CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Hartford Courant: Jackie Clegg Dodd Making Big Money As Corporate Director.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd has long had a reputation as a politician of limited means — a reputation underscored, for good or bad, by recent disclosures about his dependence on friends to finance his homes.

The reputation could prove difficult to sustain as Dodd begins what political operatives predict might be the toughest campaign of his 35-year congressional career — considering the dramatic uptick in his wife’s income since they married.

Since the low-profile family wedding on a rise above the Connecticut River in 1999, Jackie M. Clegg Dodd’s income has quadrupled to the mid-six-figure range. All of the increase is due to her appointment as a highly compensated member of multiple corporate boards of directors.

Funny how that kind of thing tends to happen. Plus, a “consulting” business with no clients, or phone number. And this: “The official, who asked not to be identified for fear of offending Dodd, said he does not believe that Clegg Dodd’s legislative and banking experience qualified her as an audit committee expert.”