CONNECTICUT: Rep. Chris Murphy (D) leads Republican Linda McMahon (R) in the open race for the Senate 49-43% in the latest Quinnipiac poll.
HAWAII: The Mazie Hirono campaign is up with a new TV ad responding to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacks on them.
INDIANA: Richard Mourdock (R) at a debate yesterday for the crucial Senate race in Indiana: “I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
Mourdock’s post-debate statement: "God creates life, and that was my point. God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that He does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick.”
Mourdock in a post-debate press conference: “I mean God is the only one who can create life. Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think God ordained or pre-ordained rape? No I don't believe that. Anyone who would suggest that is, that's a sick and twisted; no, no that's not even close to what I said. What I said is God creates life.”
Lead of the Indianapolis Star: “Republican Richard Mourdock ignited a controversy over rape and abortion in Tuesday’s final Senate debate that lit up the internet and prompted GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to disavow his words.” More: “And by 10:30 p.m., Romney’s campaign was rejecting the words, if not the candidate. ‘Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock’s comments, and they do not reflect his views,’ said Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney’s campaign.”
MSNBC’s Michael LaRosa has more on yesterday’s Mourdock-Donnelly debate: “Both men stuck to familiar and often repeated lines of attack on their opponent. Mourdock painted Donnelly as a status-quo politician, a lackey of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, who compromised his principles in support of the president's health-care law, which Mourdock called the greatest intrusion on American liberty.
Donnelly cast Mourdock as a partisan extremist unwilling to compromise and work across the aisle if sent to Washington. Donnelly fashioned himself as a bipartisan moderate in the mold of Indiana's popular senior Senator Richard Lugar, whom Mourdock defeated last May. The two-term congressman frequently mentioned Lugar's name and their work to save Indiana's auto industry. Donnelly mentioned Lugar five times in last night's final confrontation with Mourdock.
