As is usually the case, voter registration swells in the weeks before a presidential election. Bridgeport, Connecticut’s most populous city, has 44,229 registered Democrats, 4467 registered Republicans and 19,530 registered unaffiliated. What happens in Bridgeport Nov. 6 could be a deciding factor in the U.S. Senate battle between Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Linda McMahon with multiple polls showing a dead heat. Both camps, each with campaign operations in Bridgeport, are working city voters.
Murphy is working it to run up the largest plurality as possible. McMahon is working it to pick off unaffiliated voters to keep down Murphy’s margins. In campaigns winning is relative. Depending on what goes on in the rest of the state, a city vote percentage of close to 30 percent for McMahon would complement the Republican’s expected gains in suburban and rural communities. Four years ago in the Barack Obama city tsunami that helped carry Democrat Jim Himes to victory over Republican Congressman Chris Shays, 59 percent of registered voters turned out, including thousands of new voters. Shays received about 20 percent of the vote. Until 2008, Shays had never performed lower than 30 percent in the city in his 20 years in Congress. Was it one and done for those new voters energized by Barack? Or will they vote again?
Murphy, in particular, cannot afford a breakdown in Bridgeport turnout. The Murphy and McMahon campaigns are throwing verbal bombs multiple times per day with scorched-earth radio and television spots dominating airwaves. The candidate who finds a way to break out from the static to explain what he/she will do in Washington probably wins this race. By the way, do you know what either one of them will do?
From Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill:
Hartford: Secretary of the State Denise Merrill today reminded eligible voters in Connecticut that voter registration deadlines for the November 6, 2012 presidential election are fast approaching. Voters who want to register by mail must have their registration cards postmarked no later than Tuesday October 23rd and the final deadline to register to vote in-person at town or city offices is Tuesday October 30th. Secretary Merrill is also reporting that the number of registered voters in Connecticut continues to rise, with another 40,000 new voters registering since the voter registration report on September 25th and more than 130,000 new voters registering so far in 2012.
“For all of the campaigning that has taken place in the last year, there remain just two weeks to register to vote in Connecticut before this crucial Presidential election, and I urge every eligible voter: don’t sit on the sidelines. Register now so your voice can be heard on November 6th,” said Secretary Merrill, Connecticut’s top elections official. “The leaders we choose to serve us in Hartford and Washington, D.C. will have great impact on our state and country for years. We have many competitive races, and every vote is going to count in 2012. If you are not registered, you must put your forms in the mail by next Tuesday October 23rd. You have until the following Tuesday October 30th to register in-person at your town offices. Time is running out to register, so I encourage everyone concerned with the direction of our country and our state to register to vote now so you can cast a ballot on November 6th.”
Secretary Merrill also reported today that the total number of registered voters in Connecticut is 2,026,137. The largest group of registered voters in Connecticut is unaffiliated, accounting for 842,335 voters. There are 744,729 registered Democrats and 422,312 registered Republicans. (A complete list is attached.)
Since the beginning of this year, at least 130,586 Connecticut residents have become newly registered voters. Of those, there are 45,625 new Democrats, compared to 23,379 new Republicans and 58,310 new unaffiliated voters.
Secretary Merrill urges any U.S. citizen aged 18 or over to go online at www.sots.ct.gov to find out if they are registered to vote, download voter registration forms, find out where their polling place is located, or download an application for an absentee ballot if they will be out of town or physically unable to be in their polling place on Election Day Tuesday November 6, 2012. Polls will be open that day from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. statewide for the Presidential election.
Hmmm I think Obama is going to have a strong young base coming out for him in Bpt. If you follow twitter and Facebook as I do many youngsters have been networking and from what I have seen on my fb list tons of young people are supporting Obama. Social networking is playing a big part in this election. Wow 59% people turned out in Bpt in 2008 wow usually you are lucky to break 10% in the city. I expect more than half of the voters in Bpt to vote 55 to 60 percent turnout and Murphy wins with a plurality of 20,0000 at least. I will cast my ballot for Obama Murphy Himes and Auden.
Hopefully we won’t have one person checking in 2291 people at Black Rock school like 2008.
Bridgeport has to understand McMahon cannot possibly survive in the Senate’s Republican caucus spouting her recent independent-thinking statements like supporting medicare rather than turning it into a voucher program; supporting social security rather than privatizing it into Wall Street investments; supporting food stamps rather than defeating the Farm Bill where the food stamp program funding comes from; allowing children to be on their parents health insurance until they are 26 and making sure women have access to contraceptives and choice rather than eliminating the Affordable Health Care Act.
McMahon is pandering, saying what moderates and unaffiliates want to hear; but in reality she is running as a Republican. If she were running as an Independent then this wouldn’t be an issue but as a Republican she will be become what Maine’s Senator Olympia Stone became, excluded from the potential leadership circle; Senate Republican ‘Siberia.’ Not conforming to the Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s Republican platform will mean McMahon will be put on committees that will not help Bridgeport. She will not be able to be influential in the caucus where Bridgeport’s issues matter. Bridgeport, it is critical Murphy carries the day on election day.
countdown,
Your anti-McMahon sentiment seems a bit shrill and typical of the tired and hackneyed Democrat rants about Repubs wanting to throw grandma off the cliff, starve children, pollute water, etc.
Here’s the reality as I see it in CT … Both candidates are lousy, particularly Murphy who is only capable of living off the public teat.
But that’s what you get in essentially one-party CT. Either hacks like Murphy or rich guys like Blumenthal and McMahon who want to buy an election.
That being the case, let’s give McMahon a try. She cannot be any worse than Murphy or Blumenthal.
I have been unaffiliated for most of my voting life. I did change my party registration to Democrat for the last couple of years for the Malloy and Foster campaigns but now I am back to being unaffiliated. This November I am voting for Murphy. I agree with the issues countdown raised. It is naive to think McMahon could vote outside the Republican platform. I don’t want to experiment as the federal fiscal cliff hits. Senate Republicans are going to have to march to Mitch McConnell’s marching orders. Or be sent to the doghouse.
It’s the same Doghouse on the Dem side with Harry Reid. Partisanship and rancor are equal.
An empty-suit Murphy or a self-absorbed, very accomplished businesswoman McMahon …
Don’t we have enough empty suits in DC? If we keep sending dopes down, we get the same results.
I’m going with Barack’s Hope & Change for 2012!
*** When it comes to voter participation in Bpt, you always hope for the best but expect the worst, no? ***
Denis OMalley,
You are right regarding the same applies to Harry Reid. Only I do want those positions McMahon says she supports to actually become law and funded. Those positions are not in the Republican Platform. They are in the Democratic Platform. Just look at food stamps for those who have been out of work a long time or extending the unemployment benefits for the 99-week folks who can’t find a job. Those two issues are in the Democratic Platform. Mitch McConnell will not permit McMahon to vote in favor. If she did her chances of choice leadership committees are taken away and by extension from Bridgeport.
By the way I don’t think Murphy is an empty suit. There was a groundbreaking for 74 units of Veterans Housing last week. That development wouldn’t have happened without Murphy, Blumenthal and Larson. He was also instrumental in the 22-unit Merton Homes development on Madison Avenue in Bridgeport. Sorry I respectfully disagree. Murphy is not an empty suit.