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Campaign Poll: McMahon Leads Shays By 19 Points in Primary Match.

Linda McMahon will enter the 2012 race for the United States Senate next week with a hefty lead over former Congressman Christopher Shays in the contest for the party’s nomination.  A Republican source familiar with the sample of 400 GOP likely primary voters conducted for the Greenwich Republican’s campaign tells Daily Ructions that McMahon beats Shays by 19 points in a head-to-head competition.

The 2010 Republican Senate nominee has maintained her popularity among party faithful, showcasing a favorability rating of 68%, while 24% view the professional wrestling mogul unfavorably.  Shays, who reveled in a reputation for criticizing fellow Republicans during his 11 terms in Congress, would enter the race, should he decide to make it, with a 46% favorably rating, while 27% of party members questioned seeing him unfavorably.  Twenty percent had no opinion of Shays, who left Connecticut for the Maryland shore after losing his 2008 re-election bid.

State Republicans are an unhappy lot; 91% say the country is on the wrong track.  There’s a broad consensus on the most important issue: 82% named the economy and creating jobs, issues that McMahon has been emphasizing in her crowded schedule of appearances around the state this year. Shays was most closely associated with campaign finance law and the war in Iraq during much of his tenure in Congress.