CT-Sen: Simmons Will Challenge Dodd

[ccharles000]

It's on:

Former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons said Sunday that he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd.
Simmons said he made the decision to join the race after talking with relatives.

"The family had a long meeting today and was unanimous that I run," he said in an e-mail message to The Associated Press. "So I am running."

This is a pretty huge score for John Cornyn and the NRSC. While Simmons did get washed out (barely) in the 2006 Democratic landslide, he held onto a D+7.6 district for three terms after beating a complacent incumbent, Sam Gejdenson, in 2000. Simmons will bring some serious chops to the table in a state that hasn't seen the GOP field a viable Senate candidate in, well, decades. A recent Q-poll even showed Simmons edging Dodd by a 43-42 margin.

While Dodd will still be considered the early favorite in this deep blue state, this is shaping up to be the most challenging campaign since he began his Senate career. How aggressively Dodd moves to rehabilitate his image and deflect Simmons' scrappy attacks will be of particular interest in the coming weeks -- and months.


http://www.swingstateproject.com

[snowbear]

1. This dude here?

.
.

<---

My prediction-- : Senator Chris Dodd wins by 18%

[CTLawGuy]

2. well hopefully he is not the only one running in the GOP

but still, CT Repubs aren't horribly conservative. In any event, Dodd will win, despite people being sick of him, if he paints Simmons as just another Mitch McConnell footsoldier, a footsoldier in the army of fail.

[karynnj]

3. I think you are right on this

It may be that Simmons' own record is more moderate than McConnell - an easy feat - but Dodd can use the fact that he will be a vote for McConnell for majority leader - as Kerry did to a very popular, moderate MA Governor, Weld, in a far poorer year for Democrats. (In NJ, it was likely that Torechelli would have gotten enough votes from people like us - even though he was pretty corrupt (worse than Dodd is even accused of) just because it could turn the Senate over to the Republicans. )

[biopowertoday]

4. and Dodd will be painted as in with the banking industry. Not a good

image in this time of financial crisis.

[last_texas_dem]

5. Another article discussing a potential Dodd-Simmons matchup

New Conn. Poll Shows Simmons Dead Even With Dodd, But ...

by Ken Rudin

>>>>Today, former Rep. Rob Simmons (R) made it official; he'll run for the Senate. Simmons, who lost his own House seat in 2006, has been encouraged by a Quinnipiac University poll that shows him in a dead heat with Dodd -- 43 percent for Simmons, 42 percent for Dodd. Dodd has been getting some bad press over his alleged sweetheart deal with Countrywide Financial (click here to see Junkie post from Feb. 11).

Christopher Keating of the Hartford Courant also suggests that Connecticut voters "became disenchanted when the senator moved his family to Iowa to run in the Democratic presidential caucus last year." I would suspect that any whiff of funny business about favorable mortgage rates would be far more troublesome for Dodd than the fact he give it his all in his presidential bid. And Dodd has been on the defensive over his relationship with Countrywide.

Dodd has never had trouble holding the seat since he succeeded the retiring Abe Ribicoff (D) in 1980. And if I were a betting person, I would say that Dodd survives. But in a potential sign that the party is worried about his re-election, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a statement today quoting Simmons from 2004 saying he is a "big fan" of President Bush. It also quotes the DSCC communications director -- I love when campaign committees release statements written by their communications directors that quote themselves -- as pointing out that Simmons has "close ties to Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay."

Simmons still has to prove he can win. The three-term Republican was defeated by Democrat Joe Courtney in 2006 by just 83 votes out of more than 242,000 cast. It was the closest House race in the country that year. But if anything, Connecticut has become even more Democratic since. The lone remaining GOP House member, Chris Shays, was unseated last year, and so for the first time since the 1964 elections, Republicans were shut out in House and Senate seats.>>>>

http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/03/senate_simmons_challenges_dodd.html?ft=1&f=97248522

[PBS Poll-435]

6. Courtney vs. Simmons was the closest House race in '06

83 vote margin for the Democrat.


Simmons could make a statewide race competitive. Look at Jodi Rell.

[Jennicut]

7. Simmons was defeated already in 2006. I just cannot see him winning here in CT

People will have to be REAL sick of Dodd for that to happen. I just think CT is too liberal right now for that to happen. We may not like our incumbent Senators but only someone equal to or as liberal as them will win. Dodd was hurt by the Countrywide thing but I have talked to lots of my friends and relatives and they will still vote for Dodd. I actually think Loserman is in worse shape if Blumental runs against him.

[PBS Poll-435]

8. He lost by 83 votes in a Democratic wave year

And Holy Joe won. x(

[madinmaryland]

9. I doubt that would be a serious challenge to Dodd. Once people realize

that Simmons only got elected as a result of the Bush and his policies, I think he will not have a very good chance. There are essentially no republicans left at any level of the state, except for the gov, who seems not be tied into anyone or anything.

[PM Martin]

10. Why would a "blue" state elect a Republican

who was in line with Bush?