Eric Kleefeld July 16, 2010, 9:35 AM

The new Quinnipiac poll of the Connecticut Senate race shows Democratic state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal continuing to enjoy a hefty lead over Republican former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon.

The numbers: Blumenthal 54%, McMahon 37%. The survey of registered voters has a ±2.7% margin of error. This is not significantly different from the last poll in early June, which put Blumenthal ahead by 55%-35%. The TPM Poll Average gives Blumenthal a lead over McMahon of 52.3%-38.1%.

“Linda McMahon’s biggest problem with voters is that only 38 percent think she has the right kind of experience to be a U.S. Senator, which tracks very closely with the percentage of the vote she gets against Blumenthal,” writes Quinnipiac polling director Douglas Schwartz. “She has improved her experience number slightly, but she must do more to convince Connecticut voters that her background as an executive in professional wrestling is the right kind of experience.”

The poll also finds that Rep. Rob Simmons, who suspended his campaign in May but has been making noise about possibly jumping back in, would start out way behind if he were to get back into the August 10 Republican primary.

The numbers: McMahon 52%, Simmons 25%, and financial commentator Peter Schiff 13%. The survey of likely GOP primary voters has a ±3.4% margin of error. The previous poll from early June had McMahon ahead by 45%-29%-13%. The TPM Poll Average has McMahon at 43.5%, Simmons 29.6%, and Schiff 10.0%.

If Simmons were to somehow win the nomination, he too would badly trail Blumenthal, by a margin of 55%-35%, compared to 54%-33% in early June. The TPM Poll Average for that matchup has Blumenthal ahead by 53.1%-34.4%.

2010 elections, CT-SEN, Linda McMahon, Peter Schiff, Polls, Richard Blumenthal, Rob Simmons, Senate '10