In a poll of 500 Connecticut voters, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy would best all his Democratic and potential Republican opponents if the vote for U.S. Senate were held today. But the Frank Luntz poll shows 61 percent of Connecticut voters would consider former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays for the position.
Shays who lives in Maryland and has not formally announced his intention to run for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman would receive 40 percent of the vote to Murphy’s 42 percent.
Murphy would best Linda McMahon, who unsuccessfully ran for a Senate seat in 2010, with 52 percent of the vote to her 36 percent of the vote.
It’s unclear how Shays compares to other Republican candidates because there were no direct Republican to Republican questions asked in the poll.
Sources say Shays was in the field a few weeks ago polling to find out if he could possibly win enough support to bypass the convention and get on the Republican primary ballot. In 2010 McMahon surprised many by winning the support of the convention and besting former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, who decided not to run a primary campaign, but left his name on the ballot. McMahon went on to lose to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
The Luntz poll shows that In a head to head match-up against former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz McMahon would win 41 percent of the vote to Bysiewicz’s 49 percent. Shays receives 48 percent of the vote to Bysiewicz’s 37 percent. Murphy bests McMahon with 52 percent of the vote to her 36 percent.