Dick Blumenthal

A couple other pollsters show Democrat Dick Blumenthal with a healthy lead in the Connecticut Senate race, but Rasmussen shows Republican Linda McMahon trailing by just five points:

Rasmussen:

In a survey conducted the night after their first head-to-head debate, Democrat Richard Blumenthal has moved further ahead of Republican Linda McMahon in Connecticut’s U.S. Senate race.

Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Dick Blumenthal sounded a common theme during the Connecticut Senate race's first debate Monday night: My opponent has serious character flaws, and I'm not like those Democrats in Washington.

How unpopular has Obama's economic agenda become? Democratic Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal--in deep blue Connecticut--says he would have opposed the stimulus.

A Quinnipiac poll out yesterday shows GOP Senate hopeful Linda McMahon of Connecticut gaining some momentum against Democrat Dick Blumenthal, the state's attorney general. According to the poll, Blumenthal leads McMahon 50 percent to 40 percent, a seven point gain for the Republican, who trailed by 17 points in Quinnipiac's poll two weeks ago.

Dick Blumenthal is finally saying what he should have said last week, sending an apology for his exaggerations about his Vietnam service to the Hartford Courant in Connecticut:

Chuck DeVore's campaign is pushing back hard against my earlier post about the California Republican Senate candidate.

Republican Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, currently trailing third in the California polls behind Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell, has been caught overstating and misrepresenting his military record. According to the Los Angeles Times:

The Stamford Advocate digs up this November 9, 2008 quote from Dick Blumenthal speaking at a Veterans Day parade:

"I wore the uniform in Vietnam and many came back & to all kinds of disrespect. Whatever we think of war, we owe the men and women of the armed forces our unconditional support."

For a former editor of the Harvard Crimson and Yale Law Journal, Blumenthal sure does mix up the words "in" and "during" a lot. The Advocate reports that Blumenthal's misstatements about serving in Vietnam are now up to five ... and counting.

When Sen. Chris Dodd decided to retire instead of seeking another term as senator, the conventional wisdom held that popular Connecticut Attorney General Dick Blumenthal would turn an at-risk seat into an easy win for his party.

Turns out Blumenthal's bumbling has Democrats nervous, despite a commanding lead over Republican challengers Rob Simmons and Linda McMahon. (He lead Simmons 52-38 in a Rasmussen poll this week.)

Republican takeover of the Senate is no longer impossible in 2010.  If Scott Brown wins in the special election Tuesday for the Senate in Massachusetts, it would mean Republicans would have to net 10 seats to take control.  If he loses, 11 would be needed.

Republicans woke up this morning with a spring in their step: Sens. Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd both said they wouldn't run for another term. But the news may turn out to be an electoral wash.