Obama & Murphy WIN Connecticut: Roraback Concedes, Esty Wins
Chris Murphy's Victory speech: "It's time to bring our men and women home from Afghanstan...we know when a child goes hungry, when a neighbor loses their home, that we have an obligation to step up and lend a hand...these ideas matter...and won this election"
Listen here: http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/11/06/listen-now-chris-murphy-delivers-victory-speech/
Linda McMahon's speech: Linda make a final plea to get the people of Connecticut back to work, reminding voters that it is "our responsibility to charge them to challenge them [our representatives] because they work for use. And, if we let them forget that, shame on us... and, I'm looking to be helpful in that regard"
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11:50pm In a gracious ending after a hard fought race, pre CT5th district - Roraback called on the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to work with Democrats.
“I’m leaving here with a smile on my face,” he said after thanking supporters and telling them he had “no regrets” and that “this has been the most amazing experience of a lifetime.”
11:40pm Roraback concedes to Esty
11:30pm AP results have Andrew Roraback 51% and Elizabeth Esty 49% http://cour.at/RTA7eO
11:17pm Esty Wins: CT 5th District calls the race for Elizabeth Esty 121,083 to 115,658 with all but Meriden, Plymouth and Woodbury reporting.
10:39pm Roraback - Esty too close to call
Roraback 41,706 53% to Esty 37,168 47%
9:26 I don't think many voters in Connecticut tonight are sad to see Joe go. Just too bad it wasn't 4 years ago. Alas, better late than never.
9:15pm Esty v Roraback Update: 26% reporting in Litchfield County and Obama and Romney are neck and neck: 49.9% to 48.6% respectively ... Roraback does not need Romney to take the county, but it certainly helps that the race is so split.
8:57pm Unofficial tallies are pointing to Roraback as the winner ...Remember that House Speaker Chris Donovan was set to win this seat, but was unfortunately forced to drop out of this race due to illegal actions of a member of his team. David Moffa pled guilty on Nov 2nd for conspiring to illegally funnel cash to Donovan's campaign. Donovan's an upstanding guy who would have won the primary hands down, and had a better shot at the taking the seat
8:51pm Roraback posed to win?! Obama now up in Litchfield but its anyones bet
8:47pm Grateful that I will not have to wear a WWE shirt tomorrow. Now, its time to start scouting out I'm a Crunchy Tree Hugging Liberal shirts for Aaron Simon and Chuck Steiner...send ideas my way ;)
8:44pm Truth be told Linda McMahon put up a damn good fight, and did better in this election than many would have expected from a Republican. She has proved herself to be an intelligent thoughtful politician and I wish her well on this evening.
Keeping Kicking them in the balls, Linda. Throwback Ad:
8:37pm Ok, so the state is Obama's for the taking. But, Romney is up in Litchfield County with 2% reporting. Roraback's got to be pumped!
8:31pm With 1% of the vote reporting, Obama wins Connecticut
8:28pm Esty v. Roraback are competing for Murphy's seat in the 5th district: Litchfield County. It's starting to look like Murphy is not going to regret giving up that seat to run for Senate...
8:25pm Early Poll Results for Hartford County: 89.8% for Obama
8:24pm Early polls results for CT: New Haven County, the first of eight, has reported their votes: 71.5% Obama
8:19pm No news from any of the CT candidates on Twitter yet. Gem from Twittersphere earlier today.
8:17pm 1338 votes reported with Obama taking 92%
8:08pm polls close at 8pm in Connecticut, but people still waiting in line will still be able to vote. no votes in yet, but HuffPo has the pollster read as "strong obama"
8:00pm Esty campaign setting up ... unclear yet whether they'll be twisting or shouting...
7:40pm Romney camp circultating internals, but not a peep from Connecticut.
Romney Internals:
Ohio - Obama +4
While many think of the good ol’ Nutmeg State as true blue, the state of Connecticut is currently home to two toss-up races:
Murphy (D) v. McMahon (R) for the Senate seat of Lieberman (I) Esty (D) v. Roraback (R) for the House seat of Murphy (D)
In the last 5 presidential elections, Connecticut has voted Democratic. In the last 20 polls, Connecticut has had President Obama beating Governor Romney by up to 15 points. In the last 20 years, Connecticut has not had a Republican Senator. And, Connecticut’s 5 house representatives are all Democrats.
However, Connecticut has a bit of an independent streak (for good and bad). Chris Shays was the only Republican member of the House from New England up until 2008. Connecticut had Republican governors from 1995-2010. And, Prescott Bush father to George H.W. Bush served as a Republican Senator from 1952-1963, so that has got to be worth something.
There are two open seats in Connecticut this election, and both have turned out to be surprisingly close elections. The all-mighty Cook Political Report has categorized both races as “Toss-Up”, which is not to be taken lightly. In the Senate race, Rep. Chris Murphy (D) is up by approximately +5.0 points, though Quinnipiac at the beginning of October had Linda McMahon (R) up by +1. In the House race, State Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D) and State Sen. Andrew Roraback (R) appear to be neck and neck.
Given the extremely close Presidential election and current breakdown of Congress, every Representative and Senator is going to significantly impact the shape of future public policy. A Republican President with a Democratic Senate will not be repealing the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, a Democratic President with a Republican controlled Congress will likely not be ending the Bush tax cuts.
