Economist and Owner of EuroPacific Capital, Peter Schiff is expected to announce his bid for the Connecticut US Senate Seat currently held by Democrat Chris Dodd in the coming weeks.

But before Schiff would take on Dodd in the general election he would first have to win the Republican primary contest.
In this contest Schiff would face Republican challengers Rob Simmons and Sam Caligiuri, both of whom have already officially announced their US Senate campaigns.

Sam Caligiuri, generally considered the weaker of the two candidates, is a State Senator in Connecticut that gained some notoriety for being the sole Republican in the Connecticut State Senate to oppose the ’07-’08 budget.

Considered the more formidable candidate Rob Simmons served three terms as the representative from Connecticut’s 2nd district in the US House of representatives. He lost his seat by a razor thin margin in ’06 when the entire Congress shifted to the Democrats.
To give an indication of Simmons early fundraising prowess one needs only to look at a recent Simmons twitter post boasting how he raised $3K online in 36 hours from 30 people.

The fact that Simmons would boast about such a meager sum does not bode well for him against the independently wealthy Peter Schiff who has fund raising potential nationwide.

But despite not being a fund raising powerhouse, Simmons does lead Christopher Dodd in an extremely early poll by Quinnipiac University. In the poll released today Simmons leads Dodd by 6 points 45% to Dodd’s 39%. However this lead is down from the 25 point lead Simmons held over Dodd in early April, shortly after the AIG scandal.

The fact is that these polls mean very little other than to show that Chris Dodd has very low approval numbers and is likely to face a serious challenge from whoever emerges the victor from the GOP primary.

The key to the GOP primary will likely be how high on Connecticut’s agenda the economy ranks 14 months from now. If the economy is still in waiting for a recovery, which is the likely scenario, then Schiff will be able to argue his case quite convincingly that he saw the crisis coming and therefore he should be given a chance to help the Federal government do the right thing.

Simmons will likely have to rely on outside help, aka the RNC (via the RNC’s coffers and surrogates), to stand a chance against Schiff. Schiff has a national television presence on cable news, his campaign coffers will be overflowing not only from his own wealth but from his nation wide base of supporters. You can watch the YouTube video that earned him a cult following here He is an expert on the predominant issue of the time, the economy. And finally he is a great communicator who has a wealth of experience arguing his points with clarity, conviction and sometimes a dash of humor.

I would look for Peter Schiff to officially announce his candidacy on the Daily Show on June 9th when he is scheduled to be a guest. Such a move would send a message not only to his fellow GOP opponents, but also to Chris Dodd just what caliber of a candidate he is.
Keep in mind that this is extremely early and broad analysis while the general election is still 17 months away, but check back in often as PoliticalLore.com will be following this race closely and covering and analyzing every last detail from now until the very end.