Women Speak. Again

Linda McMahon showered Connecticut’s women with professions of solidarity. They still didn’t trust her — so they handed the U.S. Senate seat she coveted to a man for the second time in three years.

McMahon ran the most expensive campaign in state history, and one of the most expensive ever in America, to try to capture Connecticut’s open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday. She lost anyway. Decisively. Her Democratic opponent, Chris Murphy, was declared the winner within moments of the polls closing.

McMahon lost because her $40-plus million makeover failed to convince women to trust her.

In investing well over $40 million for a second shot at the Senate, McMahon knew sisters were the prize. They sank her first $50 million-backed quest for a U.S. Senate seat in 2010: She narrowly won the male vote, by 4 percentage points. But women voted for her opponent, Democrat Dick Blumenthal, by 19 percentage points, handing him an easy overall victory. (Read about that here.)

So this year McMahon focused her advertising and public events on connecting with women. She presented herself as an ​“independent pro-choice woman” who overcame obstacles to succeed in business and is ​“just like” them. You’d have to have spent the summer and fall in an underground cave not to have heard that message enough times to recite it in your sleep.

For a while it seemed to work: Women-centered events created a buzz. McMahon stayed even or even a little ahead of Democratic opponent Chris Murphy in polls into Labor Day, propelled by improved ratings among female voters.

Then women ditched her again.

By late October, women were favoring Murphy by an astonishing 18-point margin in a UConn poll, and by 14 points in the final Quinnipiac University poll. College-educated women in particular were turned off by the empress of World Wrestling Entertainment: they backed Murphy 55 to 28 percent. Murphy’s campaign hit hard on McMahon’s support of the Blunt Amendment, which would have allowed employers to refuse to pay for contraception as part of employee health care plans. Prominent pro-choice women, chief among them New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, hit the trail for Murphy. DeLauro was ubiquitous. Early estimates after Tuesday’s polls closed had Murphy besting McMahon by some 15 points among women.

What happened?

Women trust McMahon less than men do, said Douglas Schwartz director of the Q poll.

The Q poll found a little bit of a gender gap when it came to McMahon’s wrestling empire, he said. As one female voter put it Tuesday at Hillhouse High School, ​“I would love to support a woman,” but ​“I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Vince McMahon’s wife.”

Women also ​“like her less” than Murphy, according to the Q poll.

But the biggest gap came in the answer to this question: Whether voters feel McMahon’s campaign is ​“saying things it believes to be true” or ​“intentionally misleading people.” The trust question. Men barely weighed in with ​“intentionally misleading,” by just four points. But women said ​“misleading” by a whopping 55 – 34 percent. (In New Haven, early returns showed Murphy clobbering McMahon apparently among all voters, by more than 7 – 1.)

On election day, some women did respond to McMahon’s message — and pulled the lever. But not enough. In the end, the women spoke again at the polls. And they spoke to our reporters, demonstrating how McMahon’s precedent-setting advertising blitz did and didn’t produce a return on investment. Following are some samples from dozens of conversations with female voters at the polls Tuesday:

They Were Convinced

Debra Green (at left in photo with Murphy supporter Marisel Rivera) of Maltby Street in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood responded to two McMahon pitches — the ​“caring” pitch to women and the ticket-splitting pitch to African-Americans. She came to the polls to vote for Obama for president and McMahon for senator. ​“I know her husband [WWE partner Vince McMahon] is crap. But she’s alright. … I know she’s very caring. I know Obama is.” Chris Murphy? ​“I don’t really know anything about him,” Green said.

Barbara Ginger (left in photo) of Fair Haven Heights, administrator of Pilgrim Congregational Church: Though a Democrat, she voted for McMahon ​“just to get a different view, shake it up a little bit. My husband works for Sikorsky. With Obama cutting down the military, that puts us down. We should support the military.”

Martha Adinolfi (at right in photo) of Fair Haven Heights: ​“I think [Murphy] is lazy. [McMahon] is for women. She has different ideas. I don’t like Murphy. He doesn’t do half the stuff he says. Linda goes out there and gets everything. … I’m tired of the mud-slinging. I’m glad everything it’s over.”

Aileen Boucher, a business owner and a Democrat from the town of Farmington: ​“I like that Linda hasn’t been in politics for the past 12 years. Murphy hasn’t gotten much done. She has a privileged life now but hasn’t in the past … I don’t buy that she’s not for women.”

They Weren’t Convinced

Alice Rosenthal (pictured with son Julius Bloom at New Haven’s Edgewood School): ​“She represents big corporations, big money, and everything I don’t like. Her campaign was really nasty.”

Physician Aileen Gariepy of New Haven’s Westville neighborhood identified abortion rights as her top voting priority — and wasn’t swayed by McMahon’s ubiquitous ​“independent pro-choice woman” ads. She called that slogan a ​“disingenuous” rebranding of McMahon’s previous stance; she said she voted for Murphy.

Sharon Milikowsky, a ​“semi-retired” librarian from New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood: McMahon tried to ​“buy an election,” lacks credentials, and wouldn’t end up a moderate voice for women’s issues in Washington. ​“The bottom line is, even if she says she’s pro-choice and pro-women, she’d vote with the Republicans when she got there. I don’t think she’d be the lone Republican voice voting for women.”

Lifelong Democrat Alina Mevins, 27, a computer-fixer at Yale who voted at New Haven’s Wilbur Cross High School: McMahon is ​“selfish” and ​“out for the rich.” Murphy ​“seems like a much more genuine” person.

Aliecia Winfrey, who is 46, cast her ballot with her first-time voter son at Lincoln-Bassett school in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood, for Murphy. McMahon is ​“not for the people.”

Kisha Pullen voted at Lincoln-Bassett with her family: ​“I just can’t see McMahon in the Senate. I only know her with wrestling. She just came out of the blue.” Murphy? ​“He’s cool.”

Ebony White, who’s 28 and works at Burger King, said she voted for Murphy ​“because I’m in the lower class.” Asked to describe McMahon, White could say only, ​“I don’t know.”

Joyce Lange of the town of Windsor (pictured with husband Walter): ​“If I ever have to see another ad of hers again, I’ll screech.”

Melissa Bailey, Thomas MacMillan, Gwyneth K. Shaw, Allan Appel, Marcia Chambers, Christine Stuart, and Hugh McQuaid contributed reporting to this story.