Simmons Weeps. Mrs. McMahon Smashes Through Her Glass Ceiling. Leads Murphy 49%-46% in Rasmussen Poll.

Confirming private poll results that have Connecticut Democrats fretting, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon edges ahead of Democratic rival Christopher Murphy in a Rasmussen survey released today. McMahon breaks through the low to mid-40s where she has long been stuck since October 2010. Insiders in both parties have been buzzing for days over campaign polls showing a considerable improvement for McMahon since she thumped Christopher Shays in their lopsided primary race and began taking aim at Murphy over the airwaves.

McMahon’s attacks on Murphy’s attendance record in Congress looks like a potent weapon that is free of ideology. Voters of every tripe think their elected leaders have an obligation to show up and participate in the mysterious doings of Congress. The Rasmussen poll could add to the accumulation of evidence for party strategists and members of the chatterati that Connecticut is in play in the fight for control of the Senate.

Not a good day for Democrat Murphy—or his most prominent Republican defender, Yankee Institute chairman and former U.S. Representative Rob Simmons, who McMahon vanquished in 2010.

UPDATE: Here’s Commentary’s always interesting Jonathan Tobin on today’s poll.