By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Rob Simmons, the Republican opponent against former WWE CEO Linda McMahon in Connecticut's Senate race, is shifting his campaign strategy to suggest that voting for McMahon would give current Democratic Senator Chris Dodd an easy win in this year's Senate election.

Simmons's campaign is trying to appeal to voters across both party lines who want the embattled Dodd removed from office in 2010. Simmons is playing to fears that if McMahon wins the Republican nomination, then it would be like leading a lamb to slaughter.

"Once questioned, McMahon's lack of experience clearly reveals itself and would be devastating for Republicans if matched against a senior member of the Senate and committee chairman with well over a quarter-century in politics," said Simmons's campaign manager, Jim Barnett.

Barnett sent out a four-page memo to Republicans in Connecticut arguing on Simmons's behalf with the key punchline being a vote for McMahon "provides Dodd a pathway to re-election."

The Hour reports that Simmons's campaign used their own data to suggest McMahon's support "completely erodes" and Dodd's standing "convincingly improves" when voters learn more about McMahon.

Caldwell's Analysis: Simmons's campaign has been arguing that McMahon is doing well in polls because voters don't know enough about her to go beneath the first layer of McMahon's visibility with a multi-million dollar campaign. The real test for McMahon will be showing she has knowledge, substantial plans to better the state, political savvy, can hold her own in a debate, and knows how to acknowledge her past as WWE CEO without allowing it to control how she's defined as a political candidate. The political race is about to heat up.

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