Michelle Obama jumped into the ring yesterday to help Democrat Richard Blumenthal try to pin Republican Linda McMahon in the hotly contested Connecticut Senate race.
The first lady said Blumenthal, the five-term state attorney general, would be a valued tag-team partner for the president during difficult economic times.
But McMahon, a former professional-wrestling CEO, swung back, issuing a statement blasting Blumenthal for backing President Obama’s job-choking policies and health-care reform law.
Speaking at a fund-raiser in Stamford’s Palace Theater, Michelle Obama recalled her husband’s 2008 run for the presidency.
“Our campaign was never just about putting one man in the White House,” she said.
“It was always about building a movement for change millions of voices strong and a movement that lasts beyond one year and beyond one campaign.”
The first lady said Blumenthal would fight for Connecticut in the Senate the way he had vigorously advocated for the state as attorney general and as a state legislator.
McMahon’s campaign fired a pre-emptive strike before the Obama fund-raiser.
“Washington is doing everything it can to elect someone who promises to perpetuate the failed policies that sparked insurance-premium hikes up to 47 percent here in Connecticut and who will continue the rampant spending that accumulated $13 trillion of debt,” McMahon spokesman Shawn McCoy said.
