Toast? Dodd trails by 11

It’s just one poll, it’s still a year away, but the time is running shorter and the poll is running in the wrong direction for the senior Senator from Connecticut.

Former Connecticut Congressman Rob Simmons has an early lead in the Republican primary race for the 2010 U.S. Senate contest and runs better than any other challenger against Sen. Christopher Dodd, topping the Democratic incumbent 49 – 38 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

I have a friend in the politics biz who says when an incumbant is below 45 he’s in trouble, when it’s below 40, he’s toast. I don’t think the Senator is toast … but he better get out of the toaster fast or he will be.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air wonders how the Senator could be so far behind in a blue state like Connecticut.

How is Dodd doing so poorly in the blue, blue state of Connecticut?  He’s losing both men and women, for one thing, and even 15% of Democrats would vote for Simmons in a general election; only 68% of Democrats would commit to voting for Dodd, with the rest undecided.  The biggest problem, as it is for Democrats all over the country, is the flight of independents.  Simmons wins among independent voters by a whopping 2-1 margin, 57%-29%.

Ed’s correct. It is about independents. But it goes much deeper than a poll identification. Connecticans have deep roots in colonial values. It is indeed a wealthy and compassionate state, which accounts for the high incidence of limo liberals, and its blue collar workers are generally union workers. Thus the blue.

But there is a strong and growing cadre in this state, Democrats, Republicans and independents who value those colonial values more than party, especially when those values are threatened or so overtly trampled by lip serving politicians who take advantage of their position of power to enrich themselves or pay back their cronies, even as they struggle to stay afloat.

Dodd tried to stop Fannie Mae reform, he was at the helm of the ship when the Fannie Mae crisis hit, he received VIP treatment from a bank that he helped oversee, he consistently undervalued his “third” home located in Ireland, he authored a provison in the stimulus that allowed for AIG bonuses (which I do not mind) and then lied about it.

Any one of those folks in Connecticut would forgive. Shameful, but true. But together, it’s the kind of “in your face” politics that most New Englanders won’t let slide. A little corruption people seem to accept these days as the price of admission. But for Dodd, the hits just keep on coming.

Come to think of it, he’s toast.

Take our poll.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

3 Comments

  1. donh on November 12, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    Dodd is toast in light of NJ results. Party is not going to bear with Dodd and hope the same failed decoy strategy NJ works in CT. NJ proves a democrat funded fake   3rd party "independant" candidate will not split enough anti Dodd votes  away from the Republican challenger. It is already becoming common knowledge that Linda McMahon, who  poses  as a "tea party" independant,  is about as fake as a professional wrestling match.  Donating thousands of dollars to Rahm Emmanuel and hiring his hollywood brother Ari Emmanual as your pulblicity agent, the same agent employed by Michael Moore, shoots dead your credibility as an "independant" tea party patriot. I would look for a change in strategy from DNC party central command to read Dodd the retirment act and change their decoy McMahon into the official democrat nominee.



    • Dimsdale on November 12, 2009 at 8:18 pm

      Hmm.  That is interesting.  So McMahon is the CT version of Dede Scozzafava, and the Democrat party is making the same mistake that the Republicans did in NY 23.

       

      That tells us that both the Democrats and the Republicans are really in the self serving Politician Party.  More evidence that they ALL need to go.  Start from scratch.  The rule book (the Constitution) is still there.  We just need to hire people that will read it and apply it, not twist it and reinterpret it.



  2. donh on November 13, 2009 at 4:09 am

    Sort of. Linda Mcmahon is the NJ version of Christopher Dagget who's poll numbers collapsed at the end as people started to figure out he was a decoy set in the political waters by Corzine himself to peel votes away from Chris Christie. It was proven the Democrats were funding Dagget's robot calls. Notice how even Dagget's first name Christopher is confusingly similar to Christ Christie to help him cash in on the less informed voter. A woman Linda McMahon, was chosen by the DNC to be the  decoy candidate in CT 2010 races so as to cash in on the coat tails of Jodi Rell and split votes away from Rob Simmons.  However, the decoy strategy FAILED in NJ and Jodi Rell is no longer running so look for a change in the mix real soon.



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