Simmons And Political Realism

 

Listen to Simmons at his press conference Tuesday morning, and you’ll hear a man who didn’t want to quit.  But there’s also a man who saw no good reason to keep going.  After his convention loss to Linda McMahon and faced with her enormous wealth from her wrestling business, Simmons said the numbers were against him.

 

“The outcome makes it virtually impossible for me to compete effectively against a candidate who has unlimited funds and the support of the party and the convention.”

 

Chris Healy is the Republican state party chairman.  In an interview Tuesday, he praised Simmons and took jabs at Democrats who complain about McMahon’s wealth or her business experience.  Healy said politics is about winning and governing.  And the Republicans picked the candidate they thought could win.

 

“Delegates make their decisions based many factors. Sometimes it’s personal loyalty.  Sometimes it’s familiarity sometimes it’s the issues, and a lot of times it’s about who they think would be the best candidate in the times we’re in now.”

 

“There is a general frustration out there with the status quo, the status quo is the Democratic party. And I think for the convention delegates, they went about it thinking, ‘Who can be the best candidate to capitalize on that and win.’”

 

If anything, Simmons’ decision to end his primary fight has honed the rhetoric of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington, DC. as it gets ready for a general election race between McMahon and Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.  Here’s what it had to say in a press release:

 

“We now likely have a race in Connecticut between a crusading attorney general with a long record of delivering for Connecticut families and a wrestling mogul who made her millions peddling violence to kids, hiding widespread steroid abuse, and sending her employees into dangerous situations in exchange for their glory and her profit.”

 

This comes just a week after Blumenthal got himself into a dangerous situation of his own.  He's had to apologize for his statements about his military service in Vietnam.

 

For WNPR, I’m Jeff Cohen.