When this election season is over, Connecticut Republicans would do well to reorganize and find a new way of doing business.

They have established a bad habit of choosing losers, candidates whose political resumes include only voter rejection.

Why do state Republicans think it is going to work out better the second time around? The reality is that it is almost always going to be worse.

The first time the party put wrestling mogul Linda McMahon up for the Senate, for instance, she lost badly to a popular Democrat who had a successful track record of winning statewide elections. She lost big, after spending tens of millions of her own money.

In selecting McMahon for her first race, Republicans rejected former 2nd District Congressman Rob Simmons, who had a history of winning office in blue Connecticut. Before McMahon's second losing race, on which she spent another $50 million of her own money, Republicans rejected former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, another GOP candidate with a record of winning state races.

Republican Tom Foley came close to beating Dan Malloy four years ago, but he didn't. He had a chance and lost.

Connecticut Republicans could have chosen for this year's gubernatorial race a popular state legislative leader with a long history of winning races in his district.

Instead, the party went again with the loser, the factory-owning, union-busting, gun-protecting, yacht-riding candidate who is so wealthy he manages not to pay any income tax. He wants to be in charge of what taxes the rest of us pay, though.

How did that seem like a good choice to anyone?

Losers don't age well with voters, and the increased exposure to the Republican candidate in this gubernatorial rematch is beginning to prove that the party, when choosing a chief executive for the state, should have looked for someone who has won an election before.

The bad candidate problem is true right down the line. And it' a shame the party let pass this ripe opportunity, when voters seem hungry for change, to break the Democratic lock on state government and unseat a not-very-popular governor.

We can see some exceptions here in eastern Connecticut, where Republicans are running a few strong candidates.

I wouldn't be surprised, for instance, to see East Lyme First Selectman Paul Formica pull off a rare Republican win in the 20th District Senate race. Groton businessman John Scott, who also has won elections in the town where he lives, seems to be giving longtime state Rep. Ted Moukawsher a strong fight, attacking, among other things, the incumbent's abysmal attendance record in Hartford.

Groton also has produced an interesting Republican challenger in 20-year-old Aundre Bumgardner, who is pulling some of the cobwebs off longtime and uninspiring incumbent Elissa Wright in the 41st House District. I am not sure Wright even knows how to find her way to the part of her district that is in New London.

In New London, there is another loser on the Republican line in the race against incumbent Rep. Ernest Hewett. Andrew Lockwood not only loses races, but manages to come in at the very bottom of even crowded fields.

Lockwood, some voters might remember, is the candidate who has sued and been sued so many times that the liens on his property, including state and local liens for unpaid taxes, should have made the building sag.

At least Tom Foley doesn't pay taxes because he doesn't have to. He has good accountants that make them go away.

My favorite example of really bad candidate selection by Republicans is Lori Hopkins Cavanagh, who was chosen by the party to run against popular U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney even after she told a convention audience in the spring that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder were conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood.

She is also another big loser, a candidate for Congress who has never won a single race for political office.

Republicans probably wish they had found a stronger candidate than Kevin Trejo to run against state Sen. Andrew Maynard, the popular Democrat who is now recovering from a serious brain injury.

Maynard, still a resident in a rehabilitation facility, is apparently not going to be able to communicate with voters before the election, and yet I suspect he will win handily.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct