Missed Votes Once Again An Issue in the CT Senate Race

By Daniela Altimari On October 12, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Linda McMahon’s less-than-consistent voting record was an issue in her 2010 Senate run and it has become an issue this year as well.

During their debate at UConn Thursday night, Democrat Chris Murphy accused McMahon of “hardly ever voting” after she once again criticized his attendance record at congressional hearings.

Asked about the remark afterward, Murphy said it was based on ”Linda McMahon’s own statements. In 2010, this was an issue against Dick Blumenthal and she admitted in that campaign to hardly ever voting. These are her own admissions as to the fact that she was very spotty in her voting.”

McMahon said the allegation that she habitually shirked her civic duty is categorically not true. “Over the last 12 years, I think I’ve missed one vote,” she said. “My recollection is I’m a pretty diligent voter.”

McMahon’s participation in past elections came up in September of 2009, just weeks after she entered the Senate race.

Writing on her on her blog at that time, McMahon says she’s sorry she failed to vote in the 2006 general election, the 2008 Republican primary and several local elections.

“I talk all the time about how important it is for people to vote. And it is. Yet, I haven’t always been the best example myself,” McMahon wrote at the time. “I regret it, I apologize, and I don’t make any excuses for it. I think it’s important that leaders be willing to step up and own their mistakes when they make them.”

What about Murphy’s voting record? His spokesman Eli Zupnick said Murphy has had “a consistent voting record,” though Zupnick said he did not have the records in front of him.

A check with town officials in Southington and Cheshire indicated Murphy voted in every election since 1999 (which is as far as the electronic records go.)

Included among those votes was a special election held on Feb. 22, 2011 to replace a state senator who resigned and a referendum on June 22, 2011 to allocate money for a covering for a municipal swimming pool, according to an employee in the voter registrar’s office in Cheshire, where Murphy lives now.

An election official in Southington, where Murphy lived previously, said he does not appear to have missed any votes in that community.

Murphy typically voted in person, though on three occasions — the Democratic primary in 2010 and municipal elections in 2007 and 2009 — he voted by absentee ballot.