This morning, in the wake of the news that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will retire and that Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal will run for his seat, I wrote:
[I]f the first polls of the race with Blumenthal show even a hint of hope for the Republican challengers, that might be even worse news for Democrats. Linda McMahon (of wrestling fame), former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons, and former Ron Paul adviser Peter Schiff were battling to face Dodd in the general. If the most popular politician in a super-blue state like Connecticut is in any sort of trouble against those three, well, national Dems are probably cooked.
Public Policy Polling, which was in the field on Monday and Tuesday, has some good news for Dems. Dodd’s retirement makes this look like a safe seat:
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before Dodd’s announcement.
Blumenthal is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19% who see him negatively. It’s no surprise that he’s liked by 71% of Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn’t take a lot of hands to count the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP voters these days.
Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse for him not to be Connecticut’s next Senator.
With this race moving rapidly off the national radar, Connecticut politicos will probably focus more on the fight for the open governor’s mansion, and Republicans will spend more money (and energy) trying to win at least one of the Connecticut House races. (Republicans held three of the state’s five House seats as recently as 2006.)
Kevin is traveling today and tomorrow.
