When she heard a plea from a powerful female Democrat to help prevent Linda McMahon from becoming Connecticut’s first female U.S. senator, Claudia Kay hit the phones — and helped widen one of this campaign season’s more curious gender gaps.
Kay was one of about a dozen women who dialed numbers for Democrat Dick Blumenthal’s campaign Sunday evening after hearing a pitch from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro at a Women For Blumenthal event in downtown New Haven.
The female-tailored event came on the heels of new polling data that showed women are the ones who have propelled Blumenthal past Republican McMahon in the race for Connecticut’s U.S. Senate seat.
Blumenthal, the state’s attorney general, is winning women by a whopping 31-point margin, according to a Quinnipiac poll this month. McMahon seeks to become the state’s first-ever female U.S. senator.
Just nine days before the Nov. 2 election, Kay joined 50 women and two dozen men in the basement of the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church on College Street for a rally for Democrats. While his opponent was singing and preaching for votes at two African-American churches, Blumenthal chose to tap into his base of voters — women and union affiliates, who hosted the event.
“Women are operational. They get stuff done,” declared DeLauro (pictured), who’s seeking an 11th term in Congress.
“There is so much at stake in this election, and particularly for women,” she said.
She proceeded to argue why this election means more for women’s economic security than any other.
(Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch.)
In an economic crisis, more women are becoming breadwinners for their families, she said. Washington needs to fight for equal pay for women, for strong domestic violence laws, and against privatizing social security, she argued. And if Republicans repeal President Obama’s health care reforms, it would strip women’s access to health care, she warned.
“We need your help, we need your energy, we need you to get on the phone and fight like Hell,” DeLauro urged.
New Haven State Sen. Toni Harp echoed her call from the dais. Two other female political leaders, East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon and New Haven Democratic Chairwoman Susie Voigt, cheered from the crowd.
In a brief speech, Blumenthal vowed to protect women’s right to choose an abortion, to strengthen the Domestic Violence Act, and to fight for women’s equity in health care and the workplace.
(Asked McMahon’s positions on these issues, McMahon spokesman Ed Patru offered this response: “Linda is of course opposed to workplace discrimination, and she ran a company in which many of the top executive positions were held by women. She obviously supports the Violence Against Women Act. Unlike Dick Blumenthal who married into money and has never spent a day worrying about his economic future, Linda has been bankrupt and she spent her life balancing a career with raising a family, so she understands firsthand the issues of concern among women.”)
Blumenthal Sunday warned that his opponent has spent $45 million on the race, and will likely spend millions more on attack ads in the next nine days.
“I have something money can’t buy,” he said, turning to the majority-female crowd. “I have you.”
“You are going to be the margin of victory,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal kissed the cheeks of a two supporters, then stood in the crowd as union organizers led a round of “Put The Car In D.” (Unlike McMahon earlier Sunday, he didn’t audibly sing.)
In a Q poll published two weeks ago, 66 percent of female likely voters said they have a favorable opinion of Blumenthal, compared to 48 percent for men. A majority of women, 55 percent, said they have an unfavorable opinion of McMahon.
Reached on the campaign trail in New Haven Sunday, McMahon said she’s skeptical about those numbers.
“I’m a little bit surprised by the polls. I don’t really have a theory on that. I’m not finding the pushback” from women when she campaigns. She spoke of events geared toward women where people “wait in line three to four deep” to take pictures with her. “Any place I go, I have great support from women.”
Blumenthal has sought to drive down McMahon’s popularity among women by linking her to the degradation of women in the business she co-founded, World Wrestling Entertainment.
Statewide Democrats have tapped into those sentiments by organizing a group called Mothers Opposing McMahon (MOM). The group aims to “give light to the graphic, steroid-fueled violence and sexually explicit WWE content marketed to kids under Linda McMahon’s watch as WWE CEO.”
“While McMahon profited, kids learned that it was okay to mistreat women, and that violence is acceptable behavior,” the group’s Facebook page reads.
From left: Sally Hill, Anne Sommer, Ann Altman, Rosa DeLauro.
“The whole business she’s in is exploitative,” agreed Ann Altman, a Hamden Democrat at Sunday’s rally (pictured chatting to DeLauro before her speech). Altman said Blumenthal has been a “wonderful attorney general.”
“The alternative,” she said, “is too terrible to contemplate.”
Sally Hill (at left in photo) called McMahon unqualified to serve in the Senate. “I haven’t seen anything she’s done for this state, ever.”
“I’m not impressed” with McMahon’s candidacy, agreed Claudia Kay, a City Hall retiree who lives in Beaver Hills. She said McMahon lacks the background and knowledge for the job. “She doesn’t even know anything about the minimum wage,” Kay charged.
Upstairs after the event, Claudia Kay sat down at a desk in the office of UNITE HERE Local 34, which rented the space and phone lines to the campaign for the evening.
Kay (pictured) said she hasn’t worked for a political candidate in the last 20 years. Five weeks ago, she got a phone call asking her to volunteer for Blumenthal’s campaign. She agreed. Her reasons echoed the argument DeLauro had made downstairs.
As a survivor of domestic violence, Kay said protecting women against abuse is “a very strong issue” for her. She raised her kids as a single mom. She said she supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion. She said Blumenthal will address issues that matter to people like her.
“I think that he will stand up for us,” she said. “I would like to see him win.”
Paul Bass contributed reporting.
Political party hacks following a big political hack with an agenda who issues statements as fact when they are based on pure speculation.