Connecticut's 2010 Senate Race Has One Surprise Candidate

When I first heard the voice and the name come across my television set early one morning, I had to do a double take. Is that really her? I tried to shake the rest of the early morning cobwebs off and peered at the television once more. It was no mistake, it was her, but what was she doing running for a Senate seat? Sure she could hang with the best that the pros offered, but Washington? This had to be a joke.

Candidate mailers shortly started to fill up my mailbox with her name and face. It was at that point that I knew it was serious, Linda McMahon was running for the Senate seat here in Connecticut. I didn't think much about the Senate seat before her commercials because I figured it would go to Blumenthal. He has strived to be a great advocate for the people of Connecticut and people know his name. I'm not the only one who has thought this way. An article printed on April 14, 2010 at the New York Times website discusses this very same point.

The article delves into Blumenthal's appeal and how most people would have been nuts to go up against him and his popularity. Linda, who is best known for bringing us the weekly episodic entertainment known as WWE wrestling, is doing just that. She has even promised to use a little of her branded entertainment during the campaign by battling her opponents with "blunt and in your face appeals and attacks" according to David Halbfinger of the New York Times. Having read that, I wonder if the debate stands would look more like a squared circle.

I haven't seen any of that but I must admit that I really didn't take her mailers or commercials very seriously. I didn't think that a person worth billions could understand what people in the state were really going through. Yes, Connecticut has boasted the highest Per Capita income for many years. We have many celebrities and business people dwelling quite well here. Connecticut was only recently bumped to number two by DC in 2003 according to infoplease but that doesn't mean that all of us are doing well. In fact, Connecticut is one of two states (Michigan being another) that has seen a decrease in jobs in the past 20 years.

The economy has not been very kind to families that are starting out, nor has it been great for seniors. These two types of people tend to be hit the hardest in tough times because their budgets don't allow for much breathing room.

Budgets can go awry due to health care costs outside of Medicare. Regular bills are one thing, but if you need any form of assistance due to Alzheimer's care or even for a disability, budgets can go to the outer reaches of the universe. Assisted living priced in the thousands per month, nurse aides averaging anywhere from $20-$80 an hour, and stair lifts that cost thousands to install, will eat away at your life savings within months. It has been very disheartening to hear my Grandmother cry the statement, Everything you've worked for in life is going into the hands of someone else who is not blood related.

Families are hurting with budgets too. Young children are a major budget factor. The numbers from Today MSNBC are staggering with a child costing anywhere from $143,790- $289,380, depending upon income. Clothing is listed at a whopping $606 per year, but I know from personal experience that a child can feasibly grow out of their clothes in mere weeks. That makes me think the $606 mark is a little too conservative.

Health care, jobs, and the cost of everything are real buzz words in politics today. Connecticut politics are no different. My mailbox has been bombarded recently with Linda's view on jobs. She "wants to put Connecticut back to work" she says. Linda is for small business which should be no surprise to anyone who has watched hers grow from its infancy.

Ms. Linda MacMahon also talks about health care reform by attacking what she calls the main culprit to high costs and premiums, malpractice. She believes that if we reform malpractice, which brings on unnecessary testing, medicines, and procedures due to lawsuit liability, we could cut defensive medicine spending by $191 billion, $42 billion in increased output, and $9 billion in tort costs. These numbers taken from the linda2010 website are from the Pacific Research Institute and they were shocking to me. I always knew that malpractice played a big part of costs in health care. Some doctors have had to quit their practices because of it, but I had no idea exactly how much it was costing us, the people counting on care.

Linda's views on some of the tough issues we are facing in today's society make some sense to me and I'm glad I decided to give all of her views a look through this early in the campaign. I'm not ready by any stretch of the means to slap a Vote for Linda bumper sticker on my '03 Malibu just yet. I'd like to see what the other candidates have to say before I make my decision, but at least this Connecticut dweller has managed to look beyond that blinding spotlight in this campaign to see some honest ideas.