Election 2010

SOUTHINGTON -- The Tea Party may have preferred the full-throated, anti-government zeal of Peter Schiff, but its adherents demonstrated Tuesday night they will accept Linda McMahon's milder brand of conservatism.

McMahon headlined a fundraiser for Tea Party organizer and Republican state Senate candidate Joe Markley, drawing 200 people who applauded a speech devoid of the fiery attacks on Washington that are a staple of many Tea Party events. Read more

The muted reaction to a former Republican national chairman coming out of the closet is a reminder that the culture wars can't compete with a stagnant economy.

"At this point in the election cycle, people have a lot more important things to worry about than Ken Mehlman's sexual orientation," said GOP state chairman Chris Healy.

As a top GOP strategist who managed George W. Bush's campaign, Mehlman once exploited the power of gay marriage as a wedge issue -- something that gay activists and politicians won't forget. Read more

NEW HAVEN -- Science and politics met awkwardly Thursday afternoon at a Yale forum on stem cell research promoted by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's campaign for U.S. Senate. Read more

WASHINGTON -- Chris Shays is not on the ballot in Connecticut's 4th Congressional District this year, but a Democrat in the race is channeling the former Republican congressman's persona. Read more

Democrat Dan Malloy had the biggest fundraising day in Connecticut history Tuesday as he collected $6 million in public financing for his campaign for governor.

But it is Republican Tom Foley who is poised to ramp up spending with a resumption of television advertising this week, an effort to close Malloy's double-digit lead in the latest poll. Read more

Rep. Kenneth P. Green, D-Hartford, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging his two-vote, recount loss in the Democratic primary to Matt Ritter.

Under the law, the case will go to trial within days. Hartford Superior Court Judge Susan Peck scheduled a status conference for Wednesday afternoon, with testimony to begin as early as Friday.

Green alleged procedural improprieties in a recount that turned his a two-vote primary night win into an equally close recount loss. He also claimed his opponent was supported by a dead voter. Read more

Even on a relaxed summer day, Dan Malloy is a candidate who occupies the narrow spaces between confident and cocky, energetic and edgy.

It is a more than a week after he crushed Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for governor, and Malloy is getting antsy. He is ready to go, to work.

"That's what I do," Malloy says with a shrug. He laughs and adds, "That's who I am."

The college kid who closely trailed the 55-year-old Malloy with a camcorder for the Lamont campaign is going back to Yale in great shape. Malloy lost 13½ pounds. Read more

With a new mailer and TV ad, Republican Linda McMahon has launched a double-barreled attack on the political image Democrat Richard Blumenthal has cultivated as a crusading attorney general over two decades.

The commercial and mailer portray Blumenthal as dishonest and, for the first time in his career, beholden to "special interests" that have contributed $480,000 to his U.S. Senate campaign.

• Blumenthal answers with a new ad.

  Read more

Minor party candidates stood on the State Capitol steps today before a small crowd to launch their campaigns and to ask they be invited this election cycle to debates with major party candidates.

"We are very much shut out of the debates and discussion," said Tim McKee, the spokesman for the Green Party, adding that 42 percent of registered voters in the state are not affiliated with any political party. "We want more voices and more choices." Read more