Westport Republican Delegation Chooses Linda McMahon for US Senate

HARTFORD — The Westport Republican delegation worked until midnight Friday as the nomination for the U.S. Senate ticket went down to the wire.  

Under convention rules, the vote tallies for each congressional district are read out alphabetically by town.  The districts go in order, however the first district to vote rotates each convention year.  Candidate Linda McMahon jumped out to an early lead over her closest rival, Former Congressman Rob Simmons. McMahon earned votes from three of the state's five congressional districts (3, 4 and 5) with more than 250 delegates.  However, Simmons' base of strength is in the eastern part of the state and, due to the order the districts were called, CT Congressional Districts 1 and 2 were the last to be called.  Simmons dominated those two districts in the delegate vote and by the end of voting McMahon's lead was down to a few dozen delegates.  

Moreover, it was clear that no candidate had achieved the 50 percent plus 1 votes of the nearly 1,400 delegates necessary to win the nomination.  Then the fun began.  Under convention rules, delegates are allowed to switch their vote from the first round.  At this time, many supporters of Peter Schiff, a third candidate who had received more than 100 votes in the first round, began to change their vote to either McMahon or Simmons.  Some delegates switched their support to McMahon from Simmons and some went the other way.  It was clear as the switches were read out by town that McMahon was gaining far more votes from Schiff than Simmons was and by the time the switches from the last Congressional District were read, McMahon would carry the evening.  

Around midnight, the convention chair announced that Linda McMahon would be the Connecticut Republican's endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate.  The final delegate tally was 737 votes for McMahon, 632 votes for Simmons, 44 votes for Schiff and 7 votes for Vinny Forras.  The Westport delegation delivered 10 of its votes (including super delegate Jerry Doyle) to McMahon and three of its votes to Simmons.  McMahon will take on Democrat Richard Blumenthal, who won his party's nomination at the state Democratic convention which was held across town last night.  Simmons won over 15 percent of the delegates at the convention, which makes him eligible to challenge McMahon in a primary should he choose to do so.

Editor's Note: The updates from the state convention were submitted by the Westport Republican Delegation. The offer was extended to post updates from the Westport Democratic Delegation but nothing has yet been submitted. We will also post any photos or commentary from the Democratic Delegation if it is submitted. Thank you.