UPDATE: In the 5th District, liberal State Sen. Andrew Roraback came out on top of a crowded primary field. He will seek to replace Rep. Chris Murphy, who won the Democratic Senate primary.
The most heated Republican primary in Connecticut ended with a victory for the more conservative candidate.
Linda McMahon, multimillionaire businesswoman and past head of the Worldwide Wrestling Federation, won another crack at the U.S. Senate. With near-final results in, the 64-year-old McMahon defeated former Rep. (1987-2008) Christopher Shays by a margin of more than 3-to-1.
McMahon???s win was significant in that the Nutmeg State, in contrast to most other states, has historically nominated the more moderate or liberal Republican.
Two years ago, McMahon spent $50 million of her personal fortune and lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal by a margin of 56 to 44 per cent. In defeating Shays (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 48 percent), McMahon campaigned as she did in 2010???as a ???fiscal conservative, and social moderate??????and suggested she would support the Medicare reform plan of vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan.
The most recent Quinnipiac Poll showed Democratic nominee and far-left Rep. Chris Murphy defeating McMahon by a margin of 46 to 43 percent statewide. In winning the GOP nod, McMahon is the first defeated GOP Senate nominee to be given another nomination since Prescott Bush. The father and grandfather of two U.S. presidents, Bush was defeated for the Senate in 1950 but rebounded to win the first of two terms in 1952.
