TOO MUCH TIME SPENT IN THE RING? LINDA MCMAHON HYPOCRITICALLY BASHES STIMULUS ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL, BUT ADVOCATED TAKING MILLIONS FROM BILL BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
“Despite claiming to be an outsider, Linda McMahon is proving herself to be just another politician as she travels around Connecticut bashing the stimulus only months after asking for over $190 million in stimulus funds,” said DSCC National Press Secretary Deirdre Murphy. “If Linda McMahon had her way, Connecticut never would have received the much-needed education funding that she is now hypocritically supporting.”
McMahon’s stimulus hypocrisy has drawn the ire of a range of the political spectrum. Connecticut Tea Party members are furious with McMahon, with one saying that her inconsistency doesn’t “bode well on what type of senator” she would be. Other conservatives are calling McMahon a “RINO” and “unprincipled.”
Stamford Advocate: McMahon takes a hit on vote to apply for stimulus funding
Neil Vigdor
March 5, 2010
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/McMahon-takes-a-hit-on-vote-to-apply-for-stimulus-392797.php
Linda McMahon's critics on the left and right say the Republican Senate contender is trying to have it both ways on the economic stimulus plan, publicly bashing it on the campaign trail yet voting to apply for school funding from it as a member of the state Board of Education.
All seven members of the nine-person board who were present at the group's Jan. 6 meeting supported the state's application for $192.7 million from the Race to the Top Fund, which was turned down by the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday.
President Barack Obama introduced the competitive grant program last July, earmarking $4.35 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for educational improvements.
McMahon, whose campaign sent out a mailer last month saying, "We've been telling you all year. The stimulus package and bailouts have failed -- adding TRILLIONS in new debt," is being accused of hypocrisy.
A top figure in the state's tea party movement said McMahon's inconsistency doesn't bode well on what type of senator the former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive would be if elected.
"She'd go RINO in 30 seconds," said Bob MacGuffie, co-founder of the Fairfield-based political action committee Right Principles, referring to the acronym for Republican In Name Only.
A spokesman for McMahon, one of three Republicans vying for the GOP nomination, said her support of the grant application in no way represents a shift in her negative opinion of the stimulus plan.
"Obviously that money exists and Linda doesn't believe Connecticut kids ought to be deprived of money that's available to them," said Ed Patru of the McMahon campaign. "That said, Linda's problem with the stimulus is that it failed in its principal stated purpose, which was to create jobs, specifically private sector jobs. Private sector jobs are self-sustaining, they have a multiplier effect, and they don't expire when government funding runs out."
Forty states and the District of Columbia applied for Race to the Top grants, with New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island making the list of 15 finalists for the first phase of disbursements. Connecticut can reapply during the second phase later this year.
"We don't fault state and local governments for going after dollars that are available to them," Patru said. "The problem is that Washington continues to pursue failed and discredited economic recovery policies that are adding trillions to the debt and pulling money out of the private sector in order to feed an insatiable government bureaucracy."
MacGuffie questioned McMahon's conservative credentials, however.
"It just makes her unprincipled, which we believe her to be," MacGuffie said. "People in the states say, 'Oh, here's some free money.' There's nothing free."
McMahon isn't just getting smacked from the right on the stimulus.
"Linda McMahon claims to be an outsider, but turns out she's just like every other politician," said Deirdre Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington. "McMahon is trying to have it both ways when it comes to the stimulus -- opposing the bill while trying to dictate the terms of its use in Connecticut. McMahon's doubletalk speaks volumes -- she is just another Republican politician trying to have it both ways at the detriment of Connecticut citizens."
Edward Dadakis, a member of the Republican State Central Committee from Greenwich supporting McMahon, said he had no problem whatsoever with her vote.
"Linda McMahon is nothing if not smart, and the state Board of Education would be foolish if the money is there and not applied for because these are Connecticut taxpayer dollars," Dadakis said. "As ill-conceived as the (stimulus) program by President Obama is, we should still try to get funds from it because we paid into it."
According to Connecticut's 205-page grant application, the $192 million would have been spent on a range of activities over four years such as teacher training, Advanced Placement course expansion, math/science coaching at the middle and elementary school level, and turning around the state's lowest-achieving schools.
But MacGuffie argued that strings are always attached to such grants.
The conservative firebrand went so far as to call McMahon, who is self-financing her campaign from her WWE fortune, a conservative interloper.
"We didn't wear down Chris Dodd's numbers in the past year so someone could come along and buy the Senate seat," MacGuffie said.
McMahon spurned such talk in an interview with reporters following Tuesday night's GOP Senate debate at the University of Hartford.
"The people of Connecticut can't be bought," McMahon said.
Staff writer Neil Vigdor can be reached at neil.vigdor@scni.com or 203-625-4436.
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