His 15 minutes in the political limelight are now over and Democrat Merrick Alpert is moving on.
He intends to return to the private sector and is shopping around for a distressed company to turn around.
"My intent is to buy it, build it, and save American jobs,'' Alpert said in a thank-you email he sent to supporters this afternoon. "Over the past year I have become convinced that, contrary to conventional wisdom, we can rebuild our manufacturing base in America. I plan to be part of that effort."
Alpert, an entrepeneur from Mystic who has never held elective office, has long straddled the worlds of business, politics and the military. When he announced he was running for U.S. last May, Chris Dodd was still in the hunt and many Democrats were angry at Alpert for slamming the politically vulnerable incumbent. Some suggested Alpert was blinded by ambition and should have started his quest for elective office at a lower level, such as board of selectmen or state legislature.
Alpert leaves the door open to a future in politics, saying "I have always viewed politics as a process and not an event and I look forward to working with you in the future to improve the democratic process." [Note: that's a small ''d'' in democratic.]
And he continues to hold out an olive branch to the man he just 10 days ago referred to as a "a coward and a liar."
"On every campaign stop I said that my goal is to elect a Democratic Senator from Connecticut in 2010,'' Alpert writes in his email. "Let us continue to work together to achieve that goal."