AHC: Senator Peter Schiff

Challenge: Have Peter Schiff defeat Linda McMahon in the 2010 Connecticut Republican U.S. Senate Primary. And also have him defeat Democrat Richard Blumenthal in the senate election.
 
*Way* too right-wing for Connecticut. We're talking about a state that has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate by double digits in every election from 1996 on.
 
Challenge: Have Peter Schiff defeat Linda McMahon in the 2010 Connecticut Republican U.S. Senate Primary. And also have him defeat Democrat Richard Blumenthal in the senate election.

Speaking as a Nutmegger? Find Linda McMahon in bed with...nah, my brain's exploding! Despite the 2010 GOP landslide, some states will be safe. Especially when they are running a Dem as strong as Blumenthal. You'd need someone in the depths of a scandal to even get close, and in Connecticut its' mostly been the GOP who has had scandal issues. $$$-based, by-and-large.

EDIT: Did a little more digging on Schiff. Brutally honest, and almost Dickensian when it comes to wages. Could NEVER be a politician. When you come in third to someone like Linda McMahon...
 
*Way* too right-wing for Connecticut. We're talking about a state that has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate by double digits in every election from 1996 on.

TBH, in the financial world in which he lives, and the sound-chamber of Fox News and Westport CT, it would have been easy for him to believe he might have a chance. If Fairfield County was its own state,:rolleyes: and they ceded Bridgeport to New Haven County. The truth is, Schiff couldn't get elected to Congress from the 4th Congressional District (SW Fairfield County), never mind all of CT as a Senator. And the Filthy Rich 4th is the most affluent region of the USA (Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Westport, Southport), alongside with Orange County, CA.
 
Ralph Nader at one point considered running for senate in Connecticut that year but decided against it. If Nader had gotten in the race and Peter Schiff was the Republican nominee, Would Schiff's campaign have been helped or hurt by this?
 
Ralph Nader at one point considered running for senate in Connecticut that year but decided against it. If Nader had gotten in the race and Peter Schiff was the Republican nominee, Would Schiff's campaign have been helped or hurt by this?

Has too small of a vote to make any difference.
 
As for Linda McMahon, when you come in second to a guy who lied repeatedly about serving in Vietnam, you have problems.
 
What happened to Rob Simmons?

Ralph Nader at one point considered running for senate in Connecticut that year but decided against it. If Nader had gotten in the race and Peter Schiff was the Republican nominee, Would Schiff's campaign have been helped or hurt by this?

Nader was once a very popular man in CT. But after 2000 and the Recount, and the Right's embracing of him as a rock star (and his obvious loving every minute of the attention), his rep here is dogmeat.

As for Linda McMahon, when you come in second to a guy who lied repeatedly about serving in Vietnam, you have problems.

Huh? The guy who came in second was Ex-CT State House Representative Rob Simmons, (1) who served as a private in the infantry in Vietnam. What exactly did he lie about, and why is he relevant to a discussion about Peter Schiff, other than he did better in the Republican primary than Schiff did?

And McMahon basically bought the election, She was running against a relatively unknown Simmons-who came from a very sapphire blue State House district in Stonington in the extreme SE corner of CT, right next to the Indian tribal areas of the Mohegans and Pequots. She was also running against a guy from the reddest region of CT (Westport) but made his business in one of the bluest cities in the state (New Haven).

Her having all that $$$ sure helped too. McMahon won on her celebrity, Schiff lost on his far right economic politics, Simmons lost on his lack of $$$ and no real political power base except I suspect veterans and Electric Boat. I can't see many Native Americans living in and around the reservations supporting any Republican.

1) Yes, at one point Simmons briefly suspended his campaign (probably for $$$ than anything else, whatever he may have claimed:eek:), but he soon returned to campaigning and his name was still on the ballot.

The Hartford Courant's endorsement of Simmons goes a long way to explain why he had a good chance against McMahon's tomfoolery, as she had huge problems with her history and the history of the WWF/WWE, plus her inability to deal with the media. The Tea Party (without the Social/Religious Evangelism) nature of Schiff was even worse. With Schiff drawing off votes on the small far right of the CT Republican voting primary, and Simmons doing the same with the politically astute voters on the left who wanted to see someone run who at least had more than a snowball's chance in hell of beating Blumenthal, McMahon was able to buildup a commanding lead to get the nomination. (2) Mainly by pulling off a political rarity in CT GOP primary politics: Finding the center.

2) Only to fall to Blumenthal in November. This is Connecticut people.

How does Schiff win? By Simmons dropping out a whole lot earlier and McMahon being hauled away by the IRS. But that only exposes his record to the general public. Christopher Dodd's retirement was already manna from heaven for the GOP, and THAT was scandal based. For Schiff, you'd need lightning striking not once (Dodd), not twice (Simmons drops out earlier or never runs at all), but thrice [Blumenthal gets run over by a truck (4)].

4) I was going to say "Blumenthal gets put on the US Supreme Court, but he's too old.

EDIT: The GOP primary that year was a very dirty affair, with all the dirt on McMahon, so she could very well have lost. All it would have taken was the WWE's lawsuit to be launched sooner (the wrestler's death to happen earlier), Schiff's endorsement of Simmons (the opposite would never have happened, Schiff's numbers were far too low until the final weeks before the primary).

Together they had enough votes to defeat McMahon, though how a two-way between McMahon and Simmons would have ended is anybody's guess. Simmons himself made it part of his campaign that McMahon was spending $50,000,000 of her own money (she refused donations, as she didn't need them:rolleyes:) to buy herself an election. But I guess that after the Democrat Corzine did it that was considered OK.:mad:
 
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Having Dodd run for the seat again puts it closer than having Blumenthal be the nominee, but not enough for Schiff
 
Having Dodd run for the seat again puts it closer than having Blumenthal be the nominee, but not enough for Schiff

Get rid of Simmons, have McMahon fall to an avalanche of lawsuits, run Dodd, who collapses under a weight of GOP-led Fox promoted investigations (if the Dem Senate of the time doesn't stall), and it could happen. Problem: Blumenthal WILL run for the primary regardless, he's too old to wait anymore, and Dodd will be seen as "having served his time" after 30 years on the job.
 
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I meant Blumenthal in the general election in 2010, not the Republican primary...

Classic No Win Kobeyashi (sp?:eek:) Maru Scenario. Go far enough to the Right to get the nomination, and your record sinks you in the General. Go far enough to the left to have a record that will win you the general, and you'll never get nominated. I got this from Alpha House, these aren't my words.

I have to tell you that Blumenthal is a VERY popular politician in Connecticut, going back to his service as State Attorney General. He REALLY went after white collar criminals, which in CT (outside of the SW CT Shoreline:rolleyes:) gave him a lot of glowing headlines and local TV news coverage throughout the state.:)
 
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Yeah, McMahon was probably going to lose, especially since Blumenthal, from what you are saying, was a pretty popular politican in CT.
 
TBH, in the financial world in which he lives, and the sound-chamber of Fox News and Westport CT, it would have been easy for him to believe he might have a chance. If Fairfield County was its own state,:rolleyes: and they ceded Bridgeport to New Haven County. The truth is, Schiff couldn't get elected to Congress from the 4th Congressional District (SW Fairfield County), never mind all of CT as a Senator. And the Filthy Rich 4th is the most affluent region of the USA (Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Westport, Southport), alongside with Orange County, CA.

Very few in the financial world take Peter Schiff seriously.
 
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