Foley, Peckinpaugh Stand By Simmons, Exclude McMahon From Sub Base Event.
Republicans Tom Foley, the party’s candidate for governor, and Janet Peckinpaugh, the G.O.P. nominee in the 2nd congressional district, stood with vanquished U.S. Senate hopeful Rob Simmons Thursday at their odd event warning that the Groton sub base is once more in danger of being closed. The candidates excluded rising Senate challenger Linda McMahon, who administered a 21 point thumping to Simmons on August 10th. Republicans took note of the curious line up.
Mrs. McMahon, who has been garnering national attention as she steadily closes what had been a yawning gap between herself and frontrunner Richard Blumenthal, was not invited to the event, which included at least one candidate for the legislature and a former state senator. The McMahon campaign will have taken note that Foley, who won a narrow primary victory over Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele, failed to extend include her but paid fulsome tribute to Mr. Simmons, who has not endorsed Mrs. McMahon. Relations with Ms. Peckinpaugh, when the McMahon campaign pay her struggling campaign a thought, have been chilly. This won’t improve them.
The Foley campaign needs Mrs. McMahon to attend a September 8th powwow at Mr. Foley’s Greenwich home. The purpose of the gathering is to unite Greenwich Republicans and get their formidable resources behind the former ambassador. Invitees, however, have been asking a thorny question, “Will Linda be there?” They want to see the candidate who’s beginning to look like a winner, and that’s not Mr. Foley. Mrs. McMahon may be otherwise engaged that day, but maybe former Congressman Simmons will find time to attend.
12 comments
Simmons may have lost the primary, but he’s rather closely associated with the sub base issue. I’m sure if some theatrical production threatened to move, McMahon would be there and Simmons wouldn’t.
You know for a candidate 7 points down McMahon spends lot of time worrying about other Republicans– instead of just worrying about Blumenthal.
I think Kevin’s making things up again. Did McMahon publicly say she was “excluded?” I highly doubt it and I also highly doubt she was deliberately excluded. She probably had better things to do.
What was Foley supposed to do? Invite Linda to an area where she is still not all that popular to the detriment of including Rob, someone closely associated with that issue and highly popular in that region of the state?
Rennie I try to not to get too crazy with you, but your constant need to be a drama queen is getting ridiculous. McMahon’s race is garnering national attention because she is running for FEDERAL OFFICE. If Linda was running for governor, aside from a few spots on comedy shows, she would not be getting the national coverage that she is. Tom is running for Governor of Connecticut. There isn’t any reason for the CT Governor’s race to garner national attention.
I don’t blame Foley for not including McMahon. In addition to the awkwardness that would have existed between her and Rob, she would bring the spectacle that is her campaign along with her. That is not needed at an event like this.
” McMahon’s race is garnering national attention because she is running for FEDERAL OFFICE”
The federal office that has the power to vote on the federal spending that keeps open or closes the sub base.
Nothing against Simmons and his past accomplishments, but she’s more relevant to the sub base (moving forward) than anyone in that picture.
I can’t speak for whether McMahon was invited/declined/otherwise, but if anyone made the decision to NOT invite McMahon because they invited Simmons, then the (non-)inviter and Simmons need to grow up.
I’d still like to hear from Linda McMahon or David Cappiello on this. Rennie, have you spoken with either one of them or are you getting your information from some low-level punk kid staffer on the McMahon campaign? My guess is Linda McMahon and Dave Cappiello could care less about this and once again, Rennie is being a drama princess here.
Ed…
There is something to this.
An RTC Chair in CT-2 was asked by a Linda McMahon Staffer if Janet Peckinpaugh was going to be attending an event that McMahon was considering attending.
When the staffer found our that Peck was going to be there, Linda’s campaign declined.
Now that’s petty.
Kevin, why do you keep taking down my comments that are critical of you?
Let’s try it again:
Tom,
You’re no better than Rennie repeating third hand rumors of something that probably isn’t even true to begin with.
As I said in the beginning, we need to hear something directly from Linda McMahon herself or David Cappiello. Blather from low level hack staffers and an anonymous RTC Chairman is irrelevant and meaningless.
Here’s another thing for you to ponder, can you name one RTC Chairman in the 2nd CD who was on McMahon’s side before the convention? I didn’t think so. So let’s say your fantasy is even true, did you ever stop to think this “RTC Chair in CT-2″ might be embellishing or lying just to make McMahon look bad because he/she is still pissed about her winning the convention?
Again, I highly doubt Linda McMahon or David Cappiello give a hoot about any of this petty, childish nonsense or the crap that drama princess Kevin Rennie posts on his stupid blog.
Linda McMahon has better things to do like win a US Senate seat. And if by the remote chance that she has some punk kid on her staff playing childish games like “neener, neener, boo-boo, if Janet’s going to be there then we’re not!” she and Cappiello will fire him faster than you can say “Kevin Rennie is making up stuff AGAIN!”
I’ve never seen a low level hack political staffer who hates his fellow low level hack staffers so much, EdM…
But I do agree that an entire post on why Linda McMahon wasn’t at this event and who’s to blame is overly dramatic. This entire issue shouldn’t be used for political gain. And the fact that Rob Simmons no longer has anything to gain from making these appearances but still chooses to stand up for the people of Eastern CT says a lot about his character.
EdM, Please note Mary Ann Turner (Enfield) backed McMahon prior to the convention– and even voted for her.
This is really quite disheartening to me. We have a candidate for Congress (Congress!!!!!) whose only appearance in the press is related to some phantom sub base story the team drummed up to get attention? Please! How about offering up a vision, a plan, an original thought.