Linda McMahon To Voters: Vote For Me, And Barack Obama

Barack Obama is going to win Connecticut by double digits on Tuesday, which makes things a bit difficult for Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon, who is currently trailing in the polls. So, her campaign has come up with a rather unique approach to the problem: 

Connecticut Republican Senate nominee Linda McMahon has been telling voters lately that it’s okay to vote for President Obama as well as her. Now she’s taking it a step further — and getting about as far away from her own party’s nominee for president as she can — and actually urging voters to cast their ballots for Obama as well as in the final days of the campaign.

McMahon campaign doorhangers that Democrats say they’ve discovered in minority neighborhoods this weekend couldn’t make it more clear: “Vote Barack Obama For President and Vote Linda McMahon For U.S. Senate,” they read. It’s a surprising suggestion from a Republican who, along with her husband, has given $150,000 to help make Romney the next president of the United States.

This isn’t a new strategy. Just north of McMahon, Scott Brown has been emphasizing his independence in the Senate from the start of the campaign, and most of his campaign literature makes no reference to the fact that he’s a Republican. I’ve seen other candidates in heavily Republican, or Democratic, states do the same thing. However, I must say that I’ve never seen something quite this blatant, especially considering how much money the McMahons have donated to the Romney campaign and the Republican Party.  In the end, though, I’ve got to say I don’t see many Obama voters voting for Linda McMahon for Senate.

More photos at the link.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Congress, US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. PJ says:

    Desperation.

  2. It’s a desperate move and a lot of her supporters don’t like it. You should see her Facebook page the day this strategy came out.

  3. TPM conveniently forgets some information in their article, which looks incredibly like the Boston.com article

    ‘‘This door-hanger is only going to known supporters of President Obama because Congressman Murphy is shamefully telling them that it’s illegal to split their ticket,’’ he said, adding that they’ve gotten such reports from canvassers in the field, going door to door. ‘‘We are simply educating Democrats who may also support Linda that they can split their ticket.’’

    So, these are people that are going to vote Obama no matter what being targeted to get them to also vote McMahon.

  4. Tsar Nicholas says:

    If she was doing this in Greenwich then, yeah, we could snicker at how dumb she is, but as William Teach noted she’s doing this in places like Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, to try to counter some dirty pool tactics by Rep. Murphy.

    Of course we all know the default position on the Internet is to assume Republicans are stoo-pid, but the devil’s in the details and what McMahon is doing here actually makes a lot of sense. Ultimately, however, we all presume it’ll be a moot point.

  5. Tony W says:

    Now that is what I call coattails!!

  6. OzarkHillbilly says:

    The rats are abandoning the USS Romney.

  7. Franklin says:

    Okay, I think this might have been clever in the old days if you could carefully target the audience AND it was unlikely that much of your own base would find out in time for the election.

    In this case, though, if she was really counteracting Murphy’s campaign’s dishonesty, she should just say so. “Yes, you’re allowed to split your vote if you want to vote for Obama and me” rather than making it appear like they’re on the same ticket …

  8. C. Clavin says:

    McMahon has spent a gazillion dollars of her own money to lose by 6% tomorrow.
    Yes Tsar…Republicans are “stoo-pid” as you say. And of course, you are a Republican.

  9. MBunge says:

    @William Teach: “TPM conveniently forgets some information in their article”

    A McMahon campaign flack making an unproven allegation does not exactly qualify as “information”.

    Mike

  10. No, Murphy’s run a terrible campaign if you’re looking for honesty. Neither candidate is good – that’s why I’m writing in William Tong – but Murphy’s been something else. I would not put it past his people to tell those in the big three cities (who will overwhelmingly vote for him, they handed Malloy the election in ’10) things like that.

  11. @MBunge: So, said “flack” for the McMahon campaign has less information than Soros funded TPM? Forget your meds today?

  12. mantis says:

    @William Teach:

    So, said “flack” for the McMahon campaign has less information…

    Well, the flack for the Murphy campaign calls BS (from your link):

    Murphy’s campaign spokesman Eli Zupnick called Abrajano’s accusation ‘‘absolutely absurd and a lie.’’

    So we have evidence of what McMahon’s campaign is doing, but nothing but assertions about what Murphy’s campaign is doing. Why should we believe McMahon’s flack?

  13. MBunge says:

    @William Teach: “So, said “flack” for the McMahon campaign has less information than Soros funded TPM?”

    Why did you put “flack” in quotes? Do you think campaign spokespeople ever do ANYTHING but tell whatever lie is most convenient for their campaign?

    Mike