Michael Regan

Just as they did during passage last spring and during the fall campaign season, Democrats and Republicans disagree about health care reform in the aftermath of last week’s election, Chris Cillizza says at the Washington Post. Democratic strategists say the reform bill was at worst a neutral factor in the minds of voters, noting that […]

Could under-reporting of the Latino vote have skewed political polls this year? That’s a real possibility, Nate Silverconcludes at FiveThirtyEight.com. Results from 15 statewide races in states with the largest proportion of Hispanics in the population showed that Democrats–who tend to be more heavily-favored by Latino voters–did better than projected in 10 of them. In Connecticut, Hispanics comprise […]

Even as they gave Republicans control of the U.S. House, nearly 60 percent of American voters said they expect the new majority will let them down, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll. That includes 37 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents, whose anger at Democrats is credited with putting the GOP in […]

Is there a lesson about women candidates in Linda McMahon’s loss?  If there is, it’s that “odd-duck female candidates make women voters as nervous as wacky men do,” says Emily Bazelon in Slate. Bazelon notes that women voters were overwhelmingly against McMahon in pre-election polls, surmising that McMahon’s WWE background is the cause. And despite some high-profile–not […]

The Connecticut Mirror is joining CT-N to provide live coverage of election returns starting at 7 p.m. tonight. Look herefor a listing of CT-N channel locations on local cable networks, or here to watch on-line.

Self-funded candidates aren’t having a very good year, David Levinthal says at the OpenSecrets blog of the Center for Responsive Politics. Of the 58 candidates for U.S. House and Senate who have contributed more than $500,000 to their own campaigns, more than half are out of the running even before Election Day. Others, like Republican Senate […]

When Sen. Chris Dodd leaves leaves office in January, the Senate is losing more than a 30-year veteran; it’s losing one of the 10 biggest egos in the institution, according to a survey of all 100 Senate offices by Slate.  The online magazine examined the public areas of the senators’ offices, tallying photos of the incumbent–particularly shots with […]

A new poll gives Republican challengers slight leads in the 4th and 5th Congressional districts, but the differences between the candidates are well within the margin of error. A survey that Merriman River Group conducted for CT Capitol Report has state Sen. Dan Debicella leading Rep. Jim Himes by 1.9 percentage points in the 4th, 48 percent to 46.1 […]

From the raucous crowd outside a U.S. Senate debate to a long-shot petitioning candidate running in a four-way General Assembly race in Eastern Connecticut, seven student journalists at the University of Connecticut have chronicled scenes from this years’ campaigns. Assistant professor Gail MacDonald sent them out on assignment and assembled their work in a blog.

Did her more harm than good: That’s Republican pollster and consultant Frank Luntz’s assessment of much of Linda McMahon’s advertising campaign. In a column for Time titled “Ad Nauseam,” Luntz illustrates one of his rules of for effective advertising–“Fake doesn’t sell”–with McMahon’s famous “Oh Yeah” girls ad. “The response from viewers: Oh, no. No actors. Ever.”

A new poll shows Democrat Richard Blumenthal holding an 8 percentage point lead over Republican Linda McMahon in their contest for the U.S. Senate, while incumbent Democrats John Larson, Joe Courtney and Rosa DeLauro have extended their margins over the Republican challengers in their Congressional races. A survey that Merriman River Group conducted for CT Capitol […]

A little-known group of doctors exercises a powerful influence on how much Medicare pays for more than 200 medical procedures, Joe Eaton reports at the Center for Public Integrity. It’s not a federal panel, but a committee of the American Medical Association. One of the more troubling results of the committee’s influence in setting Medicare rates, critics say, […]

A new Rasmussen Reports poll puts Democrat Richard Blumenthal ahead of Republican Linda McMahon 56 percent to 43 percent in their race for the U.S. Senate. The survey results are a significant improvement for Blumenthal from the last Rasmussen poll, released 10 days ago, showing him with a 5 point lead. A Quinnipiac poll taken about the […]

Just a little more than two weeks before Election Day, a new Rasmussen Reports survey shows Democrat Dan Malloy leading the race for governor by just four percentage points, equal to the poll’s margin of error. The poll was taken Oct. 14, right after the most recent debate between Malloy and Republican Tom Foley, and […]

A new Quinnipiac poll once again shows some ambivalence among Connecticut voters on the issue of capital punishment. Asked simply if they favor or oppose the death penalty for people convicted of murder, 65 percent are in favor, 23 percent against–similar to the results when Quinnipiac last asked the question three years ago. But offered the choice […]