Recently, an anonymous aide to Dodd downplayed the prospects of a Simmons candidacy:  “”His [Dodd's] potential opponent Rob Simmons couldn’t even hold Connecticut’s Second District — how is he going to win statewide?”  Clearly, the aide knows next to nothing about the 2nd district.  Simmons remains a popular figure in the 2nd district and would be competitive throughout the state particularly in the 4th and 5th congressional districts as well as his home district.  The reality is a Simmons candidacy would pose a major roadblock to Dodd’s re-election efforts. 

When it comes to national security, Rob Simmons’s resume is impeccable.  A Vietnam veteran, Simmons retired as a colonel from the U.S. Army.  Simmons, who is fluent in Mandarin, also served as an operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and was stationed in Taiwan.  As a congressman, he served on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and the House Homeland Security Committee, where he served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment.   

As a member of the HASC, Simmons was instrumental in keeping the Naval Submarine Base in New London open after it had been marked for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure commission.  In doing so, Simmons kept an important naval base open and also preserved thousands of jobs for Connecticut’s 2nd district.   

Connecticut is tired of Chris Dodd.  The senator who moved his family to Iowa during his vanity bid for the presidency in 2007 and who also received two sweatheart loans from Countrywide Financial is out of touch with the people of Connecticut.  It is my sincere hope that Rob Simmons challenges Chris Dodd in 2010.