Chris Murphy’s Difficult Week

Chris Murphy, relentless and brilliant campaigner, has been swamped by his Republican opponent during the first full week of his race for the U.S. Senate. We’ve just begun, but you’ve got to wonder what the Murphy campaign expected of Linda McMahon and her millions of dollars. There are months to go, for sure, but McMahon is showing she plans to play rough and spend big.

That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

The inside baseball storyline is the McMahon campaign’s strategy to bury the three-term Congressman in dubious questions about his character, but with little discussion about the issues. That’s why they don’t want any debates until late September. The next month is a walk-an-elephant-through-the-hole opportunity. When much of the state knows little about Murphy — and seemingly everyone knows the Linda-rags-to-riches story — the McMahon campaign knows getting ugly early is their path to victory in a dead-heat race. Look for those warm and fuzzy Linda ads to return, once she’s done tearing down Murph.

Who cares whether there’s any substance behind Linda’s “jobs” package when she’s able to turn the chatter to a debate about Murphy’s attendance record in Congress and whether you can even believe him at all. If you asked the average TV viewer about Chris Murphy today, what do you think the answer would be?

Spending $64 million on running for senate has brought Linda McMahon a remarkable achievement: when was the last time a Republican was beating a Democrat in polling for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut?