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.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.