Off The Wire: Another Rought Stretch For Dodd

Another (or perhaps just the same, nearly year-long) run of not-so-hot coverage for Connecticut's senior senator this week, with a few selected articles/posts below for your review:

• Kevin Rennie at the Hartford Courant keeps swinging, with no signs of ever letting up, at what is left of Chris Dodd.
• The Connecticut Post editorial staff encourages Roger Pearson to jump into a Democratic primary against Dodd.
• Some Dodd advisor thought a good theme for his come-back attempt would be "Banking on Change." Brian Faughnan at RedState thinks otherwise.
• Megan McCardle at The Atlantic looks at this Op-Ed from the Augusta (GA) Chronicle and decides on what bothers her most about Chris Dodd.

Also, Lagomorph at The Next Right has a summary of a recent conference call with Republican candidate Rob Simmons.

Everybody Beats Dodd In Latest Q-Poll

The latest Q poll is out, and despite his seemingly endless repetition of the worn out "all I can do is my job" line and his protestations that he intends to run again, Chris Dodd and Democratic party leaders have some serious thinking to do.

The poll, released this morning, shows Dodd getting crushed in a match-up against Rob Simmons, 34/50, and losing to Sam Caligiuri 37/41 and to Tom Foley 35/43. Pretty incredible since 88 and 80 percent of voters don't even know enough about Caligiuri and Foley to have a favorable/unfavorable opinion. Had the pollsters asked, they probably would have found that the only Republican Dodd could beat was George W. Bush.

It will be interesting to see what part of these results is AIG-induced hysteria and fades away by the next poll, and how much is just voters realizing what they are stuck with for a senator.

Coverage of the results was everywhere and largely harsh. Here's what I got:

• Wall Street Journal
• Hot Air
• Politico
  
• Fox News
• CNN
• MSNBC
• CT Local Politics
• CT News Junkie
  
• American Spectator
  
• AOL News
  
• Swing State Project
• TPM
• 186k
  
• Examiner
  
• Roll Call (subscription required)
• YourPoliticsUSA
  

And from the left (I wade through the muck so you don't have to!):

• D-Kos
  
• MyDD
• HuffPo
  
• My Left Nutmeg
• D-Day
  

Kos Poll Shows Dodd/Simmons Still Tight

Research 2000's poll for Daily Kos shows Dodd up 45-40 on Simmons, with a 4% MOE. While a bit better for Dodd than the last Q poll, it is difficult to compare two different polls with different samples, different questions and different methodologies. In any event, these are still pretty poor numbers for a three decade incumbent. Dodd's favorable/unfavorable is +7 (13 no opinion), while Simmons' is +23 (41 no opinion).

Kos' analysis:

Dodd is the most endangered incumbent in the Senate at the moment. He has certain things going for him: he's got a famous name, formidable fundraising ability, and Connecticut is a Democratic-leaning state. On the other hand, he hasn't been battle-tested by a series of tough races, as Simmons has.

This will be the toughest race of Dodd's long career, and he'd better be up for the challenge. He's still slightly favored, but if he doesn't watch out be [sic] could end up like Elizabeth Dole.

Caligiuri appears to be a nearly-complete unknown; 82% have no fav/unfav opinion. Even so, Dodd barely breaks 50% against him, 51-30. That means there are a lot of people simply voting against Dodd, and not for his opponent, regardless of who it is. Good for the R's, not so much for Dodd.

Also, Rell retains an approval rating of over 70% and polls pretty well in hypothetical 2012 matchups against Lieberman and either Lamont or Blumenthal.

Coverage can be found at My Left Nutmeg, TPMDC, Hedgehog Report, Swing State Project (who downgraded the race to "Leans Dem"), and The Hill.

Rob Simmons To Appear On Face The State To Discuss His Potential Senate Challenge

Rob Simmons is scheduled to appear on Face the State tomorrow morning at 11:00 am on WFSB 3 talking about whether he will challenge for Dodd's senate seat next November, and the timeline for making his decision. Christine Stuart from CT News Junkie will also be discussing the potential Dodd-Simmons contest.

A brief clip from the show can be found here. Simmons is talking like a candidate if you ask me.