Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Linda McMahon met Monday night for their third debate in the Connecticut Senate race, hosted by the local ABC affiliate — and they were joined by a raucous crowd.
Murphy, who felt that the booing was disproportionately directed against him, at one point remarked: “This is quite a crowd of supporters you have here, Mrs. McMahon.” For her part, McMahon later told reporters that there was “some booing on both sides.”
As the Associated Press reported, the audience interruptions got so out of hand that the event went into overtime and McMahon’s closing remarks were suddenly cut off during the live television broadcast, as the station switched to a rerun of “Law & Order.” When McMahon’s campaign complained after the debate, the channel rebroadcast both candidates’ closing arguments during its 11 p.m. newscast.
On the issues, McMahon said: “We have to get our people back to work. We have to cut spending. We have to invest in our energy policies. We have to train our folks for jobs that are available.”
By contrast, Murphy said: “We create wealth by investing in our people, by making sure that we have enough money to fund great schools, by making sure that we have job training programs that work, to make sure that we’re building infrastructures.”
The two candidates also attacked each other on their respective records — Murphy’s in Congress, and McMahon’s as former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.
“We don’t need another senator whose chief aspiration is a political career,” McMahon said.
For his part, Murphy attacked McMahon’s business record on WWE’s merchandising: “Linda McMahon does know something about free trade because when she had a chance to keep her manufacturing jobs in this country, she decided instead to outsource them to China.”
The PollTracker Average currently shows Murphy with a narrow lead, 48.3 percent to 45.7 percent, in a race where the polls have had a wild ride.
