Richard Blumenthal

[homelycooking]

Despite the furor over Blumenthal's misstatement of his Vietnam service, Linda McMahon is going to have a very tough time taking down the state's most popular Democratic politician. These two maps illustrate that point.

In 2006, Blumenthal won all of Connecticut's towns except for high-class New Canaan, in which token Republican opponent Robert Farr prevailed (just). Blumenthal even won over 60% in R+18 Watertown, R+19 Wolcott and R+17 Oxford.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5261/ctattorneygeneral2006.png
(warning, Democrat porn!)

In 2002, Blumenthal had a tougher time against Martha Dean but still trounced her.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6138/ctattorneygeneral2002.png

With greater resources and attention involved in 2010, things will be different. But McMahon has the  unusual dilemma of having to convince hundreds of thousands of Republican voters who supported Blumenthal in the past to turn against him.

[cinyc]

Thanks for the maps. 

Blumenthal never really faced stiff, well-funded competition in his AGs races.    McMahon has already spent $14.6 million to get her face on the air.  It probably won't work in the end, but the Senate race should be closer than Blumenthal's AGs races - not that that's saying much.

This arguably belongs in the Congressional Elections Forum.