"Speaking for myself and my family, however, we understand the mathematical reality of competing against an opponent with unlimited financial resources who has already invested more than $16.5 million in this campaign — far more than any Senate candidate in the country — and who has an unlimited ability to continue spending at an extraordinary rate," Simmons said in a statement.
link: http://www.politico.com/...
According to the Connecticut Secretary of the State, there's about 418,500 registered Republicans: http://www.sots.ct.gov/...
That means that Linda McMahon spent just shy of $40.00 per registered Republican to get the GOP nomination.
As a die-hard Blumenthal supporter I have just one thing to say to Ms. McMahon: please buy my vote.
Now, I'd have to check with my husband to see if he'd be willing to auction off his vote to you as well, but gosh darn it, $40.00 per head would mean $80.00 for our household. And we have two kids - they aren't old enough to vote yet, but I could probably get them to wear a Linda McMahon t-shirt the next time we take a family field trip to Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill. Surely that'd be worth at least $20.00 per cute, t-shirt wearing child.
Some might say that that's just a little too brazen, that it's just stepping over the line a little too much. But I say if you're trying to buy a Senate seat...well, let the voters get in on some of the action.
Unaffiliated voters are the largest block in the state of Connecticut, totalling around 845,300. Make them a deal and cut them a check for $40.00 each as payment for their vote, and that's only an outlay of $33.8 million, give or take. That's well within the amount that McMahon stated she was willing to spend just to win the primary: http://blogs.courant.com/...
I'd call that a bargain.
Does this smack of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall? Yes - but would the policies be any different if McMahon won by giving that $33.8 million to a bunch of ad executives and opposition researchers as she strives to remake her image and trash everyone else in the process who stands in her way?
And if we live in a country where money is speech, well then...isn't this the moral equivalent of a really, really, really, really, really nice thank you card?
Call it change that Rand Paul can believe in.