The McMahon campaign sent out an email to supporters today showing the results of an internal poll conducted by Hans Kaiser of Moore Information during December 15-16, 2009 among 400 likely Republican voters in the state. According to Ed Patru, McMahon’s communications director, the results show:
remarkable momentum for Linda, even as the numbers paint a dire picture politically for former front runner Rob Simmons.
Linda now leads Rob in a head-to-head matchup, 37%-35%, and she holds at least 20-point leads in each of the all-important 3rd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts…Rob Simmons has yet to articulate a compelling argument for why voters should choose government experience over real-world business experience, and his failure to do this has cost him the lead in this race, despite his non-stop negative campaign.
Huh. Guess it’s not just Dems who complain about Simmons’ negative campaigning. Guess $30 million helps. Definitely helps getting good coverage in places >like the Hartford Courant who let the McMahon campaign’s indignant comment that ” a request to question the candidate’s spouse smacked of sexism” and question if “The Courant was also interviewing Dodd’s wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, and Heidi Simmons, who is married to Rob Simmons,” stand without question when the Courant has done numerous pieces on Mrs. Dodd.
Looks like Simmons has more of a fight on his hands than he thought. Greenwich GOP leaders (First Selectman Peter Tesei, and Selectman David Theis) came out in support of McMahon recently, and not just because she’s the hometown girl as Tesei is supporting Mike Fedele over resident Tom Foley in the governor’s race.
18 responses so far ↓
If this is true Simmons is done. He has no money (compared to her), endless negatives and she hasn’t even hit him yet. Most of her negatives are common knowledge so even if he had money it wouldn’t be as devistating as she could be to him. It’s unfortunate, but true.
He has had a great run of it and an incredible career of service to our country.
Moore Information is a Republican pollster with a good reputation, having worked for numerous campaigns, including those for Bush-Cheney in 2000 and 2004, and the Senate campaigns of Susan Collins in Maine, Gordon Smith in Oregon, and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska.
http://www.moore-info.com/campaign.html
That said though, I don’t see any Connecticut-specific campaigns listed. And as always, candidate’s internal polls should always be taken with a grain of salt, even among pollsters of solid repute.
This poll is most likely quite accurate. The trend lines have been pointing toward a convergance in publicly available polls for weeks if not months. I think McMahon certainly has the public-opinion lead or close to it by now, given her advertising spend. The question is, where are the delegates? Where do they stand?
In a convention caucus, that is what matters, not public opinion (though polls naturally will impact delegate decision-making). The money thing is overwhelmingly impacting this race. For McMahon, that is great news.
Moore Information, McMahon’s pollsters, are under investigation for illegal push polling…
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Legal+battle+slows+probe+of+push+poll&articleId=b25f5cc1-7a37-45d1-be0b-78f867500198
While I am an ardent Democrat, I thought the poll is about where I thought they would match up at this juncture.I do think that besides having money Linda McMahon’s “story” is fresh and something many Republicans will like and admire.Looking from afar, Simmons looks much less “fresh” and frankly has been a government employee most all his life. The article about her this past Sunday in the Hartford Courant was a beginning glimpse of her backround and it was in my opinion a pretty favorable article.Alot will be riding on how Linda McMahon handles the upcoming interviews on “Face The State” and other media outlets.If she does an adaquate job on Face The State and folks get a sense that is is ready for prime time then I suspect she will gradually but steadilly overcome Simmons.
Where is Vince McMahon?
Linda and Vince are partners in life, partners in business, etc….
Are they not partners in this venture?
It’s just surprising how invisible Vince has been.
And where are the kids?
Mr. Steroids has been locked in the closet and can’t come out to play.
My bet is that we never see him on the campaign trail. The first time they let him out will be, um, election night.
The minute he is associated with her, he becomes a political liability – think of the WWE clips that will fill the internets…
I found this one in, oh, I don’t know, less than 30 seconds.
Father v. Son Streetfight, Wrestlemania 17, April 1, 2001, Houston
Vince v. Shane, with daughter Stephanie watching.
At about 5:00 minutes, the announcer says “He is shoving his son Shane back down into the corner…I cannot believe Vince McMahon would tell his own son he will never forgive his wife Linda for giving birth to this boy.”
Announcer II: “I don’t think it was pathetic, it was a truthful statement.”
At 6:04, Stephanie and her brother Shane start slapping each other. At 6:24, “Sibling rivalry at its best,” the announcers say.
This is family values. This is why Vince is locked in the closet.
At 6:50, the announcers claim that son Shane was responsible for driving Linda to a nervous breakdown, having Linda committed to an institution and keeping Linda medicated. Hmmm. Was this real or was this just a gimmick?
The craziest part is the crowd cheering it on. Has our society gone off the deep end?
Gosh, I forgot the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34tANL31lVk
How quick will this one be scrubbed from the internets?
Pay attention to the opening music, at about 00:10: “Pretty politicians buying souls…puppets.”
There is so much material. Linda must think that her money can erase the vast WWE digital archive.
This is far more fun than studying for secured transactions. Oppo research could have a field day with this. I can see the 30 second commercials now.
“Linda McMahon pretended to get a divorce, have a nervous breakdown, and go to the hospital to sell pay-per-view tickets. She let her husband pretend to have a mistress on television. Now she wants to join the U.S. Senate…”
The Wikipedia write up on Wrestlemania 17 has footnotes for all this info:
“Another major feud that was built up in the lead to WrestleMania was the one involving Vince McMahon and his son Shane McMahon. The feud started with Vince’s disapproval of Mick Foley’s job as then-WWF commissioner as well as Foley’s decision of holding a six-man Hell in a Cell match at Armageddon 2000, taking into consideration about the well-being of the wrestlers involved in the match.[16] Despite his attempts Foley was given full support by Linda McMahon, Vince’s wife and the WWF’s CEO. Not pleased with this result, Vince immediately demanded a divorce from Linda.[17] Shortly after Armageddon, secretly to Vince’s delight, it was revealed Linda was rushed to hospital suffering with a nervous breakdown.[18] With Linda hospitalised, the Board of Directors appointed Vince as the new CEO of the WWF, allowing him to fire Foley as commissioner.[19] With Linda in a comatose-like state, Vince started to have a public affair with Trish Stratus. Vince’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, was at first far from pleased about the turn of events.[20] At No Way Out, Stephanie and Trish were in a match with Stephanie coming out on top due to interference by William Regal. On the February 26th episode of Raw is War, however, during a match that placed Vince and Trish against Stephanie and William Regal, Stratus was turned on by the other participants in the match and had sewage dumped over her.[21] In the following shows, Vince continued to demean Trish by having her do such actions as bark like a dog around the ring and striping down to her lingerie. Despite this, Trish remained loyal to Vince and begged for his forgiveness.”
I guess this is where the famous video of Linda kicking her husband in the gonads comes from:
“Shane dominated his father during the start of the match with attacks involving a Kendo stick and monitors from the Spanish announcers’ table. Lying Vince on the table, Shane climbed back into the ring and attempted to perform a diving elbow drop off the top rope. His sister Stephanie moved Vince off the table, however, leaving Shane to crash into it. Trish Stratus came towards the ring, pushing Linda McMahon out on a wheelchair. Vince tried to embrace Trish, but she slapped him. In retaliation, Stephanie got into a fight with Trish that led them out of the stadium. With Linda alone, Vince approached her to the detestment of guest referee Mick Foley but the owner replies with a few chair shots. Dragging Linda into the ring and placing her on a chair, Vince forced her to watch him beat his son down a couple of times with a trash can. As he went for a third shot with the can, however, Linda stood up and kicked Vince in the testicles. With Vince in the corner, Shane placed a garbage can in front of Vince’s face and hit a Coast-to-Coast dropkick through it, before pinning his father to win the match.”
So if the McMahons say it was entertainment, then they were purveyors of some pretty lousy crap to America. If they say it was real, then wow.
Politicians are doing more damage to our country in real time as we comment on wrestling “SHOWS”. There are pictures of that kook from Minnesota Al Franken wearing a diaper. Any of you devoted Democrats have a problem with that?
Franken was comedy, and from what I know, didn’t use his family as props for profiteering. If he did, then perhaps I’ll change my mind on Franken. But do we ever think that Linda McMahon would stop Lieberman in his tracks?
Check out the interview Franken did with Jerry Garcia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KldqYNV2Hwg
And this is Democrat Senator AL Franken
http://wizbangblue.com/images/2008/12/alfranken-thumb.jpg
>>And this is Democrat Senator AL Franken
Any comment I might make (other than this) would never make it past moderation.
The issue for most of the voting public is whether or not Ms McMahon can be an effective Senator for Connecticut..one mishap on a television interview or any inappropriate comment in the media by her will send a message of ” amateur hour” far greater then any kick in the gonads or other show in her wrestling empire will ever do.
That Franken picture is photoshopped, apparently the product of a mailer from the Ohio GOP in 2006.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/26/franken-ohio-photo/
McMahon is a seasoned enough actress from her “reality tv” empire that she won’t make a gaffe. She is doping up on populist rhetoric. She is not an amateur, and any thoughts that she is underestimate her and what she can purchase.
How can self-respecting Yankee Republicans look at the trash she has peddled and honestly say yeah, she’s Senatorial, and the Nutmeg state’s version of Al Franken?
She’s not. She lacks the gravitas of a Jesse Ventura (who at least had military credentials). McMahon can’t even be bothered to vote. What kind of disdain for the system is that?
At least Franken provided some social critique with his humor. McMahon mainstreams violence for a violent culture. We need more than her.
She will deliver the lines like a pro, and she will sound articulate, but her agenda is hollow like the empty corporate shill she is.
Choose your tasteless media props. Dead Aghanistan kids and Impeach Bush signs at a fake, party-sponsored anti-war rally or Trish Stratus?
When it comes to politics I’m reminded of my two barrels arguing in the driveway and the blue one saying ‘I’m not garbage, I’m recycling and I’m a pretty blue!’
I hope it doesn’t devolve to dirty politics. There’s oh so much of it to go around.
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