Nutmeggers Make A Choice

Written by Chadwick CioccicloseAuthor: chadwick Name: Chadwick Ciocci
Email: chadwickciocci@gmail.com
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Chris Dodd is anything but popular these days.  A recent Quinnipiac poll found that a large majority of Nutmeggers (those from Connecticut) disapprove of Dodd’s performance by a whopping 54% to 40%.  Of the same people polled, 46% believe that a generic Republican could do a better job at handling the economy than Dodd (where just 38% believed the opposite).

The current numbers, and the likelihood that they’ll only get worse for Dodd as the economy continues to sink and he continues to wallow in his own ineptitude, means that the CT GOP has the luxury of choosing a candidate with minimal regard to their ability to beat Dodd.  This should be seen as not just an opportunity to beat a far-left, senior Democratic incumbent but a chance to put in to office an orthodox libertine- someone who isn’t just “pro-business” but believes in actual economic liberty and truly limited government.

Republicans smell blood, and they’re lining up left and right (but mainly left) for the chance to take on Dodd.  The list is long but the most prominent include:

• Former Congressman Rob Simmons (who leads the pack and has the backing of prominent Republicans like former Congressman Christopher Shays)
• WWE CEO Linda McMahon (a close second with the backing of the current Governor of CT, Jodi Rell)
• State Senator Sam Caligiuri (who has the backing of prominent conservatives like State Rep. TR Rowe) and
• Former Ron Paul advisor and hedge fund extraordinaire Peter Schiff (who alone amongst the crowd has truly libertarian and freedom-minded credentials)

While there are more, it seems unlikely that unless another prominent individual announces their intentions that one of these four will be Chris Dodd’s next challenger.

And so Nutmeggers are presented with four very qualified candidates- all intelligent, potentially good challengers and successful in their own rights.  The problem?  Two out of four of them are liberals.

Simmons is a former Congressman who lost his seat even before the Obama bounce which left CT with a purely Democratic Congressional delegation.  While his services in Congress and formerly in the CIA are both honorable and intriguing, Simmons has little to offer but name recognition.  He falls in to the prototypical “economically conservative, socially liberal” Connecticut Republican- the Rockefeller brand which is little welcomed now.

McMahon is even more interesting, being a co-founder and the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment- the same WWE which parades half-naked women around stage before steroid-enhanced “wrestlers” put on a show for their teenage audiences.  McMahon touts that while the WWE used to be TV-14 it is now PG, but this offers little solace for those who lament our cultural degradation.  And while McMahon can claim to have successfully built a multi-million dollar business out of nothing, I’ve never been impressed by the argument “I built a business, so I can govern a nation”.  The former accomplishment and the latter necessity of government have little in common when one considers the total package needed to be a good elected official: experience, vision and policy. McMahon has more than enough of the first but is completely lacking on the second and totally unknown on the third.

That leaves two potential acceptable candidates: Sam Caligiuri and Peter Schiff.  The two represent different brands of conservatism- the first a staunch small government, culturally conservative brand and the second one more in the mold of Ron Paul focusing on the roots of our financial and economic problems and with a deep understanding of not just our current mess (he is the only one to have properly and publicly predicted the mess we’re in now back in 2006) but the proper role of government.  The two would certainly be more than acceptable candidates, regardless of which one is chosen, but in a time where the economy and spending are the primary concerns, Schiff might just be the better choice.

But will Nutmeggers make the right choice?  In a state where the most recent prominent Republicans have been liberals like Rell, Shays, Nancy Johnson and others, and in a state where voters (falsely) believe Joe Lieberman’s views more align with Republicans than Democrats, one can only hope we end up with more a Hoffman than a Scozzafava.  Connecticut’s next Senator is likely to be a Republican, but whether it’s a conservative or Dodd-lite remains to be seen.

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Chadwick Ciocci is a writer for TheAmericano.com, a student of philosophy and theology at Fordham University and was recently re-elected to his fourth-term in public office in Connecticut.

Follow Chadwick on Twitter at http://bit.ly/31qZwu