October 24, 2006
DCCC To Pop Eyes With New CT 04 Buy?
CT-4 Democrat Diane Farrell is ahead of where she was two years ago at this time when she was on her way to a narrow loss to incumbent Chris Shays. On Saturday, Farrell gave the Democratic response to the president’s weekly radio address. She followed that up with a more practical achievement when her campaign got Green Party candidate Richard Duffee to withdraw his name from the ballot before the deadline allowed by state law.
And the best news yet for the former Westport First Selectwoman: the DCCC is about to drop “an eye-popping” amount into the Farrell race. She’ll need it, as Shays, a doyen of campaign finance reform, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more than Farrell, who lost the 2004 race by 14,000 votes in one of the nation’s most affluent districts. [KEVIN RENNIE]
The cash infusion for Farrell may allow her to mount a considerable effort in New York media time, always a big step for ambitious Connecticut candidates. The added push comes as a Hartford Courant poll today shows Farrell pulling even with Shays on the power of discontent with the war in Iraq and added support from independent voters, usually a Shays bulwark.
Other Democrats in the state may be fading in the final stretch. There’s been no mention of added support for the state’s other two Democratic challengers, Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy. Murphy, who is lagging behind ferocious incumbent Nancy Johnson in fundraising and expectations, was surprised to find that all state television time is sold. That may have something to do with the Lieberman and Lamont race, which will smash all previous records by reaching $30 million, most of that on television. A number of the campaigns with cash bought space in the summer for these two critical week, leaving Murphy and others with few easy ways to reach large chunks of voters.
Posted at 04:36 PM
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