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When a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate sinks $50 million into a losing campaign, it's natural for the less-monied runners-up for the GOP nomination to wonder if they would have performed better. Neither uttered the specific words "I told you so," but in separate interviews former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons and economist/radio host Peter Schiff maintained they were better candidates than wrestling executive Linda McMahon. "There are a number of issue areas where I simply would not be subject to the kind of attacks that (Democratic foe Richard Blumenthal) leveled against Mrs. McMahon," said Simmons, who had criticized McMahon's background running...

Less than two weeks before the Aug. 10 Republican primary, the Senate campaign of former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) is back on. After calling himself a candidate for Senate in a debate with businessman Peter Schiff Tuesday night, Simmons sent an e-mail to supporters Wednesday that left little doubt he still harbors hopes of defeating Republican Linda McMahon, who was endorsed by the state GOP. “Today, our state and nation still face the daunting challenges which led me to enter the race for U.S. Senate 18 months ago,” Simmons wrote in the e-mail message to supporters. He continued: “Republicans need...

The former CIA operative and member of the House of Representatives tells me it's looking more and more like he will revive his dormant campaign for Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. "I haven't made any final decisions,'' Simmons told me Wednesday afternoon. "I'm getting a lot of phone calls from people. Six weeks ago the convention was over and I was very disappointed. My staff was despondent. My family was stunned." "I've been sitting on it now. People do come up to me say gosh I wish you were still in." Simmons has $1 million in the bank. He says he's...

Embattled Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) has scheduled a press conference at his home in Connecticut Wednesday at which he is expected to announce he will not seek re-election, according to sources familiar with his plans. Dodd's retirement comes after months of speculation about his political future, and amid faltering polling numbers and a growing sense among the Democratic establishment that he could not win a sixth term. It also comes less than 24 hours after Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) announced he would not seek re-election. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is widely expected to step into the void...

SARAH PALIN: PLEASE ENDORSE ROB SIMMONSJune 9, 2010 Sarah Palin endorsed three dark-horse candidates in Republican match-ups this year, and all three won their primaries yesterday: Nikki Haley in South Carolina, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Carly Fiorina in California. No wonder Sarah's being stalked by Joe McGinniss. Now, she's got to endorse Rob Simmons for U.S. Senate. Otherwise, Republicans can kiss the possibility of a major upset in Connecticut goodbye. I wouldn't ask, but the country is at stake. We have a mere 100 senators; only 17 Senate seats currently held by Democrats are up this year; and only...

Decorated Vietnam prisoner of war Orson Swindle Wednesday endorsed Republican Rob Simmons in the Connecticut Senate race. The support comes at an opportune time -- just two days after the New York Times reported that leading Democratic candidate Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had wrongly said he had served in Vietnam. Swindle was Federal Trade Commissioner (FTC) from 1997 to 2005 and he also served the Reagan administration. He retired from the Marine Corp as a Lieutenant Colonel. In a statement, Swindle praised Simmons as “my fellow Vietnam Veteran” and offered a sharp critique of Blumenthal that recalled his own days...

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE          www.nationalreview.com           Brian Bolduc Author Archive    |    LatestJanuary 27, 2010 11:00 A.M. The Doddering Old PartyIs there a Scott Brown hiding out in Connecticut?  Call him “Senator.” Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, beats his Republican opponents — Rob Simmons, Linda McMahon, and Peter Schiff — by 20 points in Rasmussen Reports’ latest poll. But some conservatives still think Blumenthal, who has never faced a serious challenge in his 27-year career, sports a glass jaw, and they’re looking for the prizefighter who can shatter it. Is there a Scott Brown hiding out in Connecticut? If so, who?...

The numbers of the CT US Senate race. Public Policy Polling has just released their new numbers for CT-Sen. A stark contrast to what they had been. When Chris Dodd retired last night his seat went from one of the most vulnerable to one of the safest for Senate Democrats. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before Dodd's announcement. Blumenthal is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him...

You can follow Richard Nixon's prescription on how to win a Republican nomination for high office. You can even heap praise on Jimmy Carter. You cannot, however, do both. Nixon, the disgraced 37th president, reduced his formula for victory to this: Run to the right to get nominated, then dash to the middle to get elected. Many Republican candidates find it still works. Former Congressman Rob Simmons, the front-runner in the 2010 contest for the U.S. Senate seat held by beleaguered Democratic incumbent Christopher Dodd, won three terms in the House of Representatives as a moderate Republican. Ambitious Republicans, even...

In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010. Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others. But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and...

The latest Quinnipiac Poll is out and it’s more bad news for Sen. Chris Dodd. Despite a public relations blitz that had him returning to Connecticut for what seems like the first time in years, and a statewide email and choreographed “shout out” from President Obama in the Rose Garden, (Rob Simmons) is still leading Dodd 45%-39%.

Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid's imminent demise notwithstanding, perhaps the most scrumptious victory Republicans have a more than good chance of having will be the defeat of Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a man whose fifteen minutes are finally up.

The Peter Schiff Exploratory Committee for the U.S. Senate Republican primary in the State of Connecticut has successfully raised over $800,000 in just one month since it began soliciting donations. Over $300,000 of these donations were made since Friday after some of Peter's supporters organized a 'moneybomb.' This compares to the $753,000 raised by the Republican frontrunner Rob Simmons from April through June. It is our belief that Rob Simmons would've voted with Chris Dodd in favor of the government's stimulus plans and bailouts, which have gotten our country trillions of dollars deeper into debt. It seems as though the...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may now be the most endangered incumbent Seantor running in the 2010 cycle. In a state where Barack Obama won by 12%, Reid has only 34% support for re-election, and trails a possible GOP challenger by 6%. Connecticut Senator and Countrywide Financial favorite son Chris Dodd, also trails his likely GOP challenger, former Congressman Rob Simmons, by a similar high single digit margin.

A Quinnipiac poll shows embattled Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) would be ousted if elections took place today. Repub Cong Rob Simmons wins over 30-year Dodd 45-39....two months ago Dodd lagged 50-34%. That poll was conducted soon after Dodd wrote legislation that let AIG pay millions in executive bonuses while receiving tax dollars to stay afloat.

Three days after announcing his plan to take on Connecticut's senior senator, Rob Simmons breezed past a bunch of kids sitting in the gym of the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in New London. It wasn't a political appearance: Simmons was here to talk about moon rocks. "You want to shake the hand of the man who shook the hand of the man who went to the moon?" said the lanky 66-year-old with thinning gray hair and a toothy grin. A former congressman who was swept aside in the 2006 Democratic wave, Simmons long has been known as a fiscally conservative,...

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said it is his intention to remain in the race for reelection to the end, even if Democratic Party leaders ask him to step aside and retire in the interests of the party. Dodd, whose role in writing legislation created a loophole for AIG executives to receive bonuses this year, has come under fire from national Republicans who have transformed the Connecticut Senate race into an unlikely priority. That's my intention," Dodd said when asked if he would seek reelection on a Connecticut Public Television show to air Friday night, brushing off a question about whether...

STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Republican Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record) cites his differences with President George W. Bush, produces a chart outlining his moderate voting record and pledges his independence from party leaders in Congress. ADVERTISEMENT His Connecticut colleague, Republican Rep. Rob Simmons, says working with Democrats comes naturally in a district where voters favored Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry over Bush by 10 percentage points in 2004. For Shays, Simmons and other Republicans running for Congress in Democratic-leaning or swing districts in November, playing down their party label and playing up their independence has become a matter...

Writing in Roll Call, Stuart Rothenberg gives us his top ten list of most endangered House incumbents. All but one are Republicans. Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA) Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT) Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) Rep. Mike Sodrel (R-IN) Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL) Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) He says it was a tough list to compile. "Many of the incumbents on this list have proven their political mettle before, and in normal circumstances, they wouldn’t be in all that much trouble. Others find themselves in...

House Democrats said Tuesday that they would run newspaper advertisements this week criticizing the ethics of six House Republicans, including Representative Randy Cunningham of California, who is under investigation by a grand jury looking into his ties with a military contractor.... Mr. Wade paid $1,675,000 for the house and sold it nearly a year later for $975,000, for a loss of $700,000 in one of the hottest housing markets. Mr. Cunningham said he "showed poor judgment" in selling his house to a friend who did business with the government. Moreover, he said, "I showed poor judgment in not listing the...