Murphy wins U.S. Senate race

Democrat Chris Murphy will become Connecticut's newest U.S. senator.

According to unofficial figures, Murphy received about 53 percent of the vote to McMahon's 45 percent.

For the second straight election Connecticut Democrats celebrated the fact their candidate -- in this case Murphy -- had beaten back millionaire Linda McMahon's self-funded campaign for U.S. Senate.

"Tonight we proved that what matters most in life is the measure of your ideas, is the measure of your determination, is the measure of your friends, not the measure of your wallet," Murphy said to the thunderous applause of his supporters, taking the stage shortly after 10 p.m.

Murphy's staff said McMahon called to concede around 9:50 p.m.

"One hundred million and nothing to show for it," former state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, said after the race was quickly called for Murphy about a half hour after the polls closed.

Just before 10 p.m. Democratic leaders -- U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy -- gathered on the stage at the Hartford Hilton to introduce Murphy.

"From election to election we as Democrats need to understand what this is about is our family coming together and deciding that no one could buy us out," Malloy told the cheering group.

McMahon, whose family owns Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment, spent $50 million on her losing bid in 2010 against Blumenthal and was close to sinking an equal amount into this year's campaign.

"It speaks volumes about the sophistication of the Connecticut electorate," McDonald said.

First returns had Murphy well ahead of McMahon. With only 21 percent counted, the six-term 5th District congressman led with 139,070 votes to her 114,439.

Murphy's victory came after McMahon spent the summer hammering him with negative ads while trying to improve her own image with the voters that turned her away two years earlier.

And for a while the strategy worked. Democrats freely admitted they were more concerned about Murphy than Blumenthal because he did not share the latter's name recognition.

Blumenthal was a 20-year veteran of the Attorney General's office when he faced McMahon, and even then there were moments that it appeared his political career was in jeopardy.

As she did with Blumenthal, McMahon identified potential weaknesses for Murphy and used her army of campaign consultants to fan them into potential scandals. She hammered away at Murphy's attendance record in Congress and at missed mortgage and tax payments from when he was still serving in the state legislature.

Reliably blue Connecticut was suddenly being rated a toss-up state by political observers.

But then the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, organized labor and others came to Murphy's aid, bolstering his own resources and giving him the opportunity to begin introducing himself to voters.

Murphy also had solid performances in his four televised debates with McMahon. And by late summer and early fall he began to pull away from McMahon in the polls.

Blumenthal during a campaign stop with Murphy in New Britain Tuesday acknowledged McMahon's rise, then gradual fall, was similar to what happened during their race.

"I think there is a limit to the effect of excessive negativity ¦ That lies and distortions have a limited shelf life when they're done to excess (and) they are exposed for what they are with the truth," Blumenthal said.

"Her high point has always been when she launched a deluge of distortion and deception and then there was an opportunity to rebut it," Blumenthal said. "A little bit like a trial, after the plaintiff presents a case, the jury may think, wow, that's overpowering. Then they hear the other side. And I think that's what happened here. Plus, just the excess. Too much. People are sick of the ads."

John Olsen, head of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, during the celebration at the Hilton Tuesday, believed the fact McMahon's ads were almost on constant rotation during storm coverage of Hurricane Sandy hurt her.

"I think the storm hurt her pretty badly. All you saw was negative, negative, negative ¦ She had too much money," Olsen said.

Democrats were also infuriated by McMahon's efforts over the last few weeks to woo independents by urging Obama supporters to split their ticket and also back her as an "independent."

Then on election day her poll workers donned purple shirts touting an Obama/McMahon alliance eerily similar to the shirts worn by labor union workers out working for Murphy and other Democrats.

Cambar Edwards of Hartford was one of those SEIU workers proudly sporting her purple shirt at the Hilton, emblazoned with Murphy and Obama stickers "That was very deceiving, dishonest and trying to play up on the unions," she said.

Matt Oakes of East Hartford, who was one of the longshot candidates in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, said he made sure Tuesday to canvass in urban neighborhoods where McMahon had been playing the Obama card.

"I was worried because of the things she was doing in minority neighborhoods that voters would be confused by her tactics. But it backfired in the long run," a jubilant Oakes said at the Hilton.

Cheers and shouts of "Murpny, Murphy" erupted in the main ball room of the Hartford Hilton when the race was called.

"I'm ecstatic," said Matt Oakes of East Hartford, who was one of the long shot candidates in the five-way Democratic primary and subsequently endorsed Murphy.

Oakes said he was angry over the misleading mailers the McMahon campaign left in urban neighborhoods portraying her as an ally of Democxratic President Barack Obama. He campaigned in some of those areas today trying to set the record straight.

"I was worried because of the things she was doing in minority neighborhoods," Oakes said. "That voters would be confused by her tactics. But it backfired in the long run."

Also among the crowd was Rabbi Doniel Ginsberg, of Waterbury, who delivered the invocation at Gov. Dannel Malloy's swearing in last year.

"That's incredible," he said of the race being called so soon. "They're still in line in Waterbury."

A constituent of Murphy's in the 5th Congressional District for the past six years, Ginsberg said, "He's a man of high morals. Ethics. I"ve known him for many years."

Former state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, current chief counsel for Malloy, said he thought it would take longer to learn the results.

"I thought the evening was going to be longer than it turned out to be," McDonald said. "It's a happy development."

Referring to the professional wrestling fortune McMahon sunk into her two failed Senate bids, McDonald said, "One hundred million in and nothing to show for it. IT speaks volumes about the sophistication of the Connecticut electorate."

First returns had showed Murphy well ahead of Republican Linda McMahon. With 3 percent counted, Murphy led Republican Linda McMahon with 17,861 to her 9,762.

The marquee races in Connecticut started off with the U.S. Senate clash between Murphy and self-funded Greenwich wrestling mogul McMahon.

McMahon entered the homestretch of the nationally-watched race on pace to match her $50 million personal investment from two years ago for an aggregate of $100 million.

Supplanting former presidential candidate Ross Perot as the top self-funder of all time for federal office, McMahon, 64, tapped her family's wrestling fortune for a familiar television advertising and direct mail blitz.

Murphy also made the most of the free media exposure offered by their four televised debates. Though both candidates could be faulted for not answering some of the questions posed, Murphy received positive reviews while McMahon was criticized for not appearing to know the issues and sticking to her talking points.

Women, who went 60 to 40 for Blumenthal in 2010, represented the most coveted bloc of the electorate for McMahon this time.

McMahon's campaign invested considerable money and resources targeting female voters, from coffee talks to establishing a presence on websites frequented by women such as Pinterest.

The so-called "war on women" at play in the presidential race trickled down to Connecticut's Senate tilt, with McMahon's foes saying she profited from the degradation of women and that she would enable right-wingers in rolling reproductive rights such as Roe v. Wade if elected to the Senate.

By a wider margin than in 2010, when she won a three-way primary, McMahon dispatched former Congressman Christopher Shays for the GOP nomination with 76 percent of the vote. Murphy comfortably defeated former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary.

McMahon bypassed most newspaper endorsement boards and limited her exposure to reporters through the race.

McMahon secured the Independent Party line on the ballot to combat what her campaign felt was a built-in advantage for Murphy, who was cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party.

Alienating some members of the GOP establishment, McMahon ran television commercials encouraging supporters of President Obama to split their ballots and vote for her.

McMahon appeared to peak in late August, when the Quinnipiac University Poll staked her to a 3-point lead over Murphy, who was bombarded by television ads attacking his 20 percent attendance record at committee hearings during his first term in Congress.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.