Despite revelations about his service during the Vietnam War, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is leading Republican Linda McMahon by 17 percentage points in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.
The question about Blumenthal's Vietnam service has been the biggest development in an expensive campaign battle between the well-known attorney general and the wrestling entrepreneur. In mid-July, however, the U.S. Senate campaign seems to be taking a more low-profile, mid-summer flavor as the five candidates clash in the governor's race.
That has included an ongoing court battle involving all three Republican candidates for governor regarding public financing of political campaigns, which will continue Tuesday with oral arguments at the State Supreme Court in Hartford.
Read the Quinnipiac University poll here.
Blumenthal, who has served as attorney general for nearly 20 years, had a 20-point lead over McMahon in a previous poll.
McMahon and Blumenthal had dominated the airwaves for weeks with numerous commercials, but gubernatorial candidates Michael Fedele and Dannel Malloy have recently received public funding for their campaigns - thus allowing them to broadcast television commercials. They have joined Greenwich millionaires Ned Lamont and Tom Foley on the air. Foley is known for a commercial in which a small and then larger red can is kicked down the road - showing that state officials have pushed off their problems to be solved on another day.
McMahon is expected to spend as much as $50 million of her own money on the campaign, and she has mailed numerous political brochures to Republican households in recent months to spread her message. She won the Republican Party's convention endorsement in May, which prompted former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons to drop his active campaign. Simmons, however, has kept his name on the ballot for the August 10 Republican primary as some Republicans have urged him to get back in the race. But Simmons has made no moves to re-start active campaigning.
McMahon is facing petitioning candidate Peter Schiff in the primary, but the two combatants have not squared off in a debate. Schiff, a nationally known money manager who lives in Weston, has been calling for a debate in the final weeks of the campaign.
(Photo of Blumenthal with war veterans at a West Hartford VFW hall by Michael McAndrews / Hartford Courant)