Chris Dodd

Poll Watch: Democrat Senator Chris Dodd in Trouble for 2010 Re-election Race

March 10, 2009 /
Chris Dodd

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., left, asks a question of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, not pictured, as the committee’s ranking Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., right, listens during the committee’s hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009

Yes, he is.

Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd continues to struggle in the eyes of Connecticut voters with a new poll showing the five-term incumbent in a statistical dead heat with his likely Republican challenger.

The survey, conducted by Quinnipiac University, shows former Rep. Rob Simmons (R) taking 43 percent of the vote to Dodd’s 42 percent in a hypothetical 2010 matchup — a danger zone for any incumbent, particularly a Democrat in a state as blue as Connecticut.

Inside the numbers, the prognosis isn’t much better. Simmons is winning the support of 15 percent of self-identified Democrats in the poll and independents are siding with the former Republican House member by a whopping 49 percent to 32 percent.

Dodd’s personal favorability ratings are also languishing with 46 percent expressing a favorable opinion about him and 45 percent feeling unfavorably. Compare those middling numbers to Dodd’s showing in Q polls from May 2007 (45 percent fav/31 percent unfav) and February 2007 (49 percent fav/30 percent unfav) and you see just how badly he has been hurt by his ties to the troubled mortgage lender Countrywide and his quixotic presidential bid.

The re-emergence of the national Republican Party may come in unanticipated places, like solidly blue states such as Connecticutt and perhaps New York.

But, corruption has sunk Chris Dodd and the GOP needs to exploit this pick up opportunity.

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