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A month before endorsing Linda McMahon for U.S. Senate , photos show John Slater , the Republican Town Committee chairman of Bridgeport, mugging for the cameras ringside atWrestleMania XXVIII in South Florida. Now the campaign of McMahon rival Christopher Shays is publicly calling into question the dynamics of thatendorsement, which a spokeswoman for the former congressman andBridgeport resident characterized as curious. "I find it interesting that John Slater went to WrestleMania inMiami, and soon after he returned came out and endorsed LindaMcMahon," said Amanda Bergen of the Shays campaign. Slater vehemently denied accepting any kind of freebie fromMcMahon, saying he attended the April 1 wrestling extravaganza onhis own dime. He furnished Greenwich Time with a photo of his Webster Bank statement and his ticket stub from the event showing that he paid$355 for a central riser seat at WrestleMania. The McMahon campaignannounced Slater's endorsement May 8. "If they're insinuating a bribe, which I can prove never happened,that's totally wrong," Slater told Greenwich Time. "If that's theroad that his campaign is now taking, it shows another reason whynot to vote for him, because it's a lie." A campaign spokeswoman for McMahon, whose family runs WWE (formerlyWorld Wrestling Entertainment), condemned the Shays campaign forsuggesting that Slater was comped at WrestleMania in return for hisendorsement. "Congressman Shays continues to disrespect delegates and leadersacross the state with accusations that they can be bought," Erin Isaac wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper on behalf of McMahon. Slater is one of 95 RTC chairmen to endorse McMahon, who also hasthe backing of 30 town committees out of the 169 municipalities inConnecticut going into Friday's state Republican convention inHartford. Isaac attributed their support to what she characterized asMcMahon's proven track record of job creation and plan to putpeople back to work and cut taxes for the middle class. "They are NOT supporting Congressman Shays because he is aprofessional politician who will say or do anything to getelected," Isaac wrote. "The Shays campaign must be increasinglydesperate if they are spending the days leading up to conventioncombing delegate Facebook pages for more baseless accusations tosling at our campaign." The Shays campaign provided Greenwich Time with photos it obtainedfrom Slater's Facebook profile showing him with an unidentifiedmale friend at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., with theWrestleMania stage, mammoth fake palm trees and a steel cage in thebackground. Slater was wearing a T-shirt with the words "Boots 2 Asses," therallying cry of "The Rock," Dwayne Johnson , who defeated John Cena in his return to the ring at WrestleMania. A pair of photos, also lifted by the Shays campaign off Facebookand apparently taken with a camera phone, show wrestling matchsequences from the vantage of field-level seats in the massivefootball stadium. "I have a group of friends who I have gone to this (with) foryears," Slater said. "Every single one was on my own dime. Lindadidn't even know I was there." WrestleMania is the equivalent of the Super Bowl of professionalwrestling. This year's installment drew 78,363 fans to the homestadium of the NFL's Miami Dolphins , where ticket prices ranged from $25 to a staggering $9,000 thatwas being asked by one seller of a ringside seat on the websiteStubHub.com. Slater said he paid $350 for his ticket to WrestleMania, whichMcMahon's campaign confirmed at the time that the former WWE chiefexecutive officer would be attending. "I didn't endorse her because of wrestling," said Slater, whobecame Bridgeport RTC chairman about a 1 1/2 months ago. Between ticket and merchandise sales, pay-per-view orders andtravel packages, the 2011 installment of WrestleMania, held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, generated $36 million in gross revenues, according toWWE. "Linda has lived the American dream through hard work and sweatequity," Slater said. "I am supporting Linda McMahon because she isthe better candidate." neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; twitter.com/gettinviggy. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Wall Decoration Painting , Wedding Picture Printing for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Colour Poster Printing.
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