McMahon Leads Murphy In Rasmussen Poll
by Christine Stuart | Aug 22, 2012 4:29pm
(7) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Congress, Election 2012, Poll
For the first time since she started running for U.S. Senate in 2010 Republican Linda McMahon is leading her Democratic opponent in a poll.
In a Rasmussen poll of 500 likely voters, McMahon received 49 percent of the vote to Democrat Chris Murphy’s 46 percent. About 5 percent of those surveyed were undecided and the margin of error is 4.5 percent.
It’s unclear how many Republicans, Democrats and Independents they sampled and if it reflects the make-up of Connecticut’s electorate.
While the McMahon campaign declined to say if the poll reflects what it’s seeing internally, it said the poll “reflects that the people of Connecticut are sick of career politicians.”
“Only in Washington D.C. can you skip 80 percent of work and expect a promotion,“ Corry Bliss, McMahon’s campaign manager, said Wednesday referring to Murphy’s hearing attendance record during his first term in the House.
Meanwhile, Murphy’s campaign immediately used the poll results to make a fundraising pitch to their supporters.
“Make no mistake, Connecticut is not an automatic victory, and this is going to be a close race against a candidate with unlimited funds,” Kenny Curran, Murphy’s campaign manager, said in an email.
“We’ll never outraise Linda McMahon, but your help will ensure we can hold our own,” Curran added.
Murphy has been trying to beat back the number of television ads McMahon has been running seemingly in an attempt to define him even before the Aug. 14 primary. According to a Quinnipiac University poll in June, 46 percent of voters sampled didn’t know enough about Murphy to form an opinion.
McMahon’s campaign has been trying to capitalize on that number by running ads questioning his attendance and his “jobs plan.”
Meanwhile, Murphy’s campaign is trying to downplay the poll numbers.
“Any poll is a snapshot in time, and November is a long way away,“ Taylor Lavender, Murphy’s spokeswoman said. “We knew this was going to be a competitive race—McMahon has spent over $65 million trying to buy two elections now. But in the end, money doesn’t buy elections and voters know that McMahon is only out for herself, while Chris has been fighting for middle class jobs in Connecticut.”
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was quick also to remind people that Rasmussen tends to be a right leaning poll.
“Rasmussen’s Republican bias is well known and documented so it’s impossible to take their data seriously. The fact is that the last time Linda McMahon ran for office, she spent $50 million trying to buy a Senate seat but still lost by double digits. There’s no reason to expect different results this November,” Shripal Shah, DSCC press secretary, said.
The poll was conducted Tuesday, Aug. 21.
Tags: Linda McMahon, Chris Murphy, Rasmussen poll, U.S. Senate
(7) Comments
posted by: CitizenCT | August 23, 2012 6:18am
HST, have to agree with you. With Murphy’s track record of doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, and voting against what’s in CT’s best interest, how could anyone support him? Tell us Chris, why were you the only CT rep to vote against the Defense appropriation act, critical for jobs in the state. Maybe you missed the hearing that described how important it was to Electric Boat and their supply chain.
posted by: MGKW | August 23, 2012 9:12am
WWE is family entertainment….
Linda Mc$$$ to Bill O’Reilly May 2002…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msjLPBs9n74
How can anyone believe what she or her campaign says?
Rasmussen alway has the Republican candidate ahead all the time so I think these #‘s are highly suspect.
posted by: Irish Loop | August 23, 2012 3:32pm
Gee whiz, Rasmussen says it’s true, so it must be true! The very same Rasmussen which did terribly in the 2010 midterm election polling. They were shown to be biased in favor of GOP politicians and suddenly we trust them? Right.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/rasmussen-polls-were-biased-and-inaccurate-quinnipiac-surveyusa-performed-strongly/
posted by: Irish Loop | August 23, 2012 3:38pm
I also find it fairly amusing that McMahon calls Murphy a “career politician.” Whereas McMahon is only starting her career in politics. “Don’t vote for this guy, he’s been doing the job I want for his whole life!” Huh?
posted by: hartfordresident | August 23, 2012 4:44pm
Rasmussen polls seem thoroughly biased and inaccurate. He seems to be a GOP tool.
posted by: ALD | August 23, 2012 8:11pm
Chris Murphy has spent most of the last 2 years running for the Senate, while he was being paid to represent the 5th district. I would think both jobs by themselves require at least full time attention. By Murphy’s own admission a few weeks ago he mentioned how he spends as much as 6 hours a day just in fund raising for his senate run.
Of the 4 primary candidates in both parties only Murphy was being paid by the taxpayers to do one job, while he focused on another. So when McMahon wonders where he was when he missed all those hearings, it’s not likely he was at that secret Congressional health club she mentions…..... It’s more likely he was very publically working on getting himself a new job while he was being paid by the taxpayers to do his current job.
I’m trying to think where in the private sector that would be considered acceptable?
In all fairness I know that Murphy is not the only career politician who sees no problem in that….... Four years ago Chris Dodd and about 10 other Senators felt missing hearings was perfectly OK as long as they were running for President.
To me this is a perfect example of Washington arrogance, and just one reason “it’s time for a change”.
We will never start to solve our problems if we keep sending back to Washington the same people who are part of the problem.