For a guy who once boasted that he never took PAC money in his campaigns for attorney general, Richard Blumenthal certainly isn't hesitant to collect special interest money now that's he's running multi-millionaire self-funder Linda McMahon.
Blumenthal's latest filings with the Federal Election Commission show he's taken thousands of dollars in PAC money to fund his U.S. Senate run in the third-quarter of 2010 alone.
Among those opening up their checkbooks are political action committees representing air traffic controllers, steel workers, wine and beer wholesalers and rural letter carriers.
Associations representing anesthesiologists gave $3,500; physical therapists, $5,000 and nurses, $3,000. The American College of Cardiology PAC chipped in $2,500.
Most of the special interest money flowed from Washington, naturally. But there were a few Connecticut-based PACs that contributed as well, among them a group called Giannaros for Congress, affiliated with Demetrios Giannaros, a state representative from Farmington who is not seeking reelection.
Blumenthal also got a $1,370 donation this quarter from from the Planned Parenthood PAC, and $5,000 from NARAL Pro Choice America PAC.
The Human Rights Campaign's PAC, the nation's most prominent gay-rights group, gave $2,500 to the man whose office defended the state in against a lawsuit from same-sex couples seeking the right to marry.