Inside Politics: Democrat takes lead in Connecticiut Senate race poll

Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, was trailing his U.S. Senate opponent Linda McMahon just three weeks ago, but now he has gained the upper edge in the race, with a new poll Wednesday morning giving him a 6-point lead.

Mr. Murphy has 49 percent of the vote compared with 43 percent for Mrs. McMahon, a Republican pro-wrestling executive, in a Quinnipiac poll of likely Connecticut voters. That’s a reversal of where things stood in the polling institute’s Oct. 4 survey, which showed Mrs. McMahon with a 48 percent to 47 percent lead.

While there are several close Senate races around the country, the news is especially welcome to Democrats, who never expected the Connecticut contest to be as close as it’s been over the past few months.

NEW YORK

Trump offers $5M deal for Obama documents

Donald Trump wants to make a deal with President Obama.

If Mr. Obama releases his college and passport records by the end of October, the New York real estate mogul and reality-show host says he will contribute $5 million to a charity of the president’s choice.

Mr. Trump made the offer Wednesday in a video posted to his Twitter account. He called Mr. Obama “the least transparent president in the history of this country,” and said that by taking the deal Mr. Obama would satisfy voters’ questions about his past.

Mr. Trump drew broad publicity last year for questioning whether Mr. Obama was born in the U.S. and eligible to be president. Mr. Obama later released his long-form birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii in 1961. In the video, Mr. Trump said he was proud to have pushed Mr. Obama to release the birth certificate or “whatever it may be.”

Mr. Trump has endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki declined to comment on the Trump video, saying “given Trump is one of his biggest supporters, this is a question best directed to the Romney team in Boston.”

FED

Policy meeting results in no interest-rate change

The Federal Reserve made no changes in its program to drive down long-term interest rates at a meeting of its policy committee Wednesday.

The central bank noted in a statement that the economy has improved somewhat since its last meeting six weeks ago, with consumer spending picking up and the housing market continuing its recovery.

But it said that despite a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent last month, joblessness remains “elevated” and businesses have pared their spending plans, so it must maintain its extremely accommodative interest-rates policies to nurture a faster recovery.

Story Continues →