Republican state Sen. Sam Caligiuri is joining former Rep. Rob Simmons in a race to take on Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd.

“I am running to take us into the future and away from what Washington has come to represent: career politicians in power for so long, and with so little accountability, that they feel they can do – or fail to do – anything they want and still get elected,” Caligiuri said from his home in Waterbury, Conn.

There was no mistaking who that dig was directed at — Dodd, the five-term incumbent.