2010 Connecticut Primary: Loud Voices Despite Low Turnout

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- The Connecticut Primary voting turnout was surprisingly very low. Only 20 percent of voters turned out to have their voice heard. Despite the low turnout, the people of Connecticut seemed to be speaking loud and clear by choosing candidates who have strong backgrounds in business and not politics. The two major primary campaigns for the governor seat and the senate seat now have non-career politician front runners.

Linda McMahon won over Rob Simmons taking 48 percent of the votes. She spent a considerable amount of money on her campaign for the primary and there is speculation that this might be why she had done so well, but I'm not so convinced. Yes, Linda has been mailing out brochures discussing her views to registered Republicans like me every other week and postage can get expensive. She has even been running a ton of TV ads geared towards her issues, but she did something else that made her stand out above the rest, at least to me. She kept to the issues and didn't use negative ads to persuade voters. Simmons and Schiff did. They poked a lot of fun at Linda's prior job by airing certain segments of the WWE on the TV and web.

Another interesting race was between Malloy and Lamont. Lamont had spent three to four times more money on his campaign than Malloy did, however, Malloy won. His campaign was good and had union support. It also mostly stuck to issues. Malloy won with 58 percent of the vote. Lamont, though graciously congratulating Malloy for a good campaign, told Channel 8 News that he may not run again.

Mike Fedele, an actual favorite for the Governor race against Foley, fell short in the votes. He lost by a small margin of two percent. I believe that this was because of his negative campaign choices. I know I was getting tired of all the negative commercials and Fedele seemed to have the most. I actually decided to vote against him because of his negative ad campaign. It was a bit difficult for me to make this decision because I liked some of his views about cutting spending in Connecticut government, however, those issues were drowned out by all the negative ads he had against Foley, making it unclear to me where Fedele actually stood.

Foley tried to keep a positive campaign. He tried to stick to the issues and remained very diplomatic, even with his acceptance speech. His speech almost sounded like a State of the State address with undertones of Obama's speeches of change. Foley also graciously thanked his opponents for an energetic campaign, as well as, stating that he will look to Fedele for advice if he becomes governor.

The winners of the Republican side also took advantage of some good campaigning by speaking to the press quickly after their wins. Linda was the first to hold a press conference immediately after her win. She answered some tough questions geared towards the possible Democratic strategy of using her WWE background against her. Linda explained that these tactics did not work when her opponents used them. She actually gained popularity with this kind of negative campaign and I believe this is why she and so many other candidates won.

Negativity can sway people in a campaign, even though it's not the only deciding factor when casting a vote. For instance, Linda's views differ from the seasoned politicians and I like that. You can read those opinions in a previous article about the primary. No doubt this November will be interesting due to all of the non-career politicians running.

Sources:

Connecticut 2010 primary results