In Connecticut, Big Races on the Ballot - New York Times

Those are just some of the themes in play as voters in Connecticut head to the polls on Tuesday.

Connecticut residents are choosing a new United States senator and a new governor, along with a new attorney general, comptroller and secretary of state. They will also decide whether to re-elect the state’s five members of Congress, many members of the State Legislature and the state’s treasurer.

Democrats have historically fared well, but in a volatile year, with Republicans poised to make big gains nationwide because of anger over the economy, many political analysts caution that anything can happen.

Here is a summary of the major contests.

Senate

Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic nominee for the seat being vacated by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, has led in the polls over Linda E. McMahon, the Republican, in the most expensive Congressional race in the country. So far, Ms. McMahon, a former executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, has poured in $42 million, and Mr. Blumenthal an additional $6 million.

Mr. Blumenthal, the state’s attorney general, has been a popular figure for decades, but he stumbled after The New York Times reported that his claims about having served in Vietnam during the war were not true.

Even so, female voters, in particular, have been turned off by the sheer volume of Ms. McMahon’s advertising (one facetious billboard on Interstate 95 reads, “Linda: Because She’s Bought Everything Else!”) and by her ties to an unsavory industry. Small wonder, then, that Ms. McMahon has recently sought to soften her image, first with a minutelong advertisement in which she says, humbly, that “I’m running because I’ve lived through some of the same hardships many of you are facing,” then with an advertisement featuring her daughter.

Governor

Dannel P. Malloy, the Democratic nominee to succeed the departing Republican governor, M. Jodi Rell, has led in the polls against Thomas C. Foley, the Republican. Mr. Malloy was until recently the longtime mayor of Stamford and was closely associated with its revival. Even Mr. Foley, whose campaign headquarters are located there, acknowledged in his first televised debate with Mr. Malloy that Stamford was a great city.

In a race marked by few mistakes, Mr. Foley, a wealthy businessman, has remained within striking distance. He has outspent Mr. Malloy by almost two to one, mostly with his own money, and offered a business-savvy, cost-cutting pitch. He has benefited from concern among some voters over making Hartford, where the Legislature is controlled by Democrats, a one-party town.

Mr. Malloy has also been hurt, perhaps, by an issue on the minds of many Connecticut voters this year: the death penalty. The state has been riveted by the trial of Steven J. Hayes, who was convicted last month for participating in a home invasion in Cheshire, in which a woman and her two daughters were killed. Mr. Foley supports the death penalty, and for this particular case, so do most Connecticut residents. Mr. Malloy, a former Brooklyn prosecutor, opposes it.

House

Two seats that were recently claimed by young Democrats, swept into office by anti-Bush and pro-Obama sentiments, could return to Republican hands. Like so many Congressional races nationwide, they have become plebiscites on Washington.

In the state’s Fourth Congressional District, which is dominated by the suburbs of Fairfield County and the industrial city of Bridgeport, Representative Jim Himes, a freshman Democrat, is trying to fend off a spirited challenge from State Senator Dan Debicella. Mr. Debicella has sought to tie Mr. Himes to Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, while toning down his credentials in the Legislature as a conservative favored by groups that oppose abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Mr. Himes, meanwhile, has positioned himself as an independent, and supports a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which disproportionately affect his district.

In the state’s Fifth Congressional District, which covers the northwestern part of the state, Representative Christopher S. Murphy, a Democrat who won in 2006, is battling Sam S. F. Caligiuri, a Republican state senator who has benefited from a large infusion of advertisements from outside groups. Once again, the candidates have sparred over national issues like health care, the economic stimulus and debt.

In contrast to the relative civility of the Himes-Debicella matchup, this race has been nasty. One advertisement from Mr. Murphy that was eventually taken down tried to link Mr. Caligiuri to Philip A. Giordano, the former Waterbury mayor who is serving a 37-year prison sentence for sexually abusing two young girls.

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