Murphy takes slight lead in polls

According to a recent poll conducted with the cooperation of both the University of Connecticut and the Hartford Courant released this past Thursday, Democratic candidate U.S. Representative Chris Murphy is leading Republican nominee Linda McMahon by six percentage points. Both are attempting to capture Connecticut’s 2nd Senate Seat which is being vacated by a retiring Joseph Lieberman. Of a group of 574 likely voters included in the poll 44 percent said they were likely to support Chris Murphy as compared to only 38 percent who said they were likely to support Linda McMahon. Far from a closed case however, Murphy’s six percent lead is dwarfed by a whopping 17 percent of likely voters polled who said that they still remained undecided.

The poll was conducted via landline and telephone calls between Oct. 11 and Oct. 16., and it is important to bear in mind that the poll carries a +/-4 percent margin of error.

The poll shows that McMahon has a lead among male voters leading Murphy 45 to 37 percent. She also leads the Democrat among college educated males with a 48 to 40 percent lead.

However Murphy has a lead among women far more substantial than McMahon’s among men. Likely women voters polled support Murphy by a margin of 50 to 32 percent. Murphy’s lead grows even larger amongst college educated women with a 55 to 28 percent lead.

The campaign which has generated a significantly larger number of increasingly negative attack ads from both parties involved has indeed taken a toll against both candidates public perception.

McMahon is only viewed in a favorable light by 42 percent of voters and unfavorably by 39 percent of them. Murphy on the other hand is only viewed favorably by 40 percent of voters while 34 percent view him unfavorably. Despite going through three debates however, 14 percent of voters say they are undecided about their opinion of McMahon while an even larger amount of voters, 20 percent, are unsure of their opinion of Chris Murphy.

Christy Matthews, a 1st-semester Political Science major said she’s disturbed by the amount of money spent on negative ads by both campaigns.

“This whole thing has just become a mud-slinging back and forth scuffle,” she said.

Alandra Mordo, a 1st-semester psychology major who says she will be voting for Chris Murphy, says she doesn’t view Linda McMahon favorably. “She’s now saying she’s pro choice whereas she was previously pro life. She keeps flip-flopping.”

(To be precise, McMahon has stated consistently stated that she is pro choice as far back as 2010 with the exceptions of being against partial birth abortions and federal funding for abortions except when the life of the mother is at risk).

Saba Ahmeid, a 7th semester Psychology major believes that the closeness of the race is in part due to McMahon’s spending in the race. According to Ahmeid, certain volunteer McMahon campaign staffers are paid for recruiting people to attend the debates and sit in the candidates support section.

“People who hear Linda’s name being yelled out during the debates might contribute positively to her poll numbers” said Ahmeid.