The Hartford Courant has reported recent polling shows the popularity of Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) – described as a “fixture” on television news programs – appears to be fading.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Blumenthal, 76, with his lowest job approval rating, 45-43 percent, since being elected to the U.S. Senate nearly 12 years ago.
“Blumenthal’s popularity has dropped among an uneasy electorate as President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, suffers from sluggish poll ratings in both Connecticut and nationwide,” the Courant notes, adding that the senator and former state attorney general was not eager to comment on the poll’s results.
“Polls rise and fall,” Blumenthal reportedly said. “My focus is on fighting for the people of Connecticut and working as hard as I can on measures that help them.”
Blumenthal faces former state House Republican leader Themis Klarides (R-Madison), who won 59 percent of the convention delegates at the GOP convention.
Leora Levy, a fundraiser from Greenwich, and Peter Lumaj, an immigration attorney from Fairfield, remain in the race, each having received nearly 20 percent of the delegates.
According to the Courant, Klarides said in an interview “Dick Blumenthal has become a caricature of himself.”
“He’s known as the person who gets in front of the camera and jumps to every event,” she added. “But people want action from their elected officials.”
Klarides apparently named the “problems” voters are struggling with as high inflation, climbing gas prices, border chaos, and parental rights.
She did not, however, mention abortion. Family Institute of Connecticut observes that both Blumenthal and Klarides are pro-abortion, while Levy and Lumaj are pro-life.
DiNardo says abortion will impact CT elections, Candelora & Droney says it won't. Q-poll says 70% of CT supports parental notification, Stefanowski supports it. Lamont a Planned Parenthood donor, Blumenthal & Klarides pro-abortion, Lumaj & Levy pro-life. https://t.co/IJGjqXMmAi
— Family Institute CT (@FICAction) May 31, 2022
Nancy DiNardo, state Democrat chairwoman, stressed to the Courant no Republicans have been successful in defeating Blumenthal in the past.
DiNardo blamed the unprecedented inflation Americans are struggling with on the “war in Ukraine.”
“Sen. Blumenthal has had a long history of serving voters, and he has always addressed the issues that people care about — the economy, gun control, abortion,” she said, according to the Courant.
Journal Inquirer columnist Chris Powell asked Saturday in his piece whether Blumenthal could be beaten by a Republican who actually has something to say – probably an observation made by many Republican voters in Connecticut.
Powell: "The decline of the family and education sustains the Democratic Party's army…Lately Blumenthal may be best known as the most vehement advocate of unrestricted abortion…But can a Republican challenger press these issues?" https://t.co/przMYnJmhL via @journalinquirer
— Family Institute CT (@FICAction) June 5, 2022
Powell mentioned Blumenthal’s reputation as Connecticut attorney general of making “a show of bringing suit against every supposed fraud or mistake in the state or national marketplace.”
Since Blumenthal moved to the Senate, the columnist observed:
Indeed, for more than a decade as senator Blumenthal has waxed indignant almost every day about all sorts of little things without taking much notice of stupid imperial wars, the decline of the family and education, roaring inflation, and the conglomeration of the economy. He had political reasons to avoid the more important issues.
“Lately Blumenthal may be best known as the most vehement advocate of unrestricted abortion,” Powell asserted. “In this he has benefited greatly from journalism’s refusal to ask critical questions about late-term abortion and parental notification, letting the senator appeal to abortion fanatics while obscuring that his positions are contrary to the views of most of his constituents.”
In May, Blumenthal’s radical abortion legislation, euphemistically titled the Women’s Health Protection Act, was defeated in the U.S. Senate.
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) was the sole Democrat to vote with Republicans against the measure, which would have nullified all state pro-life laws, embedded abortion on demand – at any time during pregnancy, and for any reason – into federal law, and forced doctors to perform abortions even if the act violates their faith beliefs.
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Richard Blumenthal” by National Transportation Safety Board.
