Connecticut Senate: The race at a glance

(Image credit: AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

last updated 8 January 2015

Sen. Joe Lieberman — an independent who reliably caucuses with the Democrats — is retiring, and his seat has long been seen as a rare safe hold in a challenging year for Senate Democrats. Rep. Chris Murphy, representing the most Republican part of a solidly blue state, won the Democratic nomination while Republicans went with the multimillionaire pro-wrestling magnate Linda McMahon, who lost the open 2010 race for Connecticut's other Senate seat, despite dumping more than $40 million of her fortune into the campaign. But McMahon is running a much better campaign this time around, and she has pulled even or slightly ahead of Murphy in some recent polls — providing, ironically, a rare bright spot for disheartened Senate Republicans.

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The McMahon-Murphy contest has become pretty ugly and very expensive, with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee forced to step in to help Murphy keep up with McMahon's self-funded ad onslaught. McMahon criticizes Murphy for missing congressional hearings and accuses him of getting a sweetheart deal on a home-equity loan — a charge he and the bank both deny. Murphy charges that McMahon's tax plan is lifted from conservative Washington groups far to the right of Connecticut — she says the plan is her own — and that on issues from women's rights to Medicare and Social Security, McMahon is too conservative for the state. Most electoral handicappers rate this race either as leaning Democratic or a tossup. "If this were a midterm election, [Murphy] would have real problems," says Real Clear Politics, but Obama's popularity in the Constitution State "is probably enough to push him through" in the general election.

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