Janet Peckinpaugh tells Battle ‘10 that turnout is high throughout Connecticut’s second congressional district. “In the primary, it was busy in the morning and in the late afternoon, but this has been steady stream,” she says. “I’ll tell ya, we’re seeing good things for us. . . . Our internal polls went from neck-and-neck to me surging ahead and that was with unaffiliated and with Democrats.”
Peckinpaugh says turnout seems high for the smaller towns and low for the cities — a good sign for her. “East Lyme is just crazy busy. I can’t even tell you. We must have seen 200 people within an hour. And that’s a midsized town in the district. Groton, New London, and Norwich were the least busy and those are more substantially sized towns. We haven’t been up north but we’ve heard that the turnout in those towns is really high. That’s how it was in Essex.”
The Republican candidate is running against Rep. Joe Courtney, who beat Republican congressman Rob Simmons in 2006 by only 83 votes. Although conventional wisdom rates Peckinpaugh as less competitive against Courtney than Simmons, tonight’s wave might be big enough to sweep her in.
“If you’re happy with where you are, then you’re happy with the incumbent. If you’re worried about what taxes are coming down the road, then you have a choice and you’re going to vote for me,” Peckinpaugh concludes.