Linda McMahon, Chief Executive Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, has cleared a hurdle on her way to joining the Connecticut board of education.
The vote was 34-1, with Waterbury Dem Sen. Joan Hartley the lone voice of dissent.
"I don't doubt her business skills," Hartley told The Hartford Courant after the vote. "Quite frankly, I find the sport to be bordering on the barbaric. It has grown to be over the edge. It is out-and-out barbaric. ... This is for the sake of shock and it lacks total civility."
McMahon and her husband Vince together created a wrestling empire, World Wrestling Entertainment, that used a mix of cartoon violence and sexual titillation to make the "sport" a beloved national phenomenon.
And while her credentials as a business woman are unassailable, she's no dilettante when it comes to education.
She graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science in French and is certified to teach. Additionally, she's served on the Board of Trustees of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield since 2004 and created the WWE’s Get R.E.A.L. educational and literacy programs.
McMahon now must win approval from the House of Representatives.
