Connecticut Senate race moves up on GOP’s priority list

GOP officials talk up Linda McMahon's candidacy.

There’s a lot of buzz in Tampa about the Connecticut Senate race.

At a briefing today sponsored by the National Journal and CBS News, the top staffer for the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee singled out the Connecticut Senate race as the top one in the nation where conventional wisdom is wrong.

That “wisdom,” of course, is that Democrat Chris Murphy will easily defeat Republican Linda McMahon in the race to succeed retiring independent Joe Lieberman.

“Connecticut is a real race,” said Rob Jesmer, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

He pointed to the Quinnipiac poll that showed McMahon leading Murphy, 49 percent to 46 percent.

“Yesterday’s poll was significant,” Jesmer said. “That was (after) a full week of negative advertising (targeting McMahon).”

Jesmer said Connecticut, a state that hasn’t elected a Republican senator since Lowell Weicker, is “obviously challenging territory for us, but Linda McMahon is running a really good campaign. We are pleasantly surprised with the way things are going there.”

Jesmer can easily be dismissed as a partisan, but a nonpartisan election analyst confirmed his view of the Connecticut race. Jennifer Duffy, the Senate analyst for the Cook Political Report, said the GOP’s talk is more than spin.

“That’s real,” Duffy said today. “She is running ahead. She has the Democrat, Chris Murphy, on the defensive.”

And even if McMahon ultimately comes up short, national Republicans will be pleased with every dollar Democrats are forced to divert into the Connecticut contest.

“They’re going to have to spend money there,” Duffy said.

Richard Dunham