The Race in Connecticut's 5th Congressional District Many Connecticut fifth district voters have a sense of deja-vu this election season. After losing by less than 2,500 votes in 1998, Republican lawyer and former state Senator Mark Nielsen is once again trying to unseat Congressman Jim Maloney. Pundits assumed that once Vice President Al Gore nominated Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, the top of the ticket would give Maloney a distinct advantage.
Polls suggest that the Democratic ticket is strong in the state.
In a poll released by the same organization on May 13, before Lieberman was nominated, the two candidates were in a dead heat, with each attracting about 40 percent of the vote. But when it comes to polls for the fifth district Congressional race, even they are disputed by the candidates. On September 26, Nielsen released the results of an internal poll reporting that he was trailing Maloney 44 percent to 33 percent with 19 percent still undecided. Maloney quickly denounced Nielsen's poll, sighting an internal poll the Democrats released 6 weeks prior to Nielsen's in which Maloney led Nielsen 53 to 28 percent. While the lack of independent polling makes it difficult to ascertain how close the race is, the amount of money the candidates are spending on the campaign points to a race whose outcome is far from certain.