Democrat Chris Murphy is challenging 24-year incumbent Repubican Nancy Johnson in this northwest Connecticut district. The Rothenberg Political Report, which initially declared the race "Republican favored," then "Leans Republican," has changed its classification of the Fifth District to be a "toss-up."
I apologize if this has already been blogged.
The press release on the Murphy website: http://murphyforcongress.org/...
As a resident of the Fifth District, I consider this great news for Democrats both in Connecticut and throughout the nation.
It appears that voters are beginning to see through Johnson's benevolent, grandmotherly image. Also, there has been a lot of press surrounding all the donations she has received from the pharmaceutical industry.
I met Johnson in person when she came to my high school in the spring, and came away scared. She rambled on for 30 minutes about the need to wage war against terrorists, especially through the wiretapping program (it was hot news at the time). She also attempted to convince the audience that wiretapping was OK by relating lengthy anecdotes about how much some of her acquaintances in various federal agencies love their jobs.
Johnson took one question (mine, about the aforementioned donations), proceeded to not answer it, and then continued talking about the war on terror until her time was up so that she wouldn't be confronted with any more questions. Afterwards, she told me that I shouldn't let her enemies "feed me information," but that it was good I was interested in politics.
Chris Murphy has a lot of momentum right now, and a Murphy victory this fall would be a huge pickup for the Democratic party.