Linda E. McMahon’s campaign for the United States Senate has been good for Bert Volpacchio, who received $494 for a meet-and-greet with about 40 local officials last May at his restaurant, the Hot Tamale, in Seymour, Conn. 

 It has been great for regular suppliers like Best Buy, Staples and BJ’s Wholesale Club; for restaurants that have provided meals for volunteers like No Anchovies in Cromwell and the Sushi Palace in North Haven; for specialty businesses like Bayview Balloons of Milford, which got $830 just before the Republican primary; and for political operatives large and small.

Ms. McMahon may or may not get to influence job creation as a senator. But she has already made an impact on the Connecticut economy by dishing out close to $100 million for two Senate races over the past three years, far more than anyone has ever spent of their own money to win any federal seat. She has long since blown by the $72 million Ross Perot spent of his own money on presidential bids in 1992 and 1996.

The result is akin to a medium-size business with roughly 200 employees, a network of 13 offices and a broad constellation of consultants, marketing experts and advertising firms that include a who’s who of Republican handlers and has had a virtual monopoly in the race on the expensive New York City television market that reaches southern Connecticut. The biggest recipient thus far has been Scott Howell & Company, a Texas media consulting company, which received $24.7 million, mostly for advertising in her unsuccessful 2010 race against Richard Blumenthal, according to her campaign finance disclosure reports. She has spent at least $11 million on printing and postage.

Ms. McMahon’s millions at the very least have taken her from an obscure businesswoman overshadowed by her husband in her own wrestling company into a ubiquitous political brand in Connecticut. But with recent polls seeming to show her Democratic opponent, Representative Christopher S. Murphy, with a small lead, whether her spending can produce a Senate seat in a strongly Democratic state remains unclear.

“It’s bad enough to have ‘super PACs’ go around and spend whatever they want, but if you can just buy a Senate seat, I think that’s outrageous,” said Lowell P. Weicker Jr., the former governor and senator who in 1982 became the last Republican elected to the Senate from Connecticut. He has endorsed Mr. Murphy.

But Ms. McMahon says that spending her own money leaves her — unlike Mr. Murphy — in no one’s debt. “In the Senate I will owe you, not the special interests who corrupt so many career politicians from Hartford to Washington,” she says in one of her campaign ads.

Ms. McMahon’s campaign manager, Corry Bliss, said her spending was not an issue for voters. “The most important issue in this race is who has a plan to create jobs,” he said. “That’s what people care about.”

Ms. McMahon spent almost $50 million, nearly all of it her own, in her 2010 race. She has already lent her current campaign $42.6 million, finance reports show. Candidates may raise money to pay back such loans, but it is quite likely that most of her loans will not be repaid.

She had outspent Mr. Murphy by more than four to one at the end of September, but her campaign notes that spending by unions and other outside groups supporting him narrowed that gap. (Outside groups, including the national parties, had spent about $8.5 million in support of Mr. Murphy and less than $1 million for Ms. McMahon through Thursday, according to campaign finance records.)

Her receipts vary from a $10.17 charge at the Dunkin’ Donuts in West Hartford to huge advertising buys and media costs like a $1,260,806.25 payment on Sept. 28 to Mentzer Media Services, just one of several payments to Mentzer, which buys advertising and has been the biggest recipient of money in this race.

Some payments seem calculated to court constituencies, like those for ads or event sites to the Stamford Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the African-American Alliance of Hartford, the Caribbean World Chamber of Commerce in Fairfield, the West Indian Foundation in Bloomfield or the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame in New Haven.

She has paid more than $900,000 in payroll taxes for campaign workers. She has spent more than $600,000 on paraphernalia like signs, balloons, T-shirts and bumper stickers.

But the biggest categories of expenditures, as with most campaigns, have been for consultants, pollsters, digital marketing experts and other political professionals. 

The centerpiece of Ms. McMahon’s campaign is her jobs plan; she says it would produce a positive impact on the federal budget of nearly $1.7 trillion over nine years. The numbers come from John Dunham & Associates of New York City, which bills itself as “The Winning Side of Economics” and got at least three payments totaling $56,258. Mr. Dunham is a former tobacco industry economist who works mostly for trade groups like the Beer Institute and the National Chicken Council. (In response, an ad that features President Obama praising Mr. Murphy’s “real record of job creation” will start running on Saturday, The Associated Press reported.) 

 Her money has allowed her to employ an unusually broad range of political consultants, research and advertising firms, and to afford the most expensive television buys, including spots during the Olympics, the World Series and prime network news shows.

She has hired experienced A-list Republican operatives like Scott Howell, who cites his work with Lee Atwater and Karl Rove on his Web site, and McCarthy Hennings Media, which is best known for the Willie Horton ad going after Michael S. Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race and which also works for Restore Our Future, the PAC backing Mitt Romney. And the campaign’s senior consultant is Christopher J. LaCivita; he was media adviser to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose ads questioning John Kerry’s military service played a critical role in the 2004 presidential election.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Mr. Murphy with a six-point lead, with particular gains among women and older voters. It found that 75 percent of likely voters said they had seen her ads very often and that 13 percent had seen them somewhat often. Most accepted her spending, but 38 percent of voters said they were very or somewhat concerned about it.

Laura Randall, of Fairfield, said that she had planned to vote for Ms. McMahon but that the campaign’s barrage of advertising had turned her off, “I swear, if I hear, ‘I’m Linda McMahon and I approve this message’ one more time...’ ” she said with a grimace.

On Route 7 in New Milford, Doug Yeomans has posted a big, hand-painted sign on his property reading: “TELL LINDA McMILLION$ YOUR VOTE IS NOT 4 SALE.”

“This is a true David and Goliath story,” he said. “I have never felt pressed to do something of this magnitude on my front lawn. But these are extraordinary times.”

Ray Dalton, who works nearby as an electrician, disagreed. “When I saw that sign go up a couple days ago, I had to laugh,” he said. “So Linda McMahon has spent a pile of money on her campaign. So what? Who cares? That’s what politicians do.”

He added: “She has a burning desire to make things better. Why else would she want to spend that kind of money?”

Ms. McMahon lent her campaign another $3.3 million last week. One thing she has done differently this time is to finance a sophisticated turnout operation, including paid staff in minority neighborhoods that Republicans usually cede to Democrats. It could be especially important given the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy, but otherwise the storm could blunt the impact of the advertising.

On NBC on Tuesday night, the news anchor Brian Williams said: “In this part of the country, those who do have TV are seeing attack ads from a woman named Linda McMahon, who’s running for Senate up in Connecticut — airing like nothing had changed. Juxtaposed against the damage, it’s just a very strange time.”

Mr. Bliss, the McMahon campaign manger, said Mr. Murphy and groups supporting him had also kept up some negative ads.

Asked how Ms. McMahon would feel if she spent close to $100 million of her own money and lost two elections, Mr. Bliss said, “She is very proud of the race she’s run, and has every intention of winning this race.”


Much like the corporate headquarters of the WWE, an imposing one-way glass structure visible from Interstate 95 in Stamford, Linda McMahon's record as the company's chief executive is opaque.

With voters on Nov. 6 set to decide for the second time in two years if McMahon should have a seat in the U.S. Senate, many of her former associates are reluctant to discuss her management style, her role at the company or her legacy at the WWE, where all employees must sign non-disclosure agreements.

But some who agreed to be interviewed, as well as former business rivals and associates, paint a picture of a complicated woman, a calculating and thick-skinned executive who also was warm and personable with her employees and business contacts.

They characterize McMahon as someone who -- while not as flamboyant as her showman husband, Vince -- shared his radar-like focus on the bottom line, willingness to work hard, zeal for litigation and desire to dominate the wrestling industry.

"She was not a tyrant. She wasn't a Martha Stewart character," said Michael Foley, a self-employed graphic designer from Norwalk who was a senior creative director for the WWE before he was laid off in 2002.

Tom Buchanan, who was also laid off from the company after working on its magazine, said there were two sides to McMahon.

"I worked for a ruthless business executive and a nice mother. She was both," he said.

MCMAHON'S RESUME

In 1980, McMahon co-founded with her husband what was then the World Wrestling Federation. Through the early 1990s, she served as executive vice president of the company before she was elevated to president. The wrestling matriarch occupied the CEO's office from 1997 until September of 2009, when she severed her ties with the company to run for Senate.

WWE brass credited McMahon with running the day-to-day business, including public relations, business partnerships, legal and human resources.

"Under Linda's collaborative leadership style, she helped the company grow from 12 employees to more than 600, transitioning it from a regional business to a global entertainment company," said Brian Flinn, senior vice president of marketing and communications for the company.

McMahon's campaign declined multiple requests to interview the Republican Senate candidate for this story.

The knock on McMahon throughout this tight race against Democrat Chris Murphy and also two years ago, when she lost to then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, is that she profited from the exploitation of wrestlers who were denied health insurance and from the glorification of sex, violence and degradation of women.

The evolution of WWE programming from graphic scenes of necrophilia, drinking blood and a female wrestler being asked to bark like a dog in arenas full of screaming adolescent men to a PG, family-friendly model has also bred cynicism from those who believe McMahon's political ambitions prompted the transition.

"We went through several phases when we would show blood and wouldn't. That was a battle between Vince and Linda, as I understood it," said Buchanan. "Linda pulled back on the violence where she could, I think."

WWE executives have scoffed at the idea that the rebranding was tied to McMahon's plan to seek office, saying that its Friday Night SmackDown series went to a PG format in 1999, with Monday Night Raw following suit in 2008.

"I think the reason that move was made was to make it more attractive to advertisers," said David Kenin, a former CBS Sports president and former Hallmark Channel executive vice president of programming.

Kenin is one of nine members of WWE's board of directors, a position he has held since 1999.

WWE BY THE NUMBERS

Globally, WWE employs 991 people, 705 of whom are full-timers who get health insurance as part of their benefits package, according to a breakdown from the company. There are five part-timers who are also covered by the health plan.

In 2011, the average WWE salary was $106,000, which the company said was 90 percent more than the $57,000 average income in Connecticut.

The wrestlers themselves are treated as independent contractors, however. There are 88 in-ring performers on the main roster and 68 developmental in-ring performers, in addition to 112 vendors and freelancers who are classified as independent contractors.

The average compensation for a WWE superstar is $250,000 a year, and no full-time performer makes less than $100,000, the company said.

Under the terms of their contract, wrestlers are required to carry health insurance that they must pay for out-of-pocket, though the WWE said it recommends providers and picks up the tab for medical treatment stemming from injuries in the ring and for rehabilitation.

"I do think there are things they could have done over the years that could have been better for the wrestlers," said Corey Maclin, a former promoter and announcer for Memphis Wrestling, a WWE feeder. "By the same token, that's just sort of how it goes in the industry."

WHO'S THE BOSS?

Neither of the two corporate board members interviewed by Hearst could address questions regarding Linda McMahon's management style, but both said she was a diligent, conscientious leader who got results.

"I found her to be very smart, hard-working," said Kenin, who lives in the Los Angeles area. "She was a tremendously reliable person when I dealt with her. I just felt that whatever she said you could go to bank with."

Led by Vince McMahon, the WWE board is constituted of nine members, who receive stock compensation, albeit shares that have declined 50 percent in value since Linda McMahon left the company.

"I felt she had a very good grasp of the business and command of the issues that we would address in the board meetings," said Jeffrey Speed, a former chief financial officer of Six Flags Inc. from Westport. Speed joined the board a year before McMahon left the WWE.

Perhaps the most notable departure from board of the WWE came in 2011, when Lowell Weicker Jr. and the company went through what was characterized at the time as a "mutual" break-up.

A Murphy supporter, Weicker, the former governor who was also the last Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Connecticut, would not comment about his tenure on the board or McMahon's corporate record.

But Dave Meltzer, the San Jose-based editor of the Wrestling Observer, downplayed McMahon's impact on the fortunes of the WWE.

"That's Vince," he said of the company's successes. "By taking that credit, she, in theory, is overseeing that product when in reality she had nothing to do with that product," Meltzer said.

What McMahon no doubt does deserve credit for, Meltzer said, is the charity work done by the company through groups such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and outreach such as Smackdown Your Vote.

August Liguori of West Harrison, N.Y., worked for the McMahons from the late 1990s through the early 2000s as WWE's executive vice president and CFO. He was "headhunted" from Marvel Entertainment.

When Vince wanted to take the company public in the late 1990s, Liguori said it was Linda who met with potential investors and continued to meet with them afterward to promote WWE and its stock.

"Her skills and her personality was very engaging so people came and enjoyed the exchange with her, whether one on one or a 50 to 100 people presentation," Liguori said.

LAWYERING UP

Court records from the last two decades show about two dozen federal cases ensnaring either the McMahons or their company, from a multimillion-dollar wrongful-death suit brought by the widow of wrestler Owen Hart, who was killed when his harness broke and he fell from the rafters during a pay-per-view event in 1999, to a class-action case brought by a group of investors in a stock manipulation case against 300 companies and the underwriters of their initial public offerings.

Both cases resulted in settlements.

On McMahon's watch in 2007, the company was slapped with an antitrust lawsuit by the principal of Memphis Wrestling, Maclin.

"They were sort of trying to form a monopoly in the wrestling world," said Maclin, who reached an unspecified settlement with the WWE.

Maclin said that the WWE pulled the plug on the appearance of Jerry Lawler in a April 2007 bout. Memphis Wrestling had been promoting the bout between Lawler and Hulk Hogan at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn. Maclin attributed the move to a beef the WWE had with Hogan.

"They just sort of tried to put a strong arm on our operation," said Maclin, now a sports anchor/director for the Memphis ABC television affiliate.

WWE questioned Maclin's credibility in statement, in which the company said it reached a "nominal" settlement of what it characterized as a frivolous lawsuit.

"Mr. Maclin has a questionable track record that includes numerous civil judgments against him, an IRS tax lien filed in 2003 and back taxes reportedly owed on three separate businesses," the company said.

A rare morsel of inside information on the WWE to emerge in the 2012 race came when Irving Muchnick, a California-based reporter and blogger who has been writing about injuries in professional wrestling and football, in mid-October received a one page document showing the company had reached a $4.4 million tax settlement with the state of Connecticut following an audit between 2005 and 2007 -- when McMahon was CEO.

He posted the page on his blog, leading Democrats to accuse the WWE of cheating the state out of $4.4 million in taxes.

WWE authenticated the memo in a conference call with reporters, but downplayed the settlement as part of a routine tax review between the company and regulators.

ONE IN A HUNDRED

When McMahon was asked why her business background qualified her to fill the seat of Joe Lieberman during a debate with Murphy last month, she said a CEO has to set a strategic vision for the company and build and motivate teams to implement it.

"I'm good at that. I have a good track record of that. I think those skills are missing in Washington," McMahon said.

Murphy assailed McMahon's pedigree in that same debate.

"Not every CEO is qualified to be a U.S. senator," he said. "And Linda McMahon is the kind of CEO who is not."

David King, chair of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's program at Harvard University, for newly elected members of Congress, said CEOs often struggle to make effective legislators.

"(They) tend to be surprised that no one takes their orders seriously," King said. "A legislature is a world of compromise, subtle negotiation, delayed gratification. So CEOs who go to Congress need to be able to unlearn what they think they know about leadership ... and understand your vote is only one of many."


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