Shirt Says ‘Support McMahon.’ Wearer Doesn’t

by Melissa Bailey, Thomas MacMillan & Paul Bass | Nov 6, 2012 3:15pm
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Posted to: Congress, Election 2012, Town News, Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven

Melissa Bailey photo

Natasha Parker

Natasha Parker made money Tuesday handing out flyers urging East Rockers to vote for Linda McMahon—even though she wasn’t planning to do so herself.

Parker (pictured) was part of a paid army of African-American poll workers dispatched to urban polling districts across Connecticut by the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Linda McMahon.

Their mission: To urge voters to split their tickets for McMahon and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Parker wore the group’s uniform: a purple T-shirt pushing the Obama-McMahon ticket. She handed out a “sample ballot” instructing people to choose McMahon on the Independent Party line. Nowhere did the materials mention McMahon’s Republican affiliation. Or the fact that she in fact supports Republican Mitt Romney for president.

Parker, who is 25 and lives on Goffe Street, said Linda McMahon’s campaign is paying her to stand at the polls from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.  (She said she didn’t know how much.)

However, Parker said, “that doesn’t mean I have to vote for her.”

Parker said she’s definitely voting for Obama, and she’s unsure about the U.S. Senate race. She said McMahon does not support the social services she relies on: “She’s not for food stamps and stuff.”

“I’m undecided,” Parker said, “but Obama supports [Democrat Chris] Murphy. I think I might go for Murphy.”

Parker was finding that the voters she encountered were equally unimpressed with the idea of voting for McMahon.

“Obama doesn’t support Linda McMahon,” some voters told her, Parker said. Her reply: “She supports him,” she replied. (She didn’t know that McMahon actually supports Romney.)

Most East Rockers refused to take the pro-McMahon flyers, Parker reported.

“I’m getting a lot of people saying no. People don’t like her.” Parker said she had more luck earlier in the morning, when she stood at the Nathan Hale School in the East Shore.

Click here to continue reading the New Haven Independent’s report.

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