Sen. Richard Blumenthal battles declining approval ratings in Connecticut in contentious election year

For decades, Democrat Richard Blumenthal has ranked among Connecticut’s best-known and most popular politicians.

Whether battling rising utility rates or high prescription drug prices, Blumenthal is a fixture on the television news — standing at the podium or right behind it as he appears repeatedly on screen with consumers and advocates.

But this year is different. Blumenthal’s popularity has dropped among an uneasy electorate as President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, suffers from sluggish poll ratings in both Connecticut and nationwide.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Blumenthal with his lowest approval rating since being elected to the U.S. Senate nearly 12 years ago. The latest survey showed 45% of registered voters approve of his job performance, while 43% disapprove. Among the all-important independent voters, Blumenthal’s numbers were under water with 41% approving and 44% disapproving.

A longtime student of politics, Blumenthal, 76, has been winning statewide elections for the past three decades and watching polls even longer.

But he declined to talk in detail when questioned about his low approval ratings.

“Polls rise and fall,” Blumenthal said when asked by The Courant. “My focus is on fighting for the people of Connecticut and working as hard as I can on measures that help them.”

Asked again about the polls, he responded, “That’s really all I’m going to say.”

Blumenthal’s sagging ratings come during a highly contentious election year when Republicans say they have the wind at their backs in the mid-term elections — when the party out of power traditionally picks up seats in Congress and state legislatures.

Blumenthal is facing three Republicans who are battling in an Aug. 9 primary for the right to compete in November’s election. Former House Republican leader Themis Klarides of Madison won 59% of the convention delegates at the recent party convention, while Greenwich fundraiser Leora Levy and Fairfield immigration attorney Peter Lumaj won about 20% each.

A poll by Emerson College for News 8 showed Blumenthal 10 points ahead of Klarides and 16 points ahead of Levy and Lumaj with a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

After decades in public life, Klarides says, some Connecticut voters have grown tired of Blumenthal.

“I just think that some people eventually wear out their welcome before they realize it’s been worn out,” Klarides said in an interview. “The bloom has been coming off that flower for several years now. I don’t think it was an overnight issue. ... Dick Blumenthal has become a caricature of himself. He’s known as the person who gets in front of the camera and jumps to every event. But people want action from their elected officials.”

Voters, she said, are facing a wide variety of problems that have still not been resolved, including the highest inflation rate in 40 years, rising gasoline prices, controlling the borders, cutting off the supply of deadly fentanyl and taking control away from parents.

“Dick Blumenthal is the Joe Biden of Connecticut, effectively,” Klarides said. “He votes with him almost 100% of the time, and it’s those policies that have led us to all these problems, and that’s where I’m different. ... Joe Biden is digging his heels in, and Dick Blumenthal is standing right there next to him as his wingman, saying, ‘I agree with what you’re doing.’”

For decades, highly popular politicians have eventually lost elections after long careers. Those include New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and New York City mayor Ed Koch, who dominated politics in their heyday before losing to lesser-known opponents. Lowell Weicker Jr. won multiple elections in Connecticut before losing in the 1988 U.S. Senate race to up-and-coming Democrat Joe Lieberman.

Political observers across the country were stunned when U.S. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle lost his seat in 2004 after three terms to now-Sen. John Thune in a major upset. In New York City, longtime U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley was defeated by an upstart Democrat named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has since become a national figure.

“The combination is he’s been in too long, and people are really sick of him,” Klarides said of Blumenthal. “And the fact is that the economy and people’s lives are not better — they’re worse. And when you put those two things together, that oftentimes turns into a perfect storm with the right opponent.”

But state Democratic chairwoman Nancy DiNardo said that many other Republican candidates thought they could defeat Blumenthal in the past and have not been successful.

“Because of the war in Ukraine, people are really concerned about inflation and the economy, and of course, in a poll, they think of it as the incumbents who are doing that,” DiNardo said in an interview. “Sen. Blumenthal has had a long history of serving voters, and he has always addressed the issues that people care about — the economy, gun control, abortion. He’s accessible to the residents.”

While the candidate with the most money does not always win, fundraising is a crucial factor in politics. In the current race, Blumenthal holds a wide lead with $8.2 million in cash on hand as of the most recent public filing period in mid-April. Levy and Lumaj both had about $450,000 on hand, while Klarides had $392,000 after they all spent money on their pre-convention efforts. Simsbury landscaper Robert Hyde, a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, is attempting to collect more than 9,000 signatures by June 7 in an effort to qualify for the primary ballot.

History on his side in blue state

Historically, Blumenthal has been an electoral and fundraising powerhouse in Connecticut politics for decades, often winning easily.

Some races were blowouts, including a victory by 50 percentage points for reelection as state attorney general in 2006 over Robert Farr, a West Hartford Republican who was well-known at the time in the state legislature.

In his most recent Senate race in 2016, he defeated Republican Dan Carter by 28 percentage points. In the toughest battle of his career, Blumenthal defeated professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon by 10 percentage points in 2010 after she spent $50 million in an attempt to capture the seat — making some Democrats say that if McMahon and her money could not beat Blumenthal, then no one could.

Since breaking into the statewide spotlight in 1977 after being nominated by President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, Blumenthal has been a constant presence in political life for decades. He won elections in both the state House and Senate in the 1980s, then served 20 years as state attorney general before reaching the U.S. Senate.

A household name in the state, Blumenthal has appeared on television screens over the past 30 years even more often than governors, who generally hold statewide office for much shorter periods. No other Connecticut candidate has won as many statewide races since 1990 as Blumenthal.

But state Republican chairman Ben Proto agrees with other Republicans that Blumenthal has been in office long enough.

“There comes a time when it’s time to leave or you’re removed from the stage,” Proto said in an interview. “It’s time for Dick to leave the political stage. The polls show he’s lost whatever popularity he had. Dick has always been a liberal, but he’s become a crazy, radical, left-winger.

“This is a guy who has held office since the 1980s, and the best he can do in a poll is 50%. He’s in trouble.”

Political analysts have warned that the three Republicans could hurt themselves by blasting each other throughout June and July, leaving them with little money for TV commercials when they wake up on the morning after the Aug. 9 primary. While Blumenthal will likely be criticized by Republicans on a daily basis for months, the candidates still need to boost their name recognition to compete against an opponent who has been in the public eye for the past four decades.

“I think he has done a phenomenal job — both as attorney general and now as senator,” DiNardo said. “The election is kind of far away. As we get closer, we will see that people will recognize what Sen. Blumenthal has done for Connecticut, and they will be happy to support him. I’m confident that he will be OK.”

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.