I might have concluded, after listening to Leora Levy, Republican candidate in Connecticut for U.S. Senate, prattling on for a while during a recent local radio interview, that she was just stupid.

Really, how else can you explain her unhinged answer to a caller who asked her what she thought about the Mashantucket Pequots using federal Covid relief PPP money to open a casino in Puerto Rico.

Who knows where this crazy, untrue idea originated from or how this anonymous radio caller was able to just get on the air and float such a preposterous notion.

Yes, the Pequots did open a casino last year in a hotel in Puerto Rico. But there is certainly no evidence, or even an accusation I could find anywhere on the public record, that they improperly used Covid grant money to do it.

And yet candidate Levy, incredibly, jumped right in and agreed with the wacky, anonymous caller, saying it was indeed a terrible thing. Then the candidate doubled down on the outrageousness of her response, saying it was especially bad because the tribe doesn’t pay taxes.

Is it possible the candidate running for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut doesn’t know that the Mashantucket Pequots are one of the biggest contributors to the state budget?

And these were just some of the stupid things I heard from Levy In an interview, on local conservative radio, that could not have featured more lovey-kissy softball questions.

I was kind of taken aback that a candidate on the ballot here for U.S. Senate could be so dim witted.

And yet Levy does have an Ivy League education, and she was clearly smart enough at one time in her career to make enough money to be a donor/player in national Republican politics.

I suppose it’s the candidacy more than the candidate that is so dumb.

I mean, really, who could possibly think that an anti-abortion candidate could win a Senate seat in Connecticut in the year Roe v. Wade was overturned? And who thinks a Trump-endorsed candidate could win a statewide election here?

Indeed, Levy herself must know how pointless her candidacy is. I guess it is just an exercise in egoism. In that sense it makes her a perfect Trumper.

I suppose that’s why she doesn’t really think about or care what she says on the radio. And who needs to learn the issues and prepare for interviews if you know in advance you are never going to win.

Just say whatever comes into your head seemed to be the plan for the interview I heard.

Levy may be a significant Republican donor, but unlike many of the rich Republicans who have made themselves prominent statewide candidates in Connecticut, Levy is apparently smart enough not to spend too much of her own money on herself.

She’s not raising a lot either. There are not so many stupid people out there waiting to contribute to her lost cause.

When was the last time that Republicans made such a miserable attempt at winning a Senate seat that there weren’t even any Republican candidate commercials in the weeks before the election?

Even Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s television campaign has been light. Why waste the money?

The last time we saw a rich Republican woman run against Blumenthal, it was Linda McMahon, who spent many tens of millions of her TV/wrestling dough to try to win.

And McMahon ran an aggressive, disciplined campaign. She ran to win. No one would have caught her giving a dim witted answer to a question about the Mashantucket Pequots on the radio.

I’m glad for Blumenthal’s cakewalk this year. His smart professionalism and years of dedicated public service, despite great personal wealth, make him my favorite candidate on the ballot this election.

And yet the folly of the Levy candidacy troubles me, an oversized symbol of the great dysfunction in our state politics, with too much power concentrated in one party.

Leora Levy and her stupid answers in a friendly interview are a very visible sign of the rot in the Republican party here, which can’t even field a viable candidate in a statewide Senate race.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com