TPMDC

McMahon Surging From 25 to 20 Point Deficit

Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon (R-CT)

A pair of new polls show former professional wrestling CEO Linda McMahon could be closing the gap slightly in the Connecticut Senate race. But one is a McMahon campaign poll. The other, from the well-respected Connecticut pollster Quinnipiac, shows not much is happening at all.

In the last Quinnipiac poll, taken May 24-25, Blumenthal led McMahon by a margin of 56-31. In the new Q poll, conducted June 2-8, McMahon has closed that gap a little. That poll shows Blumenthal ahead by a margin of 55-35. (The poll was conducted among 1,350 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2.7%).

The McMahon campaign poll, released yesterday, shows the race is even closer than that. The poll, conducted June 1-3 among 600 registered voters with a margin of error of 4%, shows Blumenthal ahead by margin 51-38.

The TPM Poll Average for the race shows Blumenthal in the lead by a margin of 52.5-37.0. That’s still a very significant lead, especially considering the fact that Blumenthal spent about a week embroiled in a national scandal about the rhetoric he’s used to describe his military service.

The trend line for recent polling shows that McMahon is slowly closing the gap with Blumenthal. That’s not a surprise, considering McMahon just spent a ton of money securing her party’s endorsement at the state GOP convention last month. But it could mean Democrats might have to work a little harder than they expected to keep the Connecicut seat — which is being vacated by the retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D) — in Democratic hands.

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