Angry voters have pushed Republican Linda McMahon to within a "statistically insignificant" three percentage points of Democrat Richard Blumenthal in their tightening race for U.S. Senate, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
In a survey of likely voters, Blumenthal leads 49 percent to 46 percent over the first-time, self-financed candidate for Senate. In a Quinnipiac poll two weeks ago, he led 51 percent to 45 percent in the race to succeed the retiring five-term Democrat, Christopher J. Dodd.
Blumenthal's lead is within the poll's margin of error for the first time, giving him what the poll's director describes as a "statistically insignificant" lead with exactly five weeks until Election Day and a week before the first of three debates with McMahon.
"He can hear her footsteps as she closes in on him," said Douglas Schwartz, the poll's director.
A Rasmussen Reports' survey released yesterday had Blumenthal leading 50 percent to 45 percent. Apparently anticipating bad news today, his campaign released internal polling last night that has Blumenthal up 52 percent to 40 percent.
In all the polls, he is hovering around 50 percent, despite 20 years as a popular and well-regarded attorney general whose job-approval rating in the new Quinnipiac poll is an impressive 68 percent, an overwhelming advantage in other election years.