Merrick Alpert

Merrick Alpert, the Mystic businessman running against U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, is seizing on every chance he can to kick the embattled senator while he's down.

Alpert, 43, is also the author of a new memoir, Morning Sun, about his fatherless childhood and his trip to Morning Sun, Iowa, to find and confront his dad.

Confronting him, he says, was about "holding someone accountable. Sound familiar?"

Alpert says that's what he's doing to Dodd.

He says his inspiration to run against Dodd solidified in one day: He traveled to Hartford to get a haircut and heard economic woes from his long-time barber, then stopped in at his mother's Colchester home and found her looking over her diminished retirement account; that night after tucking his kids into bed, he saw Dodd on TV.

"There was the guy I've voted for and supported and gave money to, and he's not telling the truth [about the VIP mortgage he received]. At that point, I said, 'I can't take this. He's lying to the people I care most about.'"

Alpert's been accused of being a centrist who uses right-wing talking points, and who keeps his attention focused on Dodd's VIP mortgage scandal, his quixotic move to Iowa during his presidential run and Dodd's role in the AIG bailout bonuses.

"As Democrats, we're fooling ourselves if we think people aren't talking about these things on their own," Alpert says, defending himself during an interview last week.

"Somehow I have the audacity of hope and the audacity to tell the truth. Dodd is not electable," he says citing recent Quinnipiac University polls.

In September, voters disapproved of Dodd 49 to 43 percent, an improvement over his numbers in July when the disapproval rate was 52 percent.

Even so, Dodd raised about $900,000 in the third quarter while Alpert's campaign brought in only $20,000.

The reason for the difference, Alpert says, is because his campaign is grassroots, and he's not taking PAC money.

But the state Democratic party is sticking with Dodd.

The party's chairwoman, Nancy DiNardo, issued this statement when Alpert announced his run in May:

"Dodd is a tremendous public servant who has worked tirelessly for Connecticut's families and has distinguished himself as an expert on health care, foreign policy and other pressing issues. The citizens of Connecticut are better off as a result of Senator Dodd fighting for them on a daily basis and future generations will benefit from the work he is doing now."

Alpert, of course, disagrees.

He calls himself a "progressive Dem without the baggage," and says Dodd's been compromised by years of donations from the insurance, finance and pharmaceutical industries.

Alpert — who served on a six-month peacekeeping tour in Bosnia — says he's wholeheartedly against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that Dodd's support of the wars is "a disaster."

On Dodd's recent credit card legislation, which bars interest rate increases without a 45-day notice, Alpert says, "what he wanted you to believe is there's a cap on interest rates. That's a great example of watered down legislation. It's not a great piece of consumer protection legislation and for him to misrepresent that is unconscionable."

Similarly, Alpert disses Dodd's stance on health care.

"His [campaign] mailings are paid for by the insurance association and the pharmaceutical lobby," Alpert says. "You can't be surprised when you see a watered down result. My fear is you'll see the same thing happen with health care as with the credit card bill."

Quote of the Week:

"One might wonder why the WWE deserved to get these tax credits to begin with, considering the company was worth billions already and [U.S. Senate candidate Linda] McMahon slashed its workforce by 10 percent earlier this year. That $3 million she accepted on WWE's behalf could help fund more than 1,400 cops for our streets — a far more worthy use of taxpayer dollars than funding necrophilia, public sex, and steroid-fueled female degradation masquerading as family entertainment or sport."

— Colleen Flanagan, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Democratic Party on the state tax credits given to McMahon's Stamford-based World Wide Entertainment (formerly World Wrestling Federation).