of ordinary people.  He could have done that in Connecticut.  Gathered in Canada, however, was a remarkable collection of political donors and bundlers working under the auspices of a new fundraising committee, Committee for a Better Future, a political action committee formed in May to raise money for Blumenthal and others.  Since the past has been dogging Blumenthal, the five term attorney general would probably travel far for a chance to look ahead.

What a lot of got-rocks Democratic contributors Blumenthal crossed the continent to hob-nob with.  Blumenthal loses his way trying to explain the event in this interview with WTNH’s Mark Davis.  He says the gathering wasn’t a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  But it was–and for Blumenthal, too.  How could he not have known that?  The invitation to a July 11th fundraising event at the Vancouver Convention Centre reveals its a festival of big-money donors gathered to benefit Blumenthal and 11 other Democrats running for the Senate. Blumenthal had to have known that the Committee for a Better Future was formed specifically to raise money for him and those other Democrats.  It says so in the documents filed with the Federal Elections Commission in May.

The top ticket price was, brace yourself, $43,200.00 to attend the 90 minute event.  Here’s pdf of the invitation from Committee for a Better Future. What problems of “ordinary people” do you think they discussed?  Blumenthal’s share of the loot was precisely 7.07%.  Reid receives 20%.

Among the other recipients bundled with Blumenthal is Illinois Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.  He’s the sort of dodgy figure Blumenthal usually condemns not conspires with.  Giannoulias is a financial pirate who worked for his family’s bank when it made millions in bad loans to disreputable figures.  The FDIC took over the mismanaged bank in April.  Total cost to taxpayers is not yet known.  Blumenthal is keeping some very bad company by divvying up dough with Giannoulias.  Perhaps he asked the grasping young millionaire what he knows of  the concerns of “ordinary people.”  That could have made the 3000 mile sociological jaunt worthwhile for Blumenthal.

What Blumenthal went very far out of his way to avoid revealing was that he embarked on a long fundraising trip to participate in a short event that put him and other candidates in the same room with big donors writing enormous checks.  Why can’t Blumenthal be honest about it?

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

Americans by a large majority believe President Barack Obama has not focused enough on job creation, as economic fears threaten Democrats ahead of November 2 congressional elections, a Reuters-Ipsos poll found on Tuesday.

Reuters
By Steve Holland
Tuesday, July 27, 2010

In a sign of trouble ahead for the Democrats, the poll found evidence of a sizable enthusiasm gap with Republicans more energized about voting in the elections.

Americans expressed deep unhappiness with the direction of the economy, which in the poll they identified overwhelmingly as the country’s top problem.

The U.S. unemployment rate is at a stubbornly high 9.5 percent and Obama has spent much of the year on issues like Wall Street reform and healthcare in addition to jobs.

People were more negative about Obama’s performance on the economy than on any other question surveyed. Satisfaction was dropping more sharply on the issue than on any other question.

Only 34 percent approved of Obama’s handling of the economy and jobs compared to 46 percent who deemed it unsatisfactory. This is a sharp decline from early 2009, shortly after he took office, when more than half of those surveyed approved of Obama’s handling of the worst financial crisis in decades.

Overall, the July 22-25 national poll of 1,075 adults gave Obama an approval rating of 48 percent, a small decline from a June survey that had him at 50 percent approval.

This is in line with other polls showing his approval rating under 50 percent and evidence that for all the country’s problems, Obama remains generally well-liked.

“People still feel insecure about their future,” said Ipsos pollster Cliff Young. “They are spending less and saving more. They’re not buying a larger house or car or other luxuries because they’re worried — and that worry also manifests itself on the political side.”

U.S. presidents often lose support in midterm elections.

The Republicans are hoping to win control of the House of Representatives in November and pick up seats in the Senate. That could prevent Obama from winning any more major successes in Congress in the second half of this term.

‘COMMON GROUND’

Obama pushed the Senate on Tuesday to pass legislation intended to benefit small businesses and generate jobs.

“I hope that in the coming days, we’ll once again find common ground and get this legislation passed. We shouldn’t let America’s small businesses be held hostage to partisan politics and certainly not at this critical time,” Obama said.

The poll provided evidence that Americans are unhappy that Obama and the Democrats chose to devote their energies to overhauling the U.S. healthcare system and financial regulations instead of dwelling exclusively on job creation.

It found that 67 percent of poll respondents said Obama has not focused enough on job creation compared to healthcare and regulation of banks. Obama has argued that those reforms are vital building blocks to a strong economic recovery.

“They think he should’ve focused much more on the economy rather than healthcare and financial regulation,” said pollster Young. “From a voter perspective, they don’t see the economy improving. They don’t think the administration has given due attention to that problem.”

The Reuters-Ipsos poll was dismal news for Democrats as they seek to hold off Republicans in November elections in which Americans will elect 435 members of the House of Representatives and 37 of the 100-seat U.S. Senate.

Republicans hold a 46-44 percent lead over Democrats when participants were asked which party they planned to support in November. And 72 percent of Republicans said they are certain to vote on November 2, compared to 49 percent of Democrats.

“Republicans are charged up because they think they have a chance,” Young said.

The economy is still recovering too slowly to improve Obama’s political fortunes. U.S. consumer confidence sank in July to its lowest since February.

Figures to be released on Friday are likely to show that growth in the U.S. economy slowed in the second quarter amid a cooling in consumer spending and a wider trade deficit — but they will mark four straight quarters of expansion.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Not all was dire for Obama as 52 percent of independent voters approved of his job performance. Independents are closely watched because they often make the difference in close elections.

Obama, when accused by Republicans of driving up government spending and debt with an $862 billion stimulus plan, has made the point that he inherited a $1.3 trillion U.S. budget deficit from his unpopular predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.

But the poll suggested there are limits to this argument. It said 70 percent of Americans think the deficit has increased under Obama, and 75 percent said it grew under Bush.

Although U.S. troops are on their way out of Iraq, only 34 percent approved of Obama’s handling of the Iraq war, down from 51 percent early in his term.

With casualties rising in Afghanistan, 33 percent approved of Obama’s handling of the Afghan war, down from 47 percent shortly after he took office.

More Americans approved than disapproved of Obama’s efforts toward energy independence, 39 percent to 32 percent. But, again, the approval rating is down from the 56 percent approval he received on this subject in February 2009.

This comes as Obama grapples with BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill and pushes the need for more clean-energy jobs.

The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and the data weighted to ensure that the sample’s composition reflected that of the actual U.S. population according to U.S. Census figures.

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

Face The State Host Dennis House on His Interview with Dick Blumenthal: “…A very different Dick Blumenthal. … I don’t blame his people for holding him back from public appearances and interviews. … It’s not my style to cut off guests, but I had to.”

PART 1:

PART 2:

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

The New Dick Blumenthal

WFSB’s Hartfordite Blog
By Dennis House
Friday, July 16, 2010

I interviewed Dick Blumenthal last night for this Sunday’s Face the State, and he was a very different Dick Blumenthal. It was the first real sit down interview in months and the first time I had spoken to him since before the New York Times story broke in May, which changed his senate campaign and changed the way some voters look at him, perhaps forever.

Blumenthal used to the be the most accessible public official in our land of steady habits, offering reporters his personal cell phone number and granting interviews  at a moment’s notice. His eager willingness to go on camera was a running joke among his staff, journalists, columnists and radio disc jockeys…even himself. But the post NY Times article Blumenthal is a new type of politician. That cell phone number has been disconnected, and his twice, or thrice  weekly appearances on local media outlets have been sharply reduced.

We talked about the perception we journalists now have that Blumenthal is tightly managed. He said that wasn’t the case, and he said I was wrong when I said he had turned down invitations to appear on “Face the State.” I told him I had to set the record straight, and yes, in fact the campaign had turned us down. In May, we put in a request to have Blumenthal on our show and it is now July. In the old days I used to call Blumenthal at 5PM and have him in front of a camera by 7PM.

Hey, I understand. To say Blumenthal had a rough May is a huge understatement. I don’t blame his people for holding him back from public appearances and interviews. They were probably hoping the military service controversy would die down, and it has somewhat.

It had no intention to ask Blumenthal specifically about the Vietnam comments. He’s already explained them, and I didn’t expect anything new to come out. I instead wanted to know what went on behind the scenes during those dark days in May when he was being criticized across the country.  I wanted to know he handled the obvious stress and tension of a crisis situation. Blumenthal didn’t really answer the question and instead he brought up the Vietnam comments, apologizing to veterans, again.

Blumenthal seemed to avoid a few of my questions and instead delivered answers to something else that seemed rehearsed. It’s not my style to cut off guests, but I had to. I didn’t want precious time burned on lengthy talking points that had been said before.

Also to watch for this weekend: Blumenthal’s comments on Linda McMahon and the WWE. The attorney general said voters will have to decide for themselves about McMahon’s character. He also said there might be questions about whether McMahon’s WWE put profits above the safety of workers. I asked whether his office had ever investigated the WWE for those allegations.

His answer is very interesting, and I’d like to hear your take on it.

My sense is that the Vietnam comments controversy shook Blumenthal to his core. I don’t think the old Dick Blumenthal is ever coming back. He is now in a race that is probably tougher than he ever imagined and for the first time after decades of easy landslides he faces an opponent in a campaign that has everybody watching.

We also talked about immigration, the stimulus, and more.

Tune in this Sunday at 11AM for Face the State.

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

New London Day
By Ted Mann
Saturday, July 10, 2010

New London – Linda McMahon was midway through a stroll around the landmarks of downtown Friday, nearing the corner of Bank and State streets, when someone in the passing crowd called out her last name.

“I watch you guys every Monday,” Kenny Wilbur told McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, after she turned to shake his hand.

“You know who she is?” Wilbur said to his two grandchildren, Kion and Mazani, who were standing by his side. “You watch ‘em all the time.”

If Democrats are hoping that McMahon’s Republican bid for the U.S. Senate will be undone by the controversies over steroids and the premature deaths of the wrestlers who have worked for the company on which she and her husband have built a fortune and entertainment empire, the candidate’s visit to New London on the opening afternoon of Sailfest was the other side of that coin.

McMahon’s WWE notoriety seemed to yield only goodwill from the passers-by who stopped her on the sidewalks and greeted her from behind the counters of vendors’ trucks at Sailfest.

And even in New London, where local Republicans recently reaffirmed their support for former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons – who lost the Republican endorsement but remains on the party’s Aug. 10 primary ballot – McMahon got a warm reception from local officials and voters who said they simply want to see a new face in the U.S. Senate.

“Good luck,” Donna Hyde called out to McMahon as the candidate passed near the corner of Eugene O’Neill Drive and State Street.

Hyde said she likes McMahon’s “assertive” attitude, as displayed in the television advertisements and direct-mail fliers with which her campaign has blanketed the state, hoping to cut deeper into the lead held by the Democratic candidate, longtime Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Asked about Blumenthal, Hyde added words that would likely chill the blood of Democratic consultants, who have worked to contain the controversy over reports that Blumenthal has occasionally misstated his military service record.

“He hasn’t been entirely honest either, you know,” Hyde said. “I used to love him, and now, with what he did with the Vietnam situation …

“You just don’t accidentally say ‘When I went to Vietnam,’ ” she said. “My husband was in Okinawa for a year and a half, and the first thing he tells people is, ‘Luckily, I never went to Vietnam, but I was in Okinawa.’ ”

Not everyone recognized McMahon, the candidate, as readily as Hyde. The man from Alabama selling lemonade by City Pier was under the impression that the woman in the tan pantsuit was the governor. Others were aware that she had been in ads, but they weren’t sure why.

But WWE was everywhere.

Angelo Rentas, a longshoreman from New London, gaped in surprise when he spotted McMahon from the picnic bench where he sat with Stephanie Nicole Eldridge and their 3-month-old son, Nathaniel.

“My friends aren’t even going to believe this,” Rentas said after McMahon posed for photographs with the family, the candidate cradling Nathaniel in her arms.

As McMahon talked to the proprietors of a grilling stand, she offered to let a young wrestling fan step up and place an order.

“I don’t have any money right now,” he told McMahon, who promptly bought him a corndog.

Joe Muscarella of Oakdale, standing at the booth where his son, Joe, was selling Bella Forte pepper sauce, spotted McMahon and immediately began to rattle off the names of now deceased wrestlers and wrestling maneuvers: Gorilla Monsoon, Killer Kowalski, Coco Butt. (The last being a head-butt made famous by Bobo Brazil, considered by some to be the “Jackie Robinson of professional wrestling.”)

McMahon herself got into the act Friday. Touring the gallery at Hygienic Art, she spotted a portrait of Ray Charles and noted that the late singer “did a guest appearance at Wrestlemania II.”

Other candidates will descend on Sailfest this weekend, including Republican Tom Foley, who is running for governor and will headline the opening of a campaign office for state House candidate Andrew Lockwood today.

Democrat Ned Lamont will visit Sunday afternoon.

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

Blumenthal Says He Had No Control Over His Family’s Oil And Gas Investments

Manchester Journal Inquirer
By Don Michak
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal — who in his tough talk about the BP oil spill has called for an “immediate and indefinite” moratorium on deepwater drilling — has reported significant family holdings in three oil and gas companies.

They include an indirect investment by his wife in a company based in Houston but incorporated in an offshore tax haven that says it plans to “increase shareholder value” by expanding its deepwater drilling exposure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Those and other assets held by Blumenthal and his wife, Cynthia Malkin Blumenthal, are detailed in a 65-page financial disclosure report the attorney general filed in April with the secretary of the Senate.

The document shows that last year Blumenthal was a relatively wealthy man, holding personal assets valued at between $599,000 and $1.3 million.

It also shows that his wife was considerably wealthier. The granddaughter of the founder of a New York real estate firm whose holdings include the Empire State Building, Cynthia Malkin Blumenthal held assets valued at between $55.3 million and $107 million.

They included a J.P. Morgan checking account that held more than $1 million, according to the report.

The Blumenthals also jointly held assets worth between $166,000 and $415,000, while their children held assets valued at between $7.7 million and $15.6 million.

Blumenthal Oil & Gas

Blumenthal’s report lists his personal holdings in “Blumenthal Oil and Gas LLC,” a firm established in 2007 and managed by his brother David, a physician in Massachusetts.

The reporting form requires Senate candidates to value their assets only within certain ranges, and the Connecticut Democrat indicated that his Blumenthal Oil and Gas holdings were worth between $50,000 and $100,000.

The report also lists two investments by his spouse in a New York-based hedge fund, D.C. Capital Partners limited partnership, that he valued at between $600,000 and $1.25 million. The fund has invested in 19 companies, including Vantage Drilling Co., according to a letter it provided to Blumenthal and that was amended to his report.

Vantage, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, describes itself in its latest annual report to the Securities & Exchange Commission as an international drilling company that contracts drilling units, related equipment, and work crews, primarily on a daily rate.

It says has an eight-year contract potentially worth $1.6 billion to operate the DragonQuest, an “ultra-deepwater” drillship under construction in Korea. Vantage says the rig is expected to operate in the Gulf of Mexico, although it also could be sent elsewhere.

‘No control’ over assets

Asked how he might reconcile his rhetoric with his family’s oil and gas investments, Blumenthal responded through his campaign spokeswoman that neither he nor his wife had made them.

The spokeswoman, Maura Downes, said today that the candidate’s share in Blumenthal Oil and Gas was inherited from his father, whose estate was recently probated, and that the corporation has “nothing to do with offshore drilling.”

The company owns oil wells in Texas and Mexico that were considered to be “dry,” according to Downes, although it is exploring the possible use of new technology to recover any untapped oil that may remain.

“Dick has no control over either asset, and his wife cannot control how assets in that fund are invested,” she said. “He’s taken on big energy companies — stopped a floating gas plant and pipeline in Long Island Sound, called for tougher laws to be strongly enforced to hold companies like BP accountable.

“There’s no question where he stands,” she added. “He will continue fighting to protect lives and livelihoods.”

$63 million to $124 million family fortune

Blumenthal in his report listed his state salary at $130,000 and indicated that upon leaving state government he would be entitled to an annual pension payment of $60,000 per year.

He also reported receiving no gifts or reimbursements and listed no liabilities.

Blumenthal at the same time put the total value of his family fortune at between $63 million and $124 million, listing dozens of investments in bond and equity funds, real estate partnerships, private equity partnerships, and hedge funds.

He put the value of 26 of those assets at “more than $1 million” each.

A substantial number of the Blumenthal family holdings involve indirect investments in foreign countries, including Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other Asian nations, according to the report.

Blumenthal’s family wealth pales in comparison to that reported by Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Linda McMahon, the former chief executive officer of Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

The 108-page financial disclosure report McMahon filed last year showed that she and her husband had assets of between $271 million and $874 million.

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

‘Rambo’ Blumenthal: Neglecting His Duties

Waterbury Republican American
Editorial
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

For 20 years, Democrat Richard “Rambo” Blumenthal has traveled hither and yon as attorney general in search of TV cameras. For 20 years, he has been out of the office frequently to testify at hearings in Washington and elsewhere, march in parades, address civic organizations, attend political and union rallies, “misspeak” numerous times to veterans and others about his heroism in the Vietnam War and so forth.

For 20 years, Mr. Blumenthal has been dictating to companies, large and small, across Connecticut and America, how to run their businesses; recently, he even he offered his two cents on how the oil industry operate.

According to the state’s auditors, Mr. Blumenthal should have spent more time minding his own store. Their little-publicized review of the attorney general’s office found a number of serious deficiencies, if not outright violations of the law, when it came to managing personnel, finances and outside contracts. They found Mr. Blumenthal:

Let subordinates to abuse their compensatory-time benefits.

Regularly failed to deposit large payments to his office within statutory time limits, costing the government (taxpayers) interest income.

Committed a major accounting lapse by overstating more than $360,000 in receivables.

Routinely spent money before receiving authorization or after authorizations had expired.

Exceeded contractual limits on payments to outside attorneys and then regularly made those lawyers wait for their checks, some for as long as two years. (Maybe if Mr. Blumenthal pushed his more than 300 assistant attorneys general a little bit, he could spare taxpayers the additional expense of hiring extra legal help to handle his hyperactive caseload.)

For his part, Mr. Blumenthal offered excuses and rationalizations to pardon his mismanagement, none of which he would accept if they came from a business he was intent upon suing.

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.

By Jeff Mill

CROMWELL — Linda McMahon, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, came to Cromwell Friday to bolster the campaign of state representative candidate Christi Carpino.

The process, McMahon also gave a quiet but carefully honed tutorial on retail politics 101.

The woman who stepped out of a silver SUV just before 11 a.m. and walked quietly into Mitchell’s on Main restaurant in Cromwell’s historic downtown was the antithesis of the CEO of the bold, brash and often raucous World Wrestling Entertainment.

For one thing, McMahon is a petite, almost delicate-looking woman, who was clad Friday in an understated black jacket and skirt brushed with soft white highlights.

Over the next two hours, as she worked her way along a portion of Main Street, McMahon forged quick and easy connections with nearly two-dozen people she met in shops, offices, restaurants, a fire station and police headquarters.

To each person she met, McMahon introduced herself in a voice tinged with a soft Carolina drawl, explaining she is running for the U.S. Senate.

If they did not know her, many of the people she met knew of her, most from her campaign commercials. Virtually no one mentioned her connection to the WWE.

At times, it was hard to tell who was more pleased with the individual encounters, McMahon or the person she was meeting.

Even if they did not promise her their vote, everyone she met responded warmly to McMahon the person.

Carpino, one of two Republicans running for the GOP nomination for the General Assembly seat held by James A. O’Rourke, trailed McMahon, as did Republican Town Committee Chairman Enzo Fainenza.

Also accompanying McMahon were her Media Director Jodi Latina, who is a former WTNH reporter, a staff photographer and a retired Bridgeport police officer, who serves as McMahon’s combination driver/security aide.

Starting at Melilli’s, McMahon walked up the east side of Main Street to ABC Pizza, and then had perhaps her most cordial interchange in the adjacent and newly-opened Tea Roses Tea Room.

As she sipped freshly-made tea, McMahon listened intently as owner Peggi Camosci explained that the tea room was the culmination of a 15-year dream.

Here, McMahon seemed most in her element, speaking to Camosci as a fellow businesswoman. She then purchased some tea before the small party swept out the door and on up the street.

At all times, she kept her hands free so she could be ready to shake the hand of the next person she met.

En route to the Cromwell Fire House on West Street, McMahon was asked if she felt 2010 was becoming “the year of the woman” in politics.

In addition to her emergence as a candidate, there are also those of South Carolina gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley, California gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman (the former CEO of eBay) and California senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

“I don’t tend to think of it necessarily as women, but just as the emergence of really good candidates,” she said. When it was mentioned that all four of the high-profile women are Republicans, McMahon smiled and remarked, “Isn’t that nice.”

Following her walkabout, McMahon moved on to the “Fill-the-Boot” fundraiser being held at the Court Street firehouse and then to the Traveler’s Championship.

Before she left, McMahon said her obvious ease at campaigning is the result of growing up in the coastal North Carolina town of New Bern.

Because it was a small town, McMahon got to know nearly everyone and thus was at ease talking with them. That habit has carried over into the campaign, she said.

LINK

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For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.