As kos blogged last night, former Rep. Rob Simmons, once the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, has ended his campaign:
New London - Republican Rob Simmons called an end to his campaign for the U.S. Senate this morning, saying he could no longer hope to win his party's nomination after losing the convention endorsement to newcomer Linda McMahon.
To stay in the race without it, he said this morning, would "equate to Pickett's Charge."
In an interview in the parking lot outside New London's WXLM-FM radio, where Simmons first announced his decision to "scale back" his Senate campaign, the candidate said he was disappointed that convention delegates awarded the party endorsement to McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. who has pledged to spend as much as $50 million of her own money on the Senate race.
Simmons accused Republicans of endorsing McMahon simply because she has more money than he does to spend on the campaign.
As for McMahon and her personal fortune, Simmons said: "That, I think, has just twisted people into thinking that the money is going to buy the race. So what the heck, let's just shut it down."
Moments later, Simmons spoke of his own military service and other forms of service to the public, and said the party had decided not to support him, but instead to back McMahon for pragmatic reasons.
"It seems," he said, "that those values were set aside for money."
Obviously, whatever advantages McMahon may have had in terms of wealth, Simmons more than made up for it in whininess.