Smackdown Update!

The Connecticut GOP senate race is hotting up and with just 8 days to go until the party elects its candidate on Aug 10 to face up against Democrat Dick Blumenthal in the state senate race in November, the campaign rhetoric is being dialed up a few notches.  Recently we gave readers some background on this senate race, which pits political outsider and free market economist/businessman Peter Schiff vs WWE TV entertainment mogul Linda McMahon.

Pro-Bush politician Rob Simmons will also run on Aug 10 after initially withdrawing himself from the race.  This may work to Schiff’s advantage as Simmons is considered an establishment Republican, as is McMahon, so the mainstream vote may well get diluted among to the two of them.

Schiff meanwhile continues to attack McMahon’s trashy wrestling profile while pumping up the fact that he is by far the most knowledgeable candidate on the economy.

HumanAction endorses Peter Schiff, but it is going to be an uphill battle.  Polls as of July have McMahon as strong favourite and most polls are pitting McMahon vs Blumenthal for the main race in November (ie they assume McMahon is the shoe-in for the GOP candidacy).

McMahon for her part is playing it smart.  She has dumped over $20 million of her own cash into the campaign and has a budget of $50 million in total, meaning a lot spare to race against the Democrat should she secure the GOP nomination.  Already at this stage she has outspent Blumenthal around 5-1, not bad considering Blumenthal is a well-established Democrat with deeply entrenched funding channels garnered from his political connections gained over nearly 2 decades as Attorney General of Connecticut.  McMahon knows all too well that money talks in politricks.

She’s also structuring her campaign strategy to attack Blumenthal rather than her GOP opponents Schiff and Simmons.  In this way she’s portraying the GOP vote as a mere formality and positioning herself as the de facto GOP candidate come November.  This makes her GOP opponents seem small and irrelevant, and given her current frontrunning position in the state GOP polls it is going to be hard for the other two to catch her without looking like ankle-snappers.

Unfortunately it is not looking great for Peter Schiff right now.  The polls don’t like him much at this stage, as he’s only managed to raise a paltry $200,000 to fund his add campaign in the lead up to Aug 10.  His goal was $1,000,000.

Should our man Schiff pull off the improbable and take the fight to Blumenthal, he still faces a popular mainstream Democrat running for a vacated seat the Democrats feel by rights belongs to them.  Schiff’s Tea Party and free market GOP support will have to expand into the mainstream base of the state party, something that will require a big effort.  The biggest challenge will be galvanising the GOP to get out and vote if the Schiff-McMahon split is roughly 50-50.  As it is Blumenthal leads McMahon by 17 points in opinion polls in a hypothetical face off in November, so even if Schiff manages to pull of a coup in the GOP race on Aug 10, a much bigger hurdle awaits them thereafter.

Blumenthal is an establishment Democrat who would beef up the blue powerbase in Washington, the last thing the USA needs in any measure.
McMahon is a big spending Republicrat, pragmatically ignorant of economics and a ‘reacher-across-the-aisle-get-nothing-done’ type candidate.
Simmons is another pro-Bush neo-con style politician with no real clue how to fix America.

Schiff is the only serious contender here, one who will take a firm and bold stand for liberty in the corrupt halls of Washingrad.  Unfortunately at this stage it appears Connecticut voters are intent on sending someone to the capitol who will only help speed up America’s economic collapse.

Read more on the Connecticut senate race:

Schiff gets big endorsement
Real Clear Politics
Schiff Campaign Ad
Schiff struggling for funds
McMahon unfortunately polling well

If you are a US citizen, consider supporting Peter Schiff financially.