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Democrat Richard Blumenthal took his Republican opponent, Linda McMahon, to the mat Tuesday, winning election to Chris Dodd's Senate seat.
"To Mrs. McMahon and Republicans across the state: I welcome your help," Blumenthal said after McMahon conceded. "I urge you to look ahead and I will reach out to every person in the state of Connecticut, whether you were with me or not."
The WWE executive said told her supporters: "I have told him it was a good race and I have promised him my support," the Republican said in her concession speech. "I'm not going to fade into the woodwork.
I have truly spent the last 14 months loving every day.
I don't think we left any stone unturned in this race. We should all be very proud that we have made washington listen.McMahon stayed close to Blumenthal in the polls for much of the fall, coming within three points on Sept. 28. But at some point after the Oct. 4 debate, Blumenthal took a commanding lead, reaching double digits by mid-October and holding at 53 percent to 44 percent as of Monday.
McMahon's defeat may have come from a combination of voters' opinions of her character, and her campaign's oversaturation. In a Quinnipiac poll released Oct. 26, 51 percent of voters had an unfavorable opinion of McMahon while only 39 percent said they disliked Blumenthal. And in an earlier poll, 56 percent called her television ads more "annoying" than "informative," and 54 percent felt they were excessive.
One normally Republican voter in Fairfield said she started voting Democrat after the economy went south. But she also felt that McMahon's campaign swayed her vote toward Blumenthal even more.
"I particularly dislike Linda McMahon," she said. "It's just something that even a lot of my Republican-leaning friends feel. She has just a very unpleasant personality."
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