Connecticut Dems highlight WWE footage that was scrubbed from Web

{mosads}The video came as a response to the company’s request last week for video–sharing site YouTube to pull WWE clips from its site. The Associated Press reported that the WWE has said it requested the removal of the clips because they no longer reflect the company’s “current family-friendly brand of entertainment.”

The WWE acknowledged in a statement that the footage “has been misused in political environments without any context or explanation as to when it was produced.” That’s likely a reference to the Connecticut Democratic Party’s attempts to highlight similar clips in 2009.

Then, the WWE made the same move to pull down similar footage from YouTube, and state Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission asserting that the WWE had essentially made an in-kind contribution to McMahon’s campaign by expending resources on the effort. DiNardo’s office says there are currently no plans to file another complaint with the FEC.

Instead, the Connecticut Democratic Party is reviving an old argument — that McMahon “made millions peddling sex, violence, necrophilia and abusive treatment of women to kids,” according to a statement from DiNardo — that helped Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal defeat her in 2010.

Blumenthal posted a 20 percent advantage over McMahon with women that year, partly because of attacks based around WWE’s programming, Democrats have said. Though McMahon has worked from the earliest moments of her campaign to woo female voters this time around, Democrats hope that the jarring WWE clips could end up having the same effect on her new bid for Senate.

–This post was published at 2:01 p.m. and updated at 4:28 p.m.