Former Congressman Rob Simmons endorsed Senator John McCain for President Wednesday.

According to Thursday’s edition of The Day newspapers in New London:

“McCain, of Arizona, has racked up endorsements from many current and former elected officials in Connecticut, which had once seemed likely to be Giuliani Country — until former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s campaign for the nomination failed to catch fire.

Also endorsing McCain are Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District. All three will join McCain for a rally at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield on Sunday, two days before Connecticut’s primary.

In a voice mail message for a reporter, the three-term congressman Simmons said his endorsement of McCain was probably not “earth-shattering” news. The senator campaigned for the then-state representative when Simmons knocked off 20-year incumbent Rep. Sam Gejdenson to win his seat in Congress in 2000, and returned to help him hold off a challenge from Democrat Jim Sullivan in 2004.

Both men have also been self-styled political mavericks, occasionally bucking party leadership and orthodoxy, and they also share a history of military service in the Vietnam War.

Simmons fought with the Army in Vietnam and later returned to Southeast Asia for the Central Intelligence Agency. McCain was a Navy pilot when he was shot down over the country and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

Simmons has served as the state business advocate since shortly after his 2006 loss to Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.”