Connecticut’s Senate race is one that wasn’t expected to be competitive for Republicans; this is a pretty deep-blue state. And yet Quinnipiac finds Chris Shays — hardly a conservative favorite during his years in the House — running pretty competitively against all of his Democratic competitors:
Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon leads former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays 51 – 42 percent in the Republican primary for Connecticut’s U.S. Senate seat, but Shays runs better against possible Democratic candidates, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This compares to a 50 – 35 percent McMahon lead September 16.
U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy leads the Democratic primary for Senate with 37 percent, followed by former Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz with 25 percent and State Rep. William Tong with 4 percent, the independent Quinnipiac University poll finds.
In possible November matchups:
Murphy tops McMahon 52 – 37 percent;
Murphy gets 41 percent to Shays’ 40 percent;
Bysiewicz beats McMahon 49 – 39 percent;
Shays gets 43 percent to Bysiewicz’ 42 percent;
McMahon leads Tong 43 – 39 percent;
Shays tops Tong 50 – 25 percent.
Connecticut Republicans will have to determine whether Shays meets their threshold as sufficiently conservative to represent their interests. But if he does, he could end up creating one more competitive Senate race in a map that’s already full of them for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.