In the fickle world of politics, where a candidate's shelf life can be about a short as Kim Kardashian's marriage, the early favorites to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate have rebranded themselves after bitter losses in their last races. The last time the voters of Connecticut elected a Republican to the Senate was in 1982, when Lowell P. Weicker Jr. was elected to his third and final term, a three-decade drought that is not lost upon the state's minority party. Thwarted two years ago from wresting Christopher Dodd's seat away from the Democrats, in a race won by longtime Attorney General Richard Blumenthal over McMahon, GOP leaders are admittedly preaching to their candidates to save their heavy ammo for the general election. What gives Republicans cause for optimism is that the prize is an open seat in a presidential election year in which the current occupant of the White House, President Barack Obama, has a national approval rating of 46 percent. A conscientious objector to the Vietnam War who served in the Peace Corps, Shays has spent most of his adult life in public service, first representing Stamford in the General Assembly. "Among Republicans, they know I'm the only one who can win the race," said Shays, who formally kicked off his campaign Jan. 25 at the Old State House in Hartford. [...] the self-proclaimed centrist from Bridgeport has hit the trail with his message of the urgency to balance the federal budget, venturing in uncharted territory beyond the borders of his one-time congressional district in an effort to build up name recognition. A former schoolteacher who overcame personal bankruptcy to earn a fortune with her famous husband, Vince, at WWE (formerly World Wrestling Entertainment), McMahon left her post as the Stamford company's chief executive officer to run for the Senate two years ago. McMahon's public service experience is limited to a stint on the state Board of Education, but her corporate record at the WWE has already come under fire from Shays, who has blamed the company for a number of wrestler deaths and accused McMahon of peddling soft-core pornography.