Endorsed Candidates Open Wide Leads in Senate Races

A poll from Quinnipiac University shows the two endorsed candidates for U.S. Senate in Connecticut have wide leads over their primary challengers.

The poll released on Wednesday morning shows former wrestling executive Linda McMahon with a 59-30 percent lead over former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays among Republicans. 

"Linda McMahon is now the clear frontrunner for the GOP nod, crushing Congressmen Christopher Shays by 29 points, after having led Shays by only 9 points back in March. It is hard to see how Shays can overcome such a large lead by primary day, August 14," Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said.

"We have our work cut out for us. Christopher has been through this before and he has the experience, knowledge and guts to hit the ground running on day one," Amanda Bergen, spokesperson for the Shays campaign, said in a statement.

Democrats support U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy over former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz by a 50-20 percent margin.

"No one in the field can match Chris' record of fighting for middle class jobs and families in Connecticut. That's why Democrats support him by a 30 point margin to take on Linda McMahon in November. McMahon has already spent millions on the air trying to change her image, and ultimately we know that she is going to massively outspend us on the airwaves. But we're building the best and strongest grassroots campaign Connecticut has ever seen, and just like in 2010, voters aren't going to let McMahon buy this election," the Murphy campaign said in a statement.
"McMahon's improvement in the general election against Murphy is due to her better performance among independent voters. She now has 43 percent of these key voters, to Murphy's 41 percent, overcoming a 15-point deficit in March," Schwartz said.

Both McMahon and Murphy have increased their leads from a similar poll released in March, before the party conventions.  In that poll McMahon had a 51-42 percent lead over Shays and Murphy led Bysiewicz 37-25 percent.

The telephone survey, conducted between May 29 and June 3 has a survey error margin of 4.2 percentage points among Democrats and 5 percentage points among Republicans.