Blumenthal
HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) - Connecticut's longtime attorney general Richard Blumenthal is projected to narrowly escape his GOP opponent, Linda McMahon, to take the state's U.S. Senate seat.
The Associated Press called the race shortly before 8 p.m. in favor of Blumenthal. With 3 percent of the state's precincts reporting, he had 51 percent of the vote to 47 percent for McMahon.
Blumenthal will succeed fellow Democrat Chris Dodd, who retired his seat after almost 30 years.
Dodd had announced in early January that he would not seek election to a sixth term in the face of unfavorable poll numbers and a political climate increasingly hostile to Democrats.
The Connecticut Senate race has turned out to be one of the most publicized and most expensive Congressional races this election season.
In particular, the race has garnered national attention due to the high-profile status of both candidates.
McMahon, a Greenwich resident and Republican, made millions running the WWE with her husband, Vince McMahon, and is believed to have spent as much as $50 million on her first run for political office.
The Democrat Blumenthal, also a Greenwich resident, has a history of engaging in high-profile lawsuits as the state's attorney general.
He recently led an effort to pressure Craigslist to shut down its "adult services" section, alleging that it facilitates sex trafficking.
In the final month of the heated campaign, Blumenthal and other Democrats ran television ads accusing McMahon of being a bad CEO who didn't care about the welfare of her employees. Her critics also made an issue of steroid abuse in pro wrestling and the WWE's sometimes-raunchy shows.
Before being first elected as AG in 1990, Blumenthal also served in the state's General Assembly as a state representative and state senator. Prior to that, he was the U.S. District Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
He and his wife, Cynthia, have four children. He drew criticism earlier this year when it was uncovered that he did not serve in Vietnam during the war despite making claims that he had. Read more here.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by e-mail at jessica@legalnewsline.com.