https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2BXtzC6fMI In January of 2011, Connecticut Senator and former Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman announced he would not be seeking another term come November of the follow year. Immediately, speculation began to mound regarding whether McMahon, still licking her wounds from the 2010 election loss, would throw her hat in the ring once more. Before long, Connecticut voters got their answer, in the form of "Linda 2012" advertisements. This time, though, things would be different the Democrats hadn't fielded a strong candidate for the soon-to-be vacant seat, plus Linda McMahon's campaign was now going to accept donations. The primary race went smoother, as well even though McMahon's opponent, Chris Shays, received big-name endorsements and publicly criticized the former WWE CEO as "clueless" and "a terrible candidate," he was trounced by a nearly three-to-one margin. Once again, Linda McMahon would be in the general election. Also once again, McMahon chose to get personal with her attacks. She criticized her Democratic opponent, Chris Murphy, for missing deadlines on mortgage payments, only for it to come out that the McMahon family had been late in paying property taxes on a number of occasions. McMahon's carefully-cultivated image as a sweet older lady was starting to fade, as was her momentum against an opponent considered to be less of a challenge. In the final weeks of the campaign, McMahon's camp became desperate. They condescendingly distributed flyers in minority-heavy areas which encouraged people to vote for Barack Obama on the Democratic Presidential ticket and vote for Linda McMahon as an independent. This tactic did nothing to help her falling poll numbers it simply made her persona non grata in the Republican Party, her only base of support. In the end, McMahon lost not only were the Democrat/Republican vote percentages almost exactly the same as in 2010, but she dug deep into her own pockets to fund another all-out ad campaign. In her concession speech, McMahon invited a despondent Vince to come to the podium, but he refused. McMahon covered with the biggest lie of her entire career in both politics and wrestling: "He's shy." Final Tally: $50 million loss ($6 million of which came from contributors), and they really should have known better
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013