McMahon gets warm welcome at Sailfest

New London - Linda McMahon was midway through a stroll around the landmarks of downtown Friday, nearing the corner of Bank and State streets, when someone in the passing crowd called out her last name.

"I watch you guys every Monday," Kenny Wilbur told McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, after she turned to shake his hand.

"You know who she is?" Wilbur said to his two grandchildren, Kion and Mazani, who were standing by his side. "You watch 'em all the time."

If Democrats are hoping that McMahon's Republican bid for the U.S. Senate will be undone by the controversies over steroids and the premature deaths of the wrestlers who have worked for the company on which she and her husband have built a fortune and entertainment empire, the candidate's visit to New London on the opening afternoon of Sailfest was the other side of that coin.

McMahon's WWE notoriety seemed to yield only goodwill from the passers-by who stopped her on the sidewalks and greeted her from behind the counters of vendors' trucks at Sailfest.

And even in New London, where local Republicans recently reaffirmed their support for former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons - who lost the Republican endorsement but remains on the party's Aug. 10 primary ballot - McMahon got a warm reception from local officials and voters who said they simply want to see a new face in the U.S. Senate.

"Good luck," Donna Hyde called out to McMahon as the candidate passed near the corner of Eugene O'Neill Drive and State Street.

Hyde said she likes McMahon's "assertive" attitude, as displayed in the television advertisements and direct-mail fliers with which her campaign has blanketed the state, hoping to cut deeper into the lead held by the Democratic candidate, longtime Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Asked about Blumenthal, Hyde added words that would likely chill the blood of Democratic consultants, who have worked to contain the controversy over reports that Blumenthal has occasionally misstated his military service record.

"He hasn't been entirely honest either, you know," Hyde said. "I used to love him, and now, with what he did with the Vietnam situation ...

"You just don't accidentally say 'When I went to Vietnam,' " she said. "My husband was in Okinawa for a year and a half, and the first thing he tells people is, 'Luckily, I never went to Vietnam, but I was in Okinawa.' "

Not everyone recognized McMahon, the candidate, as readily as Hyde. The man from Alabama selling lemonade by City Pier was under the impression that the woman in the tan pantsuit was the governor. Others were aware that she had been in ads, but they weren't sure why.

But WWE was everywhere.

Angelo Rentas, a longshoreman from New London, gaped in surprise when he spotted McMahon from the picnic bench where he sat with Stephanie Nicole Eldridge and their 3-month-old son, Nathaniel.

"My friends aren't even going to believe this," Rentas said after McMahon posed for photographs with the family, the candidate cradling Nathaniel in her arms.

As McMahon talked to the proprietors of a grilling stand, she offered to let a young wrestling fan step up and place an order.

"I don't have any money right now," he told McMahon, who promptly bought him a corndog.

Joe Muscarella of Oakdale, standing at the booth where his son, Joe, was selling Bella Forte pepper sauce, spotted McMahon and immediately began to rattle off the names of now deceased wrestlers and wrestling maneuvers: Gorilla Monsoon, Killer Kowalski, Coco Butt. (The last being a head-butt made famous by Bobo Brazil, considered by some to be the "Jackie Robinson of professional wrestling.")

McMahon herself got into the act Friday. Touring the gallery at Hygienic Art, she spotted a portrait of Ray Charles and noted that the late singer "did a guest appearance at Wrestlemania II."

Other candidates will descend on Sailfest this weekend, including Republican Tom Foley, who is running for governor and will headline the opening of a campaign office for state House candidate Andrew Lockwood today. Democrat Ned Lamont will visit Sunday afternoon.